US Students Attend Summer Lab at ZJU

    This summer, a mix of 20 students from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and the University of Washington had a memorable stay at Zhejiang University, gaining new sights into chemical engineering, inter-cultural communication and much more.

    Hosted by ZJU’s College of Chemical and Biological Engineering, the Hangzhou Summer Lab Program kicked off on June 10 and lasted five weeks at ZJU’s Yuquan Campus in city center. During the program, students were encouraged to observe and learn how to perform and document experiments with the scientific rigor required by both the industry and academia. Using advanced installations, they honed hands-on skills through a sequence of eight experiments, including flow resistance, heat exchange, and distillation. Each experiment was conducted after preliminary training on relevant virtual modules.

    In the final week of study, student teams competed to distill ethanol to high purity using as little time and energy as possible. In the final assessment, students presented their lab reports, which were evaluated not only by technical prowess but in terms of such abilities as keeping good lab hygiene and communicating well in a team.

    In addition to industry tours to state-of-the-art facilities like the Tea Factory, students visited neighboring cities and places of interest with College staff during weekends. They marveled at the breathtaking scenery of Yellow Mountain as well as the hustle and bustle of Shanghai, within two hours by train from Hangzhou. This is the fifth year that the College has hosted the Summer Lab in collaboration with their American counterparts.