"My experience with CETI has opened my eyes to the wealth of opportunities abroad. Whether I end up working in China or not, the experience has better prepared me for a career in the international market place.

Through the MIT China Educational Technology Initiative, I taught at: IVE in Hong Kong, Yuan Ze University in Taiwan and Fuzhou University. I taught an introduction to programming using Python. Our student’s background varied, but we were able to personalize it enough to keep having new material for everyone. In most schools I also did an entrepreneurship workshop and it was amazing seeing the students come up with such fresh and innovative ideas.

In Hong Kong we stayed in a very nice dorm at a partner University. We took the subway everywhere and became very fond of pastries. In Taiwan we stayed in a dorm with some of our students. It was in a small town, but for fun we’d make excursions to Taipei. One weekend we went scuba diving. In Fuzhou, China we stayed in a small university town. We biked everywhere and developed quite a tan. Our students tell us Fuzhou is one of the 4 hottest cities in China!"

"My internship was at a small software start up, Minteos in Turin Piedmont.

I wrote automated tests for a webpage the company was developing. In a previous internship, the framework for the test suite was set up for me and I wrote additional tests. This internship required me to set up everything and write all the tests.

The best part was interacting with my coworkers. Making a clear division between work and other parts of life and spending time outside of the office with coworkers. My coworkers and I met up regularly to watch soccer games or eat together. The company is small so everyone has a lot of responsibility on their shoulders. Some worry more about work than others and their friends would try to help them relax and stop worrying outside of the office. I learned the value of working hard during the day and accomplishing the goals of the company then, but leaving those worries behind when I leave the office.

Most of the time I was with my coworkers everyone spoke in Italian, so I wish I knew more Italian before coming."

"In this internship I gained an overview of the research activity, in my area, abroad. It was a necessary experience for considering a global career and understanding the possibilities and requirements for achieving it.

During this internship I worked on an alternative, fully nonlinear model of "Buck" power converter, often used in satellite power supplies. This project gave me an opportunity to study relay control systems and apply the theory to try correcting some shortcoming of the standard model of this power converter. INPE is Brazilian equivalent of NASA and the biggest integration and testing laboratory in South America.

São José dos Campos is about the size of Boston. Restaurants and pizzerias dominate and there is hardly any pubs/bars. However, it is close to São Paulo (1hr), Rio (5hr) and Ubatuba surfing beaches (1.5hr)."

Ranko Sredojevic is a fifth year graduate student in EECS.

"My project is adapting an RDP-RFB proxy. Intel’s KVM solution is a remote management technology implemented in firmware, designed to allow remote assistance below the operating system level, and it uses the RFB protocol over the network. The software component I am working on will allow Windows Remote Desktop Connection users (communicating with RDP) to control the Intel® AMT KVM.

Life in Jerusalem is amazing. The city is the religious capital of the world, and has a long, complicated history. The people are very friendly, from very religious people to soldiers carrying large guns. Many speak English. There is always something to do, whether that is visiting holy and historical sites, or chilling on Ben Yehuda or Emek Refaim. The markets (both in the Old City and the Shuk near the Center) are excellent places to shop for produce and interesting clothing.

This has been my first opportunity to go to a foreign country. The work experience was very positive, and I got to talk to Israelis and learn more about their mindset. Traveling was also an incredible experience. It means a lot to me to have been able to see so many of the historical sites, and it was really great to do that with other MIT students. Although I did not learn as much Hebrew as I had hoped, I did learn how to communicate with people from other cultures.

I would like to continue to learn Hebrew, and will hopefully be able to take a class at Harvard in the future. I would love to go on another MISTI internship; hopefully time and language requirements will not get in the way. Since this trip, I have become much more interested and aware of the current conflict in the Middle East, and plan to continue following it in the news. I hope to become more educated in general on world affairs and continue traveling elsewhere."

