Thursday, January 29, 2015


Mayra Espinoza-Martinez '16
As a sociology concentrator, I wasn’t sure what to expect from the 2015 SEAS/Poli-USP Collaborative Field Course on Sustainable Cities. Not only was I exploring a new and exciting country, but I was also exploring a different approach to issues that I typically look at through only a sociological lens. During the extent of my time in Brazil, I was privileged enough to learn alongside passionate students and engineers regarding the various challenges São Paulo is currently facing in energy, sanitation, transportation, water, and more.

One of the aspects that I enjoyed most about the course was the group project, which included three team members from Harvard and three team members from the Poli-USP. I enjoyed this project because of the focus on cross-cultural exchange and personal innovation. My group’s topic was Urban Mobility, and it was really enlightening to discuss the differences between major American cities and Brazilian cities like São Paulo. As a sociology concentrator, it was interesting for me to learn that the degree and depth of urban planning at the time of our distinct cities’ foundings continues to have an effect today in where the rich and the poor typically live, whether it be the urban center or the more far-removed outskirts, and what that means in terms of how a city functions. I arrive at the conclusion that the physical layout of a city is just as impactful to the overall well-being of that city as is its economic and social makeup. During my time in São Paulo I began to think of how urban planning can be used as a starting point to reverse negative trends in poverty, homelessness, and access to clean water, reliable transportation, sanitation, etc. This is a question that I hope to continue exploring at Harvard.   
Mayra and the gang at the Atibainha Reservior

Overall, I’m incredibly grateful for the opportunity to participate in this program. I had a wonderful time learning about sustainability efforts in Brazil and exploring São Paulo with my new Brazilian and American friends!

Joanne Ngiem '15 at Aquapolo
Coming to Brazil was so important to me, not just because it would be my first time in Latin America, but because of the people I knew I would meet and love. This was my second year participating in this course. I took part of this course last year when it was held at Harvard and what surprised me the most was how quickly I had created close relationships. The Americans and Brazilians still communicate through WhatsApp to this day: sharing in our PTSD of eating Panera Bread for four days straight. So what I was most excited about was creating these same relationships with even more people: people I never would have met if not for this course. The Brazilians proved to be the most hospitable and kind and funny hosts I could hope for and when I come back to Brazil, which I will, I will definitely drink Caipirinhas with them all day and night (although you will be tempted by the fruity ones, stick with the classic lime, trust).
Joanne with André
Aside from the incredible people I got to know. This program is a unique experience because of the site visits: we were able to go to a water re-use treatment plant, see how wind turbines are made from start to finish (I touched the inside of one of the blades), and explore a drying reservoir. I also really loved how we completed a project on an extremely relevant topics for Sao Paulo such as water management and urban mobility. It was incredible how applicable this course was. We heard from actual entrepreneurs and were given advice that was really helpful to those of us who were interested in starting our own companies and wanting to make a real difference. The teaching staff who put together this course really worked hard to make a two-week program as meaningful as possible and it shows. I will never forget how amazing this trip was to me.
Danilo Amaral Cançado 3rd year and Rafael Ferraz do Amaral 2nd year
This course has been an amazing opportunity to learn and discuss about the sustainability in cities trough several approaches, such as water management, urban mobility, green buildings, energy distribution and extreme events. In addition, we got to know, in the site visits, efforts been made to solve the problems we face nowadays. With this background, we were able to develop our projects and came up with solutions.
Besides this technical part, we got in touch with people who share the same concerns and we could create a network with them.  Also, the cultural exchange between students from different place and both universities contributed more to our perspective of the city’s problems.
We believe that the knowledge we gain will definitely help us throughout our careers and for that we are very grateful.

Tuesday, January 27, 2015


Adrian Jones '16 and André Holzhacker Alves 6th year
Even though we’ve only spent a little over a week together in this collaborative course, having the ability to connect with experts, professors, and fellow students has already helped shape our path moving forward. The discussions we’ve had with all the people we’ve come in contact with has helped us generate new ideas and view the problems in both of our countries from different perspectives.

Among all the site visits, we found visiting several green buildings as well as the Cantareira reservoir to be especially interesting. Having an intimate view of the water crisis, yet seeing companies like Santander and those that occupied the Tower Bridge office utilize rain water collection systems opened our eyes to a logical contributor to the fight against the water shortage. 

Although, the importance of technical solutions was made even more clear to us through the trip, we found unfortunately that often political obstacles could prevent many solutions from ever seeing light. As engineers, we understand that we’ll have to learn how to deal with this reality.  

As we leave the course, we’ve gained several ideas that we hope to implement to progress cities toward sustainable futures. Being able to end the second to last day by interacting and learning from Brazilian entrepreneurs at the Lemann foundation, helped provide more form to our ideas.

We imagine the great friendship that has bound us all together in this short time will continue to enrich our lives and will likely lead to greater collaboration in the future.  For that, we are extremely grateful for all the trip’s organizers, lecturers, guides and everyone else who made this program possible.

Abraços


Luis Strengari 5th year
It’s been 7 days since the collaborative course started and this opportunity is extremely unique and important to me. All the site visits and lectures are putting together many different concepts, ideas and rich debates – with lots of questions!

One of my favorite site visits was at the CGE/CET - Emergency Management Center, which is responsible for the forecast and weather monitoring of the São Paulo city. It was great to see that my city is really trying to manage flood and save people’s lives. The lecture and site visit regarding green infrastructure were also remarkable to me because I did not know that we already have this type of solution in SP for flood mitigation.

Another interesting thing about the course is how it brings the opinions and perspectives from people involved in different areas, with diverse expertise. Engineers, architects, politicians, and businesses might have completely opposite positioning in subjects such as urban planning and mobility, and that is why I think the debates are so important.

Luis with Nick, Mayra and Eloi
I feel extremely honored to have met the brilliant (crazy) Harvard students and faculty members. I hope this is just the beginning of a strong and solid alliance between the schools and students. I am having a great time, thanks for everything!







Bruno Oliveira Musso 6th year
This collaborative course has been a wonderful experience. With most of the activities centered around field visits, it is the best opportunity to see how engineering is really applied day –by –day.  The visits to the wind-power components plants, AQUAPOLO  treatment plant and  Cantareira reservoir were the most instructive. This visit to the reservoir was indeed really  sad, we could see how extreme the actual water crises is in Sao Paulo. Also, I am now more  sure about the importance of having young students ready to resolve this kind of problem in the near future. But for me the most important contribution of this course is the bond we are creating between Sao Paulo and Boston, a strong friendship that I believe will stand for all our lives. I would like to thank to the course organization, to the professors from Harvard and Poli and to all my friends of Brazil and USA that made this last 10 days unforgettable. PS: HAPPY BIRTHDAY AVI!