2009 Report - Conclusion

Introduction // Hangzhou // Beijing // Conclusion

Departure

Goodbye Dinner

Our student host Jianhui and the volunteers held a goodbye dinner to wish us a safe trip home. The dinner was held at a beautiful restaurant located at the top floor of a local shopping mall. The dinner was also an opportunity for us to show our thanks to them for helping us. We had a wonderful time talking with our hosts about our experience in Beijing and possible future encounters we may have.

Figure B20: The IRES team and volunteers at the goodbye dinner

Conclusion

The program for our group spans from February 26th to when the team selected for the next year takes over. Our program is currently still in progress, the culmination will be in a presentation at the Southern California Conference for Undergraduate Research (SCCUR) later this year, the National Conference for Undergraduate Research (NCUR), and a seminar collaborating with the campus chapter of IEEE. The IRES program has given us a very unique experience to experience and to learn in depth about the way of life in East Asia. Through this program we were able to find from our experience that students attending Chinese universities today have access to a great deal of useful resources, just as American college students do. This is very good in the fact that it will make future exchanges with our Chinese counterparts in the career world outside academia much easier, as both sides will have a common ground.

In the trip, as part of the program, we were able to experience both success and challenging obstacles. Our initial meeting with our host students was somewhat difficult because, despite their understanding of English, we had to adjust to a learning level of simplified English so that it was easier to communicate. We were able to mostly adjust to the local weather, which is very different from that of Riverside, California. Despite the adjustments that had to be made to facilitate our stay, we enjoyed China so much that we expect to visit again in the future, possibly to visit our newfound Chinese friends. The IRES program has expanded our understanding and appreciation of Chinese culture with an enormous impact that will surely influence decisions in the future.

Acknowledgements

The following people and organizations helped us enormously by making this program possible:

National Science Foundation
Professor Albert Wang - University of California, Riverside Department of Electrical Engineering
Mr. Jun Wang - University of California, Riverside Department of Electrical Engineering
Our Tehcnical Orientation Leaders: Lin Lin, Xin Wang, and Israel Ramirez of the LICS laboratory
Hangzhou Dianzi University and our two host students: Nic and Tom
Institute of Microelectronics, Tsinghua University and all the host volunteers from the Tsinghua IEEE Electron Devices Society who went to great lengths to make our stay the best they could provide.

Introduction // Hangzhou // Beijing // Conclusion