Google - Tokyo, Japan
Photo (left): Jennifer with the Toudaiji Buddha in Nara on the MIT-Japan Kyoto Trip

"I spent the summer working at Google Japan on YouTube video comments. The project involves adding a new language attribute, allowing future language filtering. The goal is to increase interlingual exchange on the watch page and to ultimately enhance video discussion. This rewarding experience taught me many skills related to my field, and allowed me to reconfirm my career plan to become a software engineer.

It was also a great time to explore a completely different country—Japan has an amazing culture as well as amazing food. In general, this internship opportunity has made me realize that the world is huge and that there is always much to learn."

"The internship abroad has had a significant impact on my life as it was an opportunity to challenge myself both academically and socially in a global environment.

My internship was done at UOC/UPNA at both Barcelona and Pamplona, Spain. The research stage consisted of several projects covering topics such as Structural Reliability and eLearning. I was able to exercise programming techniques and develop experience in writing technical papers.

My hosts are both professors in Spain and are researchers in the HAROSA group, who collaboratively investigate a variety of issues.

Barcelona and Pamplona are two very distinct Spanish cities, the former more lively and heavily-urbanized, the latter being a more relaxed site.

Through the MISTI internship, I have been able to develop research experience in EECS, thus giving me insight into possible future careers, both in industry and academia. I have also acquired a more global mindset towards my future, as I become increasingly fascinated with the variety of cultures worldwide."

"For me, spending the summer at France Telecom’s R&D Labs in Paris was a horizon-broadening experience in a lot of ways. Not only was I able apply and augment the software engineering experience that I had gotten from MIT in my internship, but I was also able to improve my French language skills, make new friends, and, above all, experience a new culture with norms and values different from those to which I was accustomed.

My internship was with a team developing applications for the Windows Phone 7, which gave me both a look into how software design and development work in industry as well as experience with a philosophy and style of design different from those I’d used at MIT.

The MISTI France staff made the whole process of finding an internship in France and making sure I had all the proper authorization and preparation really easy, and it was an experience that I would definitely recommend to anyone who wants to explore their field in an exciting, new, and different way."

"The project's aim was to determine the effects of different wear out mechanisms on circuits. As microchips pack increasingly large numbers of transistors into smaller and smaller areas reliability becomes an important consideration. This is a concern for electronics manufactures around the world. Semiconductor manufacturers like TSMC, and Intel (which has production facilities in Israel) must consider wear out mechanisms on each new technology they introduce.

It’s been a great opportunity for me to travel around the middle east and see first hand places I hear about all the time in church, news, and movies. It’s also a good experience getting out of my comfort zone, trying new things and meeting new people.

The work has introduced me to a new field of research I didn’t know much about. It is a topic of a interest to many researchers that will certainly help me in my future graduate work."

"Spending a month in Hong Kong was definitely one of the best summer trips I’ve ever taken. I went to Hong Kong University (HKU) to transfer over the labs from 6.007, but the experience was so much more than that. Hong Kong is a wonderful place with great people, and HKU was no exception. My host, Professor Kenneth Wong, provided me with the materials and support that allowed me to finish my tasks ahead of schedule. I then helped to incorporate some of the material into a graduate course there. I was also able to attend their research talks, and ended up giving a departmental seminar on my own research towards the end of my stay.

I made a lot of friends during my short time there. On the weekends and holidays, we would go explore the many sights of Hong Kong, which were often a short bus ride or boat ride away. The great thing about staying for an extended time is that we were able to experience the culture and the food of Hong Kong, the richness of which a short vacation could not do justice. During my stay there, President Hockfield made a visit to Hong Kong, and all of the MIT students were invited to a formal dinner with her. It was a great experience to meet the MIT alumni in Hong Kong, and I am humbled to have been part of the MIT community in Hong Kong this summer."

Ta-Ming is a fourth year graduate student specializing in photonics.

