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.

By Jessica Wu ’14

A Dam Good Visit

On our first visit to POLI-USP, Professor Monica Porto led us on a tour of the hydrological labs in her department and showed us their latest projects.  We were soon led into a massive tarp covered structure with a metal roof; I thought I was being transported back in time. 

The humid air, the beating sun, the tarp, and the metal clad roof were all familiar to me; I have been here before.  This is my first adventure in South America, my first visit to Sao Paulo, Brazil, but this is my second year participating in the POLI-USP & SEAS collaborative J-term course.  

Last year’s course brought us to the Mississippi River delta, to Vicksburg, Louisiana for several hearty meals of catfish and visits to the United States Corps of Engineers Engineering Research and Development Center (ERDC).  Ducking under the low hanging side panels at USP, I simultaneously experienced both déjà vu and nostalgia.  In front of us was a hydrological model of the dam that’s currently under construction at Jirau, which, at first glance, looked like a direct replica of the model of a segment of the Mississippi where a bridge traverses the river that resides at ERDC.

After some examination, it seems that the expansive models in both locations were constructed, first, by drawing a 100:1 topographic map.  Then, thin sheets of steel are vertically planted into the concrete foundation to form contour lines.  Lastly, each elevation is filled with concrete and leveled.  I stood with John – who is a fellow returning participant – to discuss whether the model had a fish ladder [pictured].  {Unofficial} Answer: negative.  Oh, the poor Brazilian catfish…

As we stood under the boiling tent, I remembered the event that the Brazilian students anticipated most last year: cold snow and lots of it; but last year was an abnormally calm winter in the northeast – a sign of global warming?  There was not a single dusting of snow for the first 3 weeks of the course.  Then, miraculously, snow began falling on the last night of the course, as we approached midnight and our last day together.  Everyone was excited and bundled up to go outside to experience their first taste of snowfall. 

I am certain my nostalgia will fade as we make new visits and continue on our journey as a unit.  My time in Brazil has already proven to be amazing due to the special site visits and, especially, the people.  We are en route to Paraty and I’m already looking forward to jumping into the Atlantic Ocean for the first time, and adding more ‘memories to last a lifetime.

Jessica is an undergraduate at Harvard in the S.B. in Mechanical and Materials Engineering program.

Maurício Salles, Assistant Professor, Department of Electric Energy and Automation Engineering, Escola Politécnica da Universidade de São Paulo provides an overview of wind power generation and explains recent innovations in the field.