International students to gain Imperial research experience in summer exchange

Students from prestigious international universities will spend part of their summer in London to undertake research projects with Imperial academics.

Undergraduate students from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Technical University of Munich (TUM), Cornell University, University of Toronto, and Tokyo Institute for Technology (Tokyo Tech) joined Professor Maggie Dallman, Imperial’s Vice-President (International), for an afternoon tea event to celebrate their arrival in London.

The event marked the start of the International Research Opportunities Programme (IROP) – a reciprocal summer research exchange programme between Imperial and key international partner universities.

Thirty-two IROP students began their programme at Imperial on 1 July, while 36 undergraduates from Imperial are in their first week at partner institutions. Incoming students will be hosted across 12 departments at Imperial from the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Faculty of Engineering.

During the programme, students will receive a unique opportunity to gain international research experience and learn more about life in another country – either at Imperial or one of our partner universities.

Professor Dallman said: “The International Research Opportunities Programme presents a unique opportunity for undergraduate students to gain international research experience and to immerse themselves in another culture during the summer break.

"The International Research Opportunities Programme presents a unique opportunity for undergraduate students to gain international research experience and to immerse themselves in another culture during the summer break." Professor Maggie Dallman Vice President (International)

“It is fantastic to welcome 32 undergraduate students from our international partners for this year’s 8-week research project. I hope that they will make use of all that Imperial has to offer both academically and culturally outside of the classroom this summer.”

Fion Foo, a previous IROP participant who visited Cornell University, said: “My background is electrical and electronic engineering, and IROP gave me the opportunity to go to Cornell University, where I dived into research on in-memory computing. It was my first time in the US and it felt like a dream come true.

“I got to experience the academic life at Cornell, work with brilliant minds, and gain insights that I would not have had otherwise. Living in Ithaca was also an adventure in itself – where I got to see the waterfalls, experience a different culture, and expand my horizons.”

Academic adventure

With so much to explore in London, the students joining Imperial for the summer highlighted a diverse range of reasons for why they signed up for the programme, including the academic opportunities at Imperial and the exciting culture of the UK’s capital city.

Hirokatsu Yoshioka, from Tokyo Tech, said that he was looking forward to taking part in IROP and having opportunities to share research ideas with students from the US, UK, Canada and Germany, particularly on his main topic of interest: renewable energy.

Fernando Valenzuela, from MIT, cited the different working environment at Imperial as a key draw for him. He said: “The group I’m working with is very different from anything I’ve experienced before – I feel like it is a lot more social and I like that. I’ve never worked with so many PhD students, so I’m excited to see what they are researching and how they’ve been working.”

Other students, such as Maria Gruber from TUM, joined IROP after meeting Imperial students who recently came to her university as part of the programme. Maria said that she was excited to gain hands-on experience in research and to experience living in London for the summer.

Ethan Dias Safaei, from University of Toronto, noted London’s reputation as a “world-class city” and Imperial’s recently developed White City Campus as factors that drew him to London, while Jodi Hahn, from Cornell, said that she was excited to learn more about the theoretical side of research and explore London during the programme.

Jodi added: “This is my first time in London. I’ve heard so many good things about it and I always thought it must be an exaggeration, but it has been great. I think people are really friendly and it’s been a great experience living in halls and having independence, while also having a really supportive community at Imperial and in IROP.”

Speaking on the importance of the programme for Imperial, Jodi’s academic supervisor Professor Zahid Durrani, from the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, said it was important for the university to continue to build links with international universities like Cornell.

Professor Durrani said: “I think it is important for us to have students from everywhere and it is also really important for Imperial to have links with universities in the US. It is something that we have had at an individual level, with supervisors and collaborators, but I think at an institutional level, it is quite important to build on these links.

“The second important thing [about IROP] is that we get to meet very bright students from elsewhere and it is nice to see how they approach things. They may have a different way of looking at a problem and we can learn from that as well.”

Imperial students and staff can read more about IROP on our web page: https://www.imperial.ac.uk/students/global-opportunities/ug/summerresearchplacements/