"I spent my summer in Beijing, China working on my first VI-A internship assignment. My company was Microsoft Research Asia and I worked with a group that researched sensing on the mobile platform. The projects our group worked on experimented with contextual sensing – using sensors on cell phones to determine what was going on in the user’s daily life and implementing software to enhance their experiences. My project was writing an app that I dubbed OfficeFit. The app ran in the background on a smartphone and used 3-axis accelerometer sensing to determine what activities the user was doing during the day in the office. The app would send alerts reminding the user to live a healthier and more fit lifestyle, for example, taking the stairs instead of the elevator, or taking periodic breaks from sitting in a chair.

I enjoyed the environment and culture of Beijing and had many chances to go out and travel with the local interns as well as MIT students. We all lived in the same apartment complex so it was easy to meet up and hang out. I was able to visit several cultural sites (Great wall, Forbidden Palace, Summer Palace, Silk Street), experience Beijing nightlife (karaoke), and eat a lot of delicious food. In July, I took a week-long trip to Shanghai to visit my family and see the World Expo. I also improved my Chinese by quite a bit from spending time with the local interns."

Cyril Lan is an EECS senior, class of 2011.

"This summer I interned at the Tecnologico de Monterrey, Campus Cuernavaca through MISTI Mexico, my project was to implement a simulation in NS3 of an extended TCP protocol to support the aggregated bandwidth of multiple different interfaces, specifically WiMax, Wifi, and Bluetooth. I thoroughly enjoyed the program and would only hope more students at MIT from my department would also have the opportunity of interning in Mexico. Getting out of your dorm at MIT, travelling thousands of miles south can really wake you up from this theoretical and simulated world you’ve gotten used to. I had the opportunity to be exposed to a wide-spectrum of culture, and people at Mexico.

My host family was anything especially splendid; they welcomed us students whole-heartedly without reserve into their family, their lives. I got to listen to the stories, the histories, and the cultures of Mexico firsthand from so many different backgrounds and perspectives. From the Colonial past to today’s proud rapidly developing country, I had a taste of Mexico I believe no textbook/documentary could ever have substituted."

"My summer internship at UFMG was an amazing experience which opened my eyes to the modern applications of physics and its role in the modern world.

Research the optical properties of Carbon Nanotubes in order to provide useful information to aid research into the various applications of Nanotubes including soldier technologies and the infamous space elevator.

The Physics Department at UFMG works in collaboration with MIT in studying various properties of nanotubes and its possible applications in future technology and energy solutions.

Life in Belo Horizonte was a surreal experience. It was a mixture of Miami and old Europe. Very bright and cheerful in comparison to Boston."

"In February of 2010, I visited the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology with the help of the MISTI China program. At HKUST I helped to develop a series of labs for an introductory undergraduate course similar to MIT's 6.02. It was very interesting to see the similarities and differences in how Electrical Engineering is taught, and interacting with the students and staff was extremely rewarding. I also got a chance to explore Hong Kong and see the many Chinese New Year celebrations, including the New Year's Eve Market and Victoria Harbour Fireworks."

"Through the MISTI Internship program I was given the opportunity to work in Beijing, China for the summer of 2008. I interned with EMC, a prominent information management company. I did meaningful and interesting work while being fully immersed in a culture that was entirely new and eye-opening to me. I spent my weekends traveling with my coworkers to fascinating sites and attractions around Beijing. I visited the Great Wall, Tienanmen Square, the Forbidden City, Houhai Lake, Tsinghua University, and countless others. I celebrated the Dragon Boat Festival alongside dozens of new friends, and even attended the Olympic Games where I saw Michael Phelps win a gold medal right before my eyes! It was an eventful and meaningful summer that I will always remember. I recommend MIT's international internship programs to any student with a desire to see and better understand the world in which we live."

