Engineering School Dean Jim Aylor will return from China this Wednesday after a two-week visit overseas to meet with professors and students in hopes to strengthen ties with the country's developing programs.
Aylor was accompanied by Computer Engineering Professors Lloyd Harriott and Zongli Lin, according to Senior Associate Engineering Dean Barry Johnson.
"We're looking to strengthen relationships with universities in East Asia for a number of purposes --one is for student exchanges,"Assoc. Dean Paxton Marshall said. "We've [recently] completed a student exchange agreement with students in Shanghai."
Along with student exchanges, Marshall said Aylor and his associates will be meeting with alumni to strengthen relationships, while working to increase resource interactions with professors from several universities in East Asia.
The trip will provide many opportunities for University graduate and undergraduate students as well as those in China who choose to study here, Marshall said.
He added that Aylor hopes to increase research opportunities for the faculty.
"China is certainly a strongly emerging country in the world and I think having a relationship on a research front as well as educational front is a very valuable thing," Johnson said.
Johnson explained that there are some very prestigious universities in China that can be helpful to the University by allowing students and faculty to study abroad there.
"Because the engineering curriculum is very challenging, one of Dean Aylor's goals is to make it more feasible for SEAS students to travel abroad and receive credit in their area of discipline as part of their international study," said Andrea Arco, director of marketing for the Engineering School. "In an increasingly global society, it is imperative that our engineering students graduate as leaders with international experience."
Provost Gene Block, who recently returned from a trip to Asia, explained that Aylor's trip is only one of many visits to that part of the world by University faculty. Recently, Darden School Dean Robert Bruner also visited Asia.
"We spend a lot of time traveling all over the world," Block said.
He added that they have especially traveled to Asia, since it is currently such an exciting place.
There is not only a huge market for mutual engineering programs, but also business education programs, Block said.
"We're trying to increase our activity because of great opportunities ... and there is a lot for those universities to offer us," Block said.
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