Impressions from the Field: Harvard and Poli-USP Engineers Explore Brazil

Thursday, January 29, 2015

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.

About

This collaborative field course is an initiative of Harvard's School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), the Escola Politécnica of the Universidade de São Paulo (Poli-USP), and Harvard's David Rockefeller Center for Latin America Studies.

The course will take place in the states of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) from January 11-21, 2015, with equal numbers of participants from Poli-USP and Harvard. It offers the unique chance for participating students and faculty to explore the complex challenges faced by engineers, urban planners, and policy makers in the field.

2015 topic: Sustainable Cities
The intense growth of cities in recent decades has increased the urgency of finding sustainable solutions for resource use in urban environments. Through a combination of field site visits, lectures and group discussions, the 2015 SEAS/Poli-USP Collaborative Field Course on Sustainable Cities offers the opportunity for hands-on engagement in São Paulo, a metropolis of 20 million inhabitants. During the course, participants will gain a deeper understanding of and appreciation for urban challenges and solutions related to energy, sanitation, transportation, water and more.

In 2014, Brazilian students visited Harvard to learn about Urban Adaptation to Climate Change. The year before, in 2013, Harvard students traveled to Brazil to study The Global Challenges of Energy Production. The 2013 blog posts are archived below. This is the sixth year of the program.

Views expressed in this blog are the personal views of the individual authors, and the statements made do not officially represent views of the University or any of its units or officers.