Forging friendships, fostering innovation

Brazilian student Raphael de Abreu Alves e Silva’s priority during his upcoming year at U of T Engineering is to make friends. As the affable 25-year-old explained, engineering is about innovation and the best innovation is often a result of collaboration.

“At U of T, you see other cultures. And when you have more cultures, it’s better,” he said. “You can take the best of everyone’s approach. There’s not just one way to do things.” De Abreu Alves e Silva – one of about 40 international exchange students attending a Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering welcome breakfast on September 18 at the Galbraith Building – is a control and automation engineering student at the Instituto Federal de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia de São Paulo.

He is taking electrical engineering and business courses at U of T this academic year, thanks to the Brazilian government’s Science Without Borders program. The four-year program, launched in 2012, aims to send 100,000 Brazilian university students to study at top universities around the world.

This year, 700 students have come to Canada, with 129 choosing U of T, and the vast majority of those studying in the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering.

“You have chosen a fantastic Faculty. We consistently place at number one in Canada,” U of T Engineering Dean Cristina Amon told the students in her welcoming remarks at the breakfast. “And we have a very strong position internationally. But what is most important is the ability we have to recruit you – students who are among the best and brightest in the world.”

Indeed, the Faculty is educating and developing global leaders, including those taking part in U of T's international exchange program. U of T partners with 130 universities around the world, swapping students for various lengths of time.

“It gives them the confidence they can compete in the world and gives them a network of peers to potentially collaborate with,” said Miranda Cheng, Director for the Centre for International Experience. “They become our ambassadors when they go home.”

Speaking at the welcome breakfast, Swedish environmental engineering exchange student Sara Eriksson, said she chose to spend a semester here exploring chemical and mechanical engineering after reading rave reviews from other Lund University exchange students about their time at U of T.

The 22-year-old is still uncertain what she’ll do when she graduates in 2014, but she’s sure studying in a globally-recognized engineering program will give her an advantage no matter what she decides.

“I’ve heard so many good things about U of T Engineering. It has a good reputation around the world,” she said.

For 21-year-old Michael Thorn, a biomedical engineering student at Marquette University in Wisconsin, USA, the initial draw was U of T Engineering’s status as a world-class engineering university.

“I also looked over professors’ areas of expertise and research projects,” said Thorn, who will spend part of his term working with an engineering professor on the design for a medical device. Like Eriksson, Thorn has yet to decide on a career path but expects the interdisciplinary nature of study in the Faculty will help him narrow down options.

Meanwhile, de Abreu Alves e Silva said when he graduates in 2015, he is keen to continue in academia, getting his MA and PhD and perhaps becoming a professor or researcher himself.

“Here is a good place to do research,” he said, smiling as he looked around the room at his fellow international students.