Shanghai University Engineering – Winter 2019

On June 30 2019, 24 UTS Engineering students commenced a brilliant two week course at Shanghai University. With classes in the morning and city exploration in the afternoon, their fortnight abroad went by in a flash!

Below are some short reflections from a few of the students who recently embarked on this terrific overseas experience.

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From the 30th of June to 13th of July 2019, our daily schedule consisted of lectures lead by industry professionals from 8:30-11:30am. The content covered a variety of engineering related modules ranging from advanced manufacturing, renewable energy, and city infrastructure which transferred to concepts and trends taught in my own mechanical engineering degree. After lunch, we’d assemble at 1pm for site visits to relevant companies and the opportunity to discuss issues and concerns with international experts in industry. The UTS x SHU trip provided an invaluable academic and cultural experience. I am looking forward to partaking in more BUILD programs and I have been raving to other students to get involved too.

– Anika Wenceslao

The comprehensive program enlightened me to a side of China not often conveyed in the Western world and has left me longing to return there and explore outside of Shanghai. I can’t help but smile when reflecting on the entire experience and was genuinely sad to return home after spending two weeks with some truly great people who I got to share the experience of a lifetime with.

– Lachlan Derrig

I hadn’t travelled outside Australia in more than ten years. Going to China has been one of my favorite things I have done. Exploring new cities, meeting people, creating memories, sharing moments with strangers and friends, eating, learning. That’s how I would summarise my experience abroad. There was always something to do, to seek, to learn. I’ll admit that I was scared. Scared to leave home, scared to not know anyone, scared to navigate alone. But all things exist in contradiction. I was excited. I was excited to leave home, excited to not know anyone, excited to navigate alone. It was liberating.

– Kassem Safwan

Visiting Shanghai was a very insightful and culturally eye opening experience. It was quite amazing to see a city that is almost completely cashless rely on payment methods such as WeChat and Alipay which are phone based applications in which you use QR codes to scan and then pay via an account. The best way I would be able to describe the atmosphere of shanghai, is that it is one giant factory.

– Will Lazaris

Despite spending my first night sleeping at Pudong Airport, I only had good moments in Shanghai. From learning some mandarin, walking around the city and making friends with the locals, I had so many eye opening experiences. Everyday became exciting. Shanghai is an incredibly exciting and lively city. From how cheap the cost of food and living is, to how densely packed the cities of China are, you’ll never run out of things to do. I can’t wait to come back!

– Nicholas Lukito

Shanghai has been an absolutely unforgettable experience. I was blown away by how much I was able to learn and experience in as little as 2 weeks. Admittedly, I was incredibly nervous before departing. I was about to embark on a trip with people I had never met, in a country I had never been. But as soon as I landed in China, that very quickly changed. From enriching cultural experiences, exploring sites such as Yu Garden and Tian Zi Fang, to insightful lectures paired with relevant company site visits, for example touring FANUC, a global robotics and manufacturing company, I can honestly say this trip had everything and more. I’m beyond grateful that I was fortunate enough to have such an incredible experience with such an incredible group of people. This program has truly exceeded my expectations and I strongly urge for students to take this rare opportunity to experience a BUILD Abroad program for themselves!

– Brigitte Zappia

The key thing that I learnt through this BUILD trip is that there is a big wide world out there and that in order to understand and comprehend it, you need to see and experience it! From my journey I had the chance to experience different societal views of government and how different governments influence the lives of the people. This was something I found confronting, especially when I asked some Chinese citizens about their freedoms they either responded with “I’d rather not comment” or “It’s complicated”. All in all, going to China was an experience I will never forget, which has taught me and exposed me to so many new and exciting things and given me a desire to further travel through Asia to countries rich with culture and history.

– Callum

Before I left for my trip, I set myself the goal of attempting to make my first video to capture my emotions and experiences of the trip. There aren’t many more words that I can say to do both my trip and Shanghai its true justice. However, I hope that this video does.

– David Pangna

Before I left for Shanghai many of my friends and family would ask me, “Are you excited?” I often answered with an uneasy “yes” or a truthful “I honestly don’t know”. As absurd as this sounds, I was truly quite anxious to travel to China as it was my first time travelling alone to a foreign country. To save all the suspense, I had an amazing experience! Looking back on it there was no single factor or event that made this an unforgettable trip but a magical and rare combination of everything. The friendships and lessons I have learnt on this short two week trip will stay with me forever.

– Veronica Gorgi

As part of our program, we had the opportunity to visit many popular cultural sites. The Bund was one of these. It is a waterfront area in central Shanghai which consists of buildings that light up at night, creating a beautiful view which cannot be described with words – you just have to be there to absorb its magnificence. We also had the chance to participate in a sight-seeing cruise along the Huangpa River which exposed us to breathtaking scenery. Along this cruise we saw the Oriental Pearl TV Tower which is an iconic tower seen in many western and eastern movies, and we were given the chance to go inside it to see Shanghai from above!

– Kelvin Luong

Before visiting China I always had a negative perspective of China and what they have done to the world. But, after this short program I got to listen and learn from the people there and my perspective has changed. I now look at China with an open mind.

– Synat

At first I was a little nervous, I have always had a distaste for travelling in groups. There’s always the bickering and the squabbling, trying to decide where to go. But thankfully, once we started the course, our days managed to stay teetering perfectly between everyone’s preferences. One of my favourite days was when went down to Shanghai Pearl Tower. The tower gives a panoramic view of the city, where you can stare down at the people on the city floor below and watch them going about their lives. Overall the trip was super enjoyable and I hope to go on another in the future.

– Nadav