Engineering launches Israel exchange

The University will send two pioneering students to a semester at ORT-Braude, an engineering college in Israel, next spring.

Rochester is one of only two American universities--along with the University of Pittsburgh--to offer engineering courses through study-abroad programs in Israel. Plans are being made to quickly expand the program for Rochester students, as well as those from other schools.

"Study-abroad programs have traditionally catered to students in the humanities and social sciences, but there are also advantages for engineers in studying abroad," says John Lambropoulos, chair of the Department of Mechanical Engineering. "With large companies becoming increasingly multi-national, engineers working for those firms will be working with--or competing against--fellow engineers all over the world. Seeing how engineers work in other parts of the world is a major opportunity."

In the past, Rochester engineering students' rigorous course work meant that they--like their peers at most other universities--could study abroad only during summers or by taking a semester off from engineering, delaying graduation.

"I really wanted to study abroad when I entered college, and was even thinking of taking a semester outside engineering to do it," says Joe Randi, a mechanical engineering major who will head to ORT-Braude in the spring. "But the opportunity to continue studying engineering while away is much more appealing."

Randi and chemical engineering major Doug Laity will be the first Rochester students in the program at ORT-Braude. Lambropoulos hopes that soon four to six Rochester students each year and an equal number from other universities will be able to participate.

For the same cost as a semester at Rochester, students attend classes alongside their Israeli counterparts, eat meals in ORT-Braude's cafeteria, and even get a feel for Israeli dormitories, which feature basic maid service.

ORT-Braude also offers an academic opportunity not available at Rochester: courses in biotechnology, a field described by Lambropoulos as a cross between biomedical and environmental engineering.

The ORT-Braude program is intended for second-semester sophomores majoring in computer science or mechanical, chemical, or electrical engineering, although some students in other stages of undergraduate engineering programs can also take part. Instruction is in English: Most ORT-Braude faculty members are fluent in the language, and many were schooled in the United States.

The arrangement is reciprocal; students from ORT-Braude began spending semesters at Rochester last fall, and an ORT-Braude faculty member is on sabbatical at the University this year. Uri Ben-Hanan, chair of ORT-Braude's mechanical engineering department, is now supervising an undergraduate laboratory at the University and will teach a course in the spring.