Assistant Professor Jana Diesner taught a course on network analysis to Chinese students participating in the Information Science and Engineering Summer Program sponsored by Global Education and Training (GET) at the University of Illinois. Eighty undergraduates from five Chinese universities took part in the two-week program held last month on the Urbana campus.
Doctoral students Ly Dinh and Shubhanshu Mishra served as teaching assistants for the network analysis course. Moises Orozco Villicaña, director of enrollment management, talked with participants about the degree programs available at the iSchool.
In addition to network analysis, participants learned about control systems in a course taught by Petros Voulgaris, professor in the Department in Aerospace Engineering. GET hosted social activities for the participants as well, including a trip to Springfield to visit the Illinois State Capitol and Abraham Lincoln sites. The program concluded on July 21 with a graduation lunch at the Illini Union.
"It was an honor and great fun to teach a class for these students," said Diesner. "We were delighted to get a chance to work with some of the brightest minds from a variety of Chinese universities. Our interactions with the students also allowed us to learn more about the students' academic backgrounds and traditions, and to connect to their culture and experiences. We were absolutely amazed by the research projects that these students put together in an extremely limited amount of time."
