Intelligent Structural Health Management of Aerospace, Mechanical and Civil Structures

The past three and a half weeks have been eventful, to say the least. I don't want to bore you with a week by week or a day by day account of what happened, so I'll summarize the trip to the best of my abilities. Here it goes:

We arrived in Chennai on the midnight of Wednesday, August 5th, and because IIT Madras opened classes on the 9th, we stayed off-campus at the Trident Hotel during our first four days here. Being a nice hotel that catered towards foreigners and the upper class, it was sort of like a gated community. I loved our excursions out of it and into true India.
They were pretty awesome, from the endless lines of little shops and fishing boats on the city’s giant beaches, to the huge ocean tankers unloading their cargoes at the port; from countless vehicles, people, and animals that maneuver the streets like an symphony that rarely falters, to the beautiful rural roads that wind through little villages and palm trees; and from the ancient city of Mahabalipuram to the former French colony of Pondicherry.

Later, we moved into the guest house inside IITM's campus. The college is located inside a national park (I think it's the only college in the world like that), and one can genuinely "go off into the woods" to study like the ancient Indian sages did and get a glimpse of that transcendental feeling Thoreau sought (if you're adventurous enough). Once we were on campus, we started testing our samples, befriended students working under Professors Balasubramaniam and Prakash, and became used to the respectful and humble lab culture (e.g. the wide usage of the word "sir", taking off shoes before entering labs or offices, etc.) On the third weekend in India, we took a train to GE's Global Research Center in India's IT capital, Bangalore, and learned about the company's state-of-the-art facilities and new technologies being researched (not sure if I can talk about some of those things here, so I won't).

PIRE-ISHM India was an unforgettable experience, and I'd highly recommend that EVERYONE with an interest in things international take advantage of opportunities to study or work abroad. In terms of learning experiences, being abroad trumps everything else.