Student Exchange Program Hosted by CEEE Expanding

The Center of Environmental Energy Engineering (CEEE) has hosted a student exchange program, mainly with the University of Applied Sciences in Mannheim, Germany, for more than 25 years. The program has been expanding to include four more universities in Germany, and in recent years, also interns from colleges in China, France and Brazil. The program has hosted more than 500 students over the years, working in laboratories in Mechanical, Aerospace, Chemical, Materials and Fire Protection Engineering. The intern’s time at the University of Maryland spans six months from March to September and from September to March. The program has proven so successful that the Mechanical Engineering Department has been noted to be the biggest sponsors of interns on campus. According to the University of Maryland’s Office of International Services, the department hosts 58 percent of all the foreign interns on campus this year.

Prof. Reinhard Radermacher, Director of the Center for Energy Engineering and Professor of Mechanical Engineering, and the faculty sponsor of the exchange program, said, “Engineering has become more and more a matter of international collaboration. The basic aim of this program is to give foreign students the opportunity to participate in research activities in mechanical engineering laboratories at Maryland as interns. Their positive experience here often leads them to consider applying to come back to Maryland for graduate school.”

“Engineering has become more and more a matter of international collaboration. The basic aim of this program is to give foreign students the opportunity to participate in research activities in mechanical engineering laboratories at Maryland as interns. Their positive experience here often leads them to consider applying to come back to Maryland for graduate school.”

Reinhard Radermacher

Dr. Radermacher further explains that in a global economy, an engineer must be able to use foreign languages and be prepared to work in different cultural and economic work environments. This program provides the interns a great opportunity to learn about other people's approaches of working and thinking. Since students in German often learn English in school, it is quite practical interns from Germany to come here.

Placement selections for the current group of applicants for September, is now through the end of April. If you are interested in having an intern from this program work in your lab, please contact CEEE coordinator Mary Baugher at mbaugher@umd.edu.

Published April 12, 2012