Taking core engineering classes with students from all over the world

LEAP-Shanghai students meeting students from China, Germany, France, Italy, Singapore, Taiwan, and many other places, ready to take technical courses such as Thermodynamics II (ME300), Heat & Mass transfer (ME315); Structure and Properties of Materials (MSE230) as well as Chinese language and culture courses.

Cultural workshops

LEAP-Shanghai students immersed themselves in the Chinese culture by attending several cultural workshops in Calligraphy, Chinese Painting, Guzheng (a 21-string traditional musical instruments), Martial Arts, and Cooking.

Industrial visits

Students toured factory floors and labs in two prestigious institutions: 1) the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC) and its ARJ21 regional jet manufacturing floor; 2) Caterpillar R&D Center in China (CRDC). Both visits provided students with a rare chance to observe how problem-solving and teamwork play out in different cultures.

Job shadowing

In CRDC, our students were able to shadow under Caterpillar product design engineers via a 2-hour-long case study session. Students were intensely engaged in their competition for the best solution for a real-world design problem faced by the CRDC engineers -- designing an electromechanical switch to guide a bulldozers bucket. The level of challenged from the chosen case matched perfectly our students technical background and skillsets. "It was extremely cool to see some of the things I have learned in my studies at Purdue being applied in an actual working environment. said one student. One student commented that Working with the local engineers was also very enlightening. We learned so much about cross-cultural communication and teamwork from our interactions with the local engineers!"

Chinese New Year celebration with Alumni

Students were celebrating Chinese New Year with the amazingly energetic and creative alumni club in Shanghai.

Travel around China

In the spirit of celebrating the largest festival in China, which is the Chinese Spring Festival, our students traveled around China by air or high-speed trains, gaining some of the iconic experiences from their trips: from seeing the Giant Panda Reserves in Chengdu to the marvelous Terra-cotta Warriors Xian, the Ice Sculpture in Haerbin, climbing the Great Wall caped in light snow, hiking on mountains in Emei, Zhangjiajie, Guilin, Lijiang, etc. (selected photos contributed by the students).