By Elena Fumagalli Romario '14

13 Harvard students and 15 Poli-USP students spending two weeks together discussing, sharing and learning from each other and from expert professors about the future challenges of energy production: for sure a lifetime experience. Add to this, great site visits and social activities: the result is this great collaborative course we’re having the chance to participate in.

 It has been a great week so far, very intense, but also very inspiring. Many lectures, questions, answers, discussions, site visits and laughs. The site visits are for sure making a difference in my engineering path; after years of seeing drawings of turbines, dams and solar panels, I finally fully understanding their layout, how they function and how they are connected to the rest of the plant. Moreover, the group projects we have just started are a great opportunity for all of us to share knowledge, research and learn more about the advantages and disadvantages of different energy solutions that have been adopted in Brazil and in the USA.

The group of students is great, really diverse, different countries and different studying backgrounds, but we all like studying as much as going out and having fun. This is making group bonding really easy and quick. Yes, we’re learning and having a great time. And this is just the beginning…

Elena is in her fourth year of the five-year undergraduate Environmental Engineering program at Poli-USP.