"I spent my summer of 2008 as an intern in Regensburg, Germany at Osram Opto Semiconductors GmbH, where I programmed a conversion tool in C++ for optical ray files. My internship was planned through the MISTI MIT Germany program, and the program's coordinators made the internship search extremely easy. My main reasons for working abroad included strengthening my German language skills, living in a different culture, and understanding how engineering is done in another part of the world. My boss had high expectations, but I left the summer with more practical experience than any semester at MIT. In addition to gaining a new skill set, I had an incredible time visiting Salzburg, Austria for the Eurocup and driving 1700 km around Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg on a major roadtrip. To read more about an amazing summer and see picture of my travels, check out: http://www.billindeutschland.blogspot.com/ "

"I spent the summer of 2008 at Microsoft Research Asia (MSRA) in Beijing through the MIT 6A program. One of my favorite things about MSRA was the many technical talks given that are open to anyone who is interested; it reminded me of MIT. My work at MSRA was on text-to-speech, in the Speech Group. At work we spoke English, but when it came to restaurants, transportation, and bargaining at the shops, everything was easier in Chinese. I had studied Chinese at MIT, and working in Beijing was a chance for me to put some of it to use. I visited sites like the Great Wall, The Summer Palace, Tiananmen and BeiHai with other students in Beijing. I also took at trip to Shanghai and Xi'an, and climbed to the top of Mt. HuaShan. It was rewarding to get to practice the language I had been learning, and also do an Electrical Engineering internship at the same time."

"I never thought the versatility of being a good software engineer could allow me to travel the world and immerse myself in a completely new culture. Through my skills developed at MIT, I am afforded the freedom of exploring an exciting European city such as Barcelona. I'm not sure which is more interesting: understanding a perspective of my own country among foreigners or witnessing one's own cultural habits change in such an exotic environment. I am grateful and happy that the MIT MISTI program has allowed me to experience these things and more."

"Because research is fundamentally about solving difficult problems, and such challenges exist for everyone everywhere, there is no better way to explore the unknown than through the combined perspectives and efforts of researchers with completely different styles and cultures. Through the EECS VI-A International Program I worked with inspiring friends and colleagues at Google Beijing this past summer. This experience has shown me the hope that lies in our collective human ingenuity."

"My stay at the Politecnico di Milano offered me a chance to recast my experiences at MIT. If you would like to participate in an entirely different academic environment, open yourself to a new culture, or otherwise expand your horizons, this program is for you."

"Research is about working together to solve tough problems and working in diverse teams helps us explore all sorts of possibilties. Spending a summer working for Analog Devices in Shanghai gave me exposure to working in a new environment much different from my previous internships within the US. I gained a new appreciation for the challenges faced by multinational research teams as well as how much they can achieve together working effectively around the clock."

Image, lower left, as labeled, of Stephanie Hsu at Mt. Tai in Shandong Province, China, summer 2008.

"In order to begin understanding the complexities of the human brain, I have always felt that a unique approach is needed. As an aspiring neuroscientist, I have sought to learn the essentials of EE/CS and apply the understanding to brain research. This past summer, I wanted to immerse myself in a different atmosphere to gain a new understanding of experimentation. I worked at the Honda Research Institute in Tokyo on using electrophysiology to understand how the brain recognizes images. There is a fundamental phenomenon that occurs when a human is able to instantly glance at an image and understand its context and meaning. However, no computer algorithm is able to recognize images as quickly or as accurately as the human brain, even with better optics than the human eye.

So, at Honda, we sought to understand how the brain was able to recognize images by studying subjects via electroencephalography. Through signal processing, we were able to discover fundamental patterns in the frontal cortex of the brain that correlate well to image recognition. This was a small step forward in understanding the characteristic physiology behind image recognition in the brain. And it was through the unique hypothesis-driven research approach of the Japanese that help me push to find this discovery, in which we used to further understand the physiology within the brain.

I felt that being in Japan exposed me to a new way of thinking, one in which I will always keep in mind as I pursue my career in neuroscience."