The Engineering in London program for the Summer of 2023 allowed our group of students to explore the birthplace of modern engineering both inside and outside of the classroom. The small class size allowed for a more one-on-one experience with the professors, who did a great job getting to know every student and making sure the course was taught plainly and thoroughly. Although the courses we took while abroad were not easy classes, our professors made sure to offer every opportunity for us to do well, whether that was with outside of class time office hours to work problems, or all-day email responses to questions. To add to this, the excursions we took as a group to the many historical museums scattered throughout London helped to enforce the ideas learned in class.

My favorite location we visited was the Thames Barrier, a flood barrier over half a kilometer in length that spans the Thames River in order to protect London from tidal surges. As a mechanical engineer, it was fascinating to watch the small-scale models of the barrier in action as our guide walked us through how the mechanism operated. As she explained, the system of ten gates powers the rotating barriers via a simple piston-cylinder hydraulic system, which is something we had learned a lot about in our Thermodynamics class. It was really interesting to watch the theory we had been learning be applied to a large-scale project with an actual purpose. To me, this was the beauty of the Engineering in London program, as it allowed us students to see the types of projects engineers like ourselves would someday be working on. Some additional excursions we made included our visit to the Kew Bridge Steam Museum, the British Science Museum, the Brunel Tunnel, and Bletchley Park. While at these museums, we explored the genius innovations of past engineers in all fields, such as thermodynamics, computer science, aerospace, and construction.

Although it may seem like the whole trip was work, we had plenty of time to explore London and have fun outside of academics as well. Throughout our month-long trip, we had students travel all around Europe, with some of these ventures including Ireland, Wales, Netherlands, France, and Austria to name a few. On these trips, we got to know each other in a way much closer than that of classmates during a normal semester. While our journeys across Europe were a blast, my favorite part about the whole trip was getting to know the city of London in a way you wouldn’t get from just a vacation. From learning the intricacies of the London Underground system, to traversing the city via boat on the Thames River, to discovering hidden gems like the Leather Lane market, there was always something new to find while exploring the city. This trip helped me not only to become a better engineering student, but also a more well-rounded person by having to navigate a new city with people talking in different languages and accents all while under a time constraint.

After it was all said and done, I feel that most of us, if not all of us, who participated in the 2023 Engineering in London program have grown both as engineers and as people.