1/17/2024 Debra Levey Larson
Written by Debra Levey Larson
Over the winter break, AE undergraduate students had a short study abroad experience in South Africa. Juniors Nicole Orloff from Aurora, Illinois, and Ashley Gacek from Orland Park, Illinois, were two of the travelers. For both, other than Canada, it was their first time out of the country.
The trip, led by AE adviser Laura Gerhold, is a mix of technical/industry visits and cultural exposure.
“This 13-day trip gives students a chance to experience a vastly different country and culture, without committing an entire semester to a study abroad program, which many students find difficult fitting into their schedule,” said Gerhold.
The first industry stop was Reutech Radar Systems, a company that develops software and hardware for use in defense and detection as well as underground exploration.
Orloff said, “I learned these radar systems, in addition to being used by the military, are used to ensure the safety of commercial aircraft and all passengers on board. It was a great example of how engineering and the things we go on to do in our work can help others.”
A representative of the company shared with the group about the radar industry from both the technical and business sides, emphasizing the importance of engineers being mindful of the business side of the industry.
“I gained a lot of insight into the customer-employee relationship and how certain technical decisions affect the economic success of the company such as which materials are chosen or the efficiency of the manufacturing process for example,” Gacek said.
While walking from one location to another, Gacek commented on the community dynamic she observed.
“The people were very friendly,” she said. “While working with kids from the local school, they would run up to us and give us big hugs, high-fives, fist bumps, etc. And within the smaller towns, everyone seemed to have each other’s back and treated each other as one big family. This was contradicting to the US view of individualism and the tendency to keep to oneself.”
Gerhold said they had an impromptu addition to their itinerary when they were given the opportunity to attend a lecture at SANSA Hermanus in South Africa about the JUICE mission to Jupiter. The speaker was Professor Michele Dougherty, Head of the Department of Physics at Imperial College in London and the Principal Investigator for the magnetometer instrument aboard JUICE. She is originally from South Africa.
By far, both Orloff and Gacek found a visit to Bo-kaap to be a highlight of the trip. Bo-kaap is a historical part of Cape Town that is the home of the Cape Malay culture. It is majority Muslim and has the oldest mosque in the southern hemisphere. It has a rich and unique history, culture, and architecture—its streets lined with buildings painted in bold, vibrant colors.
The group had lunch prepared by one of the families in the neighborhood.
“I love learning about others especially when their life differs greatly from my own,” Orloff said.” I really enjoyed meeting the people there, eating the food they prepared, and seeing from their perspective. My only wish is that we could have met more people!”
About the family-style lunch Gacek said, “What I appreciated the most was how the locals described the dishes, listing off the ingredients, and explaining how to prepare the dishes so that we had a better understanding of what we were eating. My favorite dish was the samosa with chili sauce. We even had the opportunity to prepare our own samosas from scratch. This made the experience engaging and I will be attempting these dishes back at home to the best of my ability.”
Gacek added the trip solidified her dream to travel the world in the future.
On the trip, in addition to Gerhold, Orloff, and Gacek, were: AE Phillip Zolfaghari, Electrical and Computer Engineering teaching faculty member Zuofu Cheng, AE Adam Casselman, AE Hammad Memon, ECE’s Jaelynn Abdullah, Engineering undeclared/Mechanical student Brandon Mensah, and AE Morgan Scott.