About the Trip

Here are a few questions you might have about the trip. Comment if you have any others!

Where will You be?

Porto Alegre, Brazil. Porto Alegre is located in the Rio Grande do Sul state. It has a population of about 1.5 million and is the center of Brazil’s 4th largest metropolitan area.

We are living at Casa do Campus student housing, next to the university at which we will be working —  Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul. PUCRS is usually pronounced “pookie”.

“Founded in 1948, PUCRS is a reference in higher education and research in the country and in the world. A Marist university of excellence, aimed at the comprehensive education of our students, in their religious, humanistic, scientific, professional and citizen dimensions, and which contribute to the development and progress of Rio Grande do Sul and Brazil.”

Who’s going?

Three student interns (including myself) from Rice University. My fellow travel companions and adventurers are Nathalie P. and  Allie S. Nathalie is a mechanical engineering major, and Allie is a bioengineering major.

Two representatives from the Rice Engineering Design Kitchen will also be there for the first week to collaborate with professors at PUCRS with hopes of creating a freshman design course modeled after Rice’s.

What are you going to be doing?

Welllllllllll …. I don’t really know yet! This is the first year that Rice has participated in an exchange with PUCRS, so there is a lot of uncertainty, especially in terms of logistics. We are laying the groundwork such that future years to proceed smoothly. The general idea is that we help the university set up an engineering design course, and then intern in startups (and possibly larger enterprises) in TECNOPUC (“tekno-pookie”), a Science and Technology park associated with the university.

I am interning at Rockhead Games, a PC and mobile game developer. They have released games on the iOS and Android stores (like Starlit Adventures and Master of Words) as well as games for PC (like Big Bosses). Starlit Adventures made the “Best of 2015” iOS App Store distinction. Rockhead also recently released a series of comics for the Starlit characters, and they are working on a short animated TV series with the same storyline.

so, What’s the plan?

May 27-28: Flight Dallas, TX → São Paulo, BR → Porto Alegre, BR

May 29-June 2: Working at the university (PUCRS) with professors and faculty. Engineering design workshops. Design challenges. Teaching active learning approaches to engineering professors.

June 2-July 28: Interning in enterprises in TECNOPUC.

July 29-Aug 7: Allie and I are backpacking for a few days in Montevideo, then ferrying to Buenos Aires, then taking a couple of days to visit Iguazu Falls.

Aug 7: Buenos Aires → Dallas → Houston

Aug 8: Begin advisor training for orientation week at Rice