Sam Carpenter Gives Lecture Series at Southeast University, Nanjing, China

Professor Emeritus and Associate Director of ICT Sam Carpenter was invited by Professor Huang, Xiaoming (pictured together in photo to left) to give a series of lectures at Southeast University, in Nanjing, China in October 2008. The University welcomes their visitors with a banner on the main building on their Quad (see picture below).

Professor Carpenter gave two technical lectures, "Fatigue Endurance Limit: Energy Principles" and "Dynamic Modulus and the AASHTO MEPDG" and two educational lectures for students, "Overview of Transportation Research" and "Undergraduate Education in the CEE Department at UIUC." The last lecture was attended by over 400 undergraduate students in their College of Transportation at their new campus (they built a new campus two years ago to handle the increasing number of engineering students). It is hoped that these initial visits will help generate a program of faculty and student exchanges between the two Universities. Carpenter's former student, Shihui Shen, and a current transportation student, Hai Huang, also made presentations.

During his two-week visit, Carpenter was hosted by Prof. Huang and his graduate students and former students. The graduate students accompanied him on visits to several historic Chinese cities (picture of traveling group below), and his former students hosted dinners each evening. He toured Shanghai, Nanjing, Suzhou, Zhouzhuang, and Hangzhou.

Professor Carpenter says that the scenic highlight of the trip was a day-and-a-half visit to Huangshan mountain, also known as the Yellow Mountain, which is considered the most beautiful mountain in China. He explains, "Cable cars go half way up, and you hike on paved paths up to the hotels. There is no vehicle access above the cable car. So all supplies are brought up, and down by individuals on the same hiking paths. You hike to the top of several peaks on paths that sometimes have hand rails, sometimes not. The picture included shows one peak that has the path attached (precariously) to the side of the peak as it winds around it to the viewing point on top."

Photos: (top left) Sam Carpenter with host Professor Huang; (below top) Welcome sign at Southeast University; (bottom left) Traveling group of Huang, Carpenter, and former and current students; (bottom right) Huangshan mountain, also known as the Yellow Mountain.