Mechanical Engineering Professor Harry Dankowicz and Assistant Professor and Director of Scandinavian Studies Anna Stenport have been working towards building a strategic partnership with KTH Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) through the Illinois-Sweden Program for Educational and Research Exchange (INSPIRE). Sweden, home of the Nobel Prize, has a population of about 9 million people. About 18,000 students attend and 3,000 employees work at KTH, the leading technical school in Sweden.
The partnership between Illinois and KTH is focusing on the development of educational and research relationships. At a symposium held on December 8-10, 2010, Illinois and KTH explored a variety of opportunities for faculty, graduate, and undergraduate exchange and discussed collaborative efforts in research, teaching, joint programs, joint proposals, and joint degrees.
“We called it a research symposium because we thought we would focus on research,” Dankowicz said. “But then as time developed we realized that the scope of our effort and the engagement of the institutions were very broad and very deep and people were really excited to pursue and explore partnering at all kinds of levels.”
The symposium had 80 registered participants and centered around six synergistic strategic multidisciplinary research platforms: energy, materials development, information and communication technology, transport research, medical and biomedical technologies, and humanities and the social sciences.
Both universities have synergistic strengths in a number of research areas. In engineering, some examples are refrigeration and air conditioning energy sciences, and nanotechnology. The universities complement each other also in subjects such as sustainability, nuclear waste management, high-speed rail transportation, and information technology. Through the exchange, students may access a broader level of education by taking classes in their field that may only be offered at the partnering university. Dankowicz said the KTH and Illinois strategic partnership may provide students with a larger and more accessible course selection as they pursue their degrees.
A second research symposium will be held at KTH in Stockholm, Sweden, May 4-6, 2011 and the symposium will identify even more specific connections between Illinois and KTH research groups.
Professor Dankowicz graduated from KTH with a Master’s degree in Engineering Physics, studied for four years at Cornell University for his PhD, and returned to Sweden to work for four years at KTH before moving to the U.S. After leaving KTH, he continues to advise graduate students, to work with faculty there, and to receive joint research grants through the Swedish Science Council. These experiences help him connect with people from KTH and understand the Swedish education system.
Professor Stenport received her Master’s degree at Uppsala University, in Sweden. She studied comparative literature and French and then attended University of California, Berkeley for her PhD. She is also an Affiliate Associate Professor of Literature at Gothenburg University, Sweden.
Both professors move forward with dedication to grow and sustain a strategic partnership between Illinois and KTH that will benefit each university with new sources of funding, innovative research initiatives, exchange opportunities, and a global experience.