Twenty University of Florida engineering students, an ESSIE faculty member and an ESSIE administrator descended on the city center of Parma, Italy, on June 1 to begin their exciting exploration of UF in Italy —Automotive Industries to Urban Planning.
The month-long program incorporated a two-week transportation course taught by UF ESSIE’s Lily Elefteriadou, Ph.D., and a four-week project course led by ESSIE’s Nancy McIlrath, M.A, M.Ed.
On June 2, a holiday in Parma, the group was given an orientation about the program, the city and the culture. They then took a walking tour of the city and had their first Italian-style dinner together as a group, experiencing torta frittas, parmesan cheese and Parma ham and other salamis, tortelli, wine and tiramisu. What a treat and so it began.
The transportation course began on June 3. “Dr. Lily,” as she is known to her students, taught and developed the course so that it was broad in nature since there were student participants from electrical, mechanical, environmental, industrial and civil engineering. Weekday lessons included much of the content that would be needed for the students to understand and move forward with the project course. Industry guest speakers Federico Parolotto and Delia Valastro from Mic Hub and Antonio Porcina from Stantec-Milano also provided insights about the industry in Italy and nuances to be considered between the government and industry when projects are developed.
Course site visits included: the Dallara Academy, the Ferrari Museum in Maranello, a rail transportation-related site near Venice to Rizzani de Eccher’s project location and a weekend in Venice to view and experience the water transportation system. The city of Parma was also the students’ classroom. They were provided ample time to explore and experience the culture and to digest the information they gathered so they could incorporate it into the courses and their project.
For the project course, the students were given an assignment involving a current initiative from the mayor’s office the city of Parma is undertaking —sustainable mobility throughout the city. The students were divided into four groups of five, and each group was provided with a quadrant of the city (North to South, East to Central, West to Central and Perimeter). During one of the initial class periods, Andrea Mancini, manager from the City of Parma, provided the students with information about the project and the needs of the city.
In addition to Mancini’s insights about the project, the UF students developed a survey to assess the transportation needs of the residents of Parma. It was distributed to students, professionals, faculty and administrators from the University of Parma (UniPR) and random individuals throughout the city and generated over 700 responses.
After a month of gathering their research and sorting through the survey data, the UF students presented their findings to a panel of professionals that included UniPR’s Elefteriadou; Antonio Porcina (Stantec); Chiara Vernizzi, Ph.D., the councilor for Urban Regeneration with responsibility for Urban Planning, Economic Activities and Private Construction with the City of Parma; UniPR faculty member Gianluca Borghi, Ph.D., the councilor for Environmental, Energy and Mobility Sustainability and the City of Parma’s lead on the proposed project; and Gabriele Tebaldi, a UniPR faculty member from the Department of Architecture and Engineering. Roberto Menozzi, Ph.D., (UniPR department head for Engineering and Architecture and a strong supporter of ESSIE’s efforts in Parma) also sat in on the presentations. According to city officials, students exceeded the city’s expectations, and several ideas that were presented will be considered by the city for implementation. The course was so well received that city of Parma representatives invited the UF group back next year to complete another project with them.
Also, during the last two weeks of the project course, the students visited UNIMORE (University of Modena- Emilia Reggio). Marko Bertogna, Ph.D., provided an overview of his lab’s exciting projects that feature autonomous vehicles of many types, including race cars. He is a faculty member with the university and participates in the MUNER program which is unique to this region and the Motor Valley.
Additional student activities included an Italian cooking class, Italian, language class, dinners (including one that celebrated San Giovanni Day, which brings Parmanians out of their homes to eat tortelli), a bike excursion through the countryside to an agricola that makes cheese (Parmesan of course), a tour of the city, a weekend in Venice and participation in a transportation-related event in the city center of Modena.
Another unique activity — which was unplanned but perfectly fitting for this group — was the annual Mille Miglia car race through Italy. Cars from 1920 to 1957 race on a 1000-mile figure-eight trek across Italy, and one of the stops was Parma. Onlookers were captivated by the event and were amused by the drivers, especially those who dressed in period garb with their antique goggles and helmets. It elicited a memory from the movie “The Great Race,” which perfectly epitomizes this event (Google or YouTube it). The students also had time to travel on their own throughout the program, and many explored Rome, Florence, Verona and Cinque Terre.
PERSONAL NOTE FROM DR. LILY AND NANCY: To our 20 UF student participants (many of whom had never experienced international travel): We were amazed by the way you accepted and bonded with one another, helped each other when needed and maintained your personal and professional demeanor and behavior throughout the program. So, through the broken tooth, haircuts, hair colors, scraped arms, sore feet, early mornings and late nights, snoring, sleep talking, loud speaking, hall walking, wall hugging, echoes in the building, never enough coins for laundry, fevers, wrinkly clothes, fans and hats, you made our first attempt at such an endeavor a very pleasant, surprising and personally (and professionally) rewarding one. Based on what many of you wrote in your reflection papers (some of which moistened my eyes), I believe many friendships were formed that will last a lifetime along with your memories of UF in Italy that will be cherished for years to come. You have wandered, explored, experienced and learned — now let that growth continue and become entwined with the person you yearn to be.
Ti auguriamo tanto successo, non importa dove ti porterà il tuo cammino! Ciao!
