Students from the Addis Ababa Institute of Technology (AAiT) in Ethiopia will have the opportunity to study with U-M College of Engineering faculty, thanks to the African Undergraduate Research Adventure (AURA), a new student research exchange program organized by Valeria Bertacco, Rackham associate dean for physical sciences and engineering.
“The University of Michigan has had a long-standing commitment to global engagement for many years now,” says Bertacco, who also serves as professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. “The AURA program was born out of this effort. We want to bring undergraduate students from Ethiopia to the University of Michigan for the summer, embedded in a research experience.”
The ultimate goal of AURA is to create collaborations between U-M faculty and AAiT students, which could lead to a range of research collaborations, including applications to U-M doctoral and master’s programs. It will also help bootstrap the students’ fifth-year thesis projects at AAiT.