Proposed Scientific and Education Collaboration Embedded in a Study Abroad Program

The proposed program is designed to build a strong collaboration between Zhejiang University and North Carolina State in scientific education and research. The foundation of the program is a semester study abroad program that will bring 30-40 STEM students from NCSU to ZJU each year each Fall and Spring Semester starting in 2020. The program funded externally by U.S. Partner universities with NC State taking the lead and will involve ZJU faculty who will work with NC State faculty. The ZJU faculty will be contracted to teach the courses with cooperation and involvement of the departments at ZJU. This type of activity already exists at ZJU, for example, in the Chemical Engineering Department, which has a relationship with the Kingdom of Brunei and a curriculum for students from that country. Our goal will be larger in the sense that we would like U.S. students to have research opportunities and ZJU students are welcome to attend the classes in the program. We also hope that ZJU students will travel to the U.S. do conduct research in various disciplines at NCSU. A program based on such research experiences has already existed at ZJU and NC State in Chemistry. Each year 8 ZJU undergraduate students travel to Raleigh, NC during July-September to conduct research projects in laboratories in the U.S.

The US students will take an intensive Chinese course along with their scientific studies. The program will be divided into two phases. The initial phase of approximate 5 weeks will be at a location in southern China and will focus on language and culture as well as International Relations. The second phase of 14 weeks will focus on STEM classes and will take place at Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, China.

STEM Study Abroad at Zhejiang University

A significant goal of this program will be to offer an international experience for science majors at the same cost as tuition, room and board at NC State. This program is intended to reach a wide range of STEM majors with an emphasis on Engineering, Chemistry, Physics and Math. Program costs are defined to include the plane fare and in-country travel. This model will increase participation on the U.S. side and will provide a broad spectrum of backgrounds. Because this program is affordable for all students it will provide a new way for U.S. students to learn to understand China.

Overview of the Curriculum

The program in China will provide the science classes needed by undergraduate students in Chemistry, Chem. Eng., Materials Science and Biochemistry majors. Each courses will require 37.5 hours of actual time (45 lectures of 50 minutes each). Each course will have at least two hour exams and one three-hour final exam. We propose the following classes:

Department	Course number	Name	Instructors
Chemistry	CH221 /222 (3/1)	Organic Chem. & Lab I	Lec./Lab
Chemistry	CH223 /224 (3/1)	Organic Chem. & Lab II	Lec/Lab
Chemistry	CH315/316 (3/1)	Analytical Chemistry	Lec/Lab
Chemistry	CH433 (3)	Physical Chemistry	Lec
Chemical Eng.	CHE205 (3)	Principles of Chem Eng	Lec.
Mathematics	MA242 (4)	Calculus III	Lec
Mathematics	MA341 (3)	Differential equations.	Lec
Mathematics	MA405 (3)	Linear Algebra	Lec
Mathematics	MA225 (3)	Proofs	Lec
Physics	PY205/206 (3/1)	Physics I	Lec /Lab
Physics	PY208/209 (3/1)	Physics II	Lec /Lab
Physics	PYXXX (3)	Modern Physics	Lec.
Foreign language	FL395 (3)	Chinese language	Lec.