Featuring Rose-Hulman's most recent international partner: KTH, Sweden.

Dr. Luchen Li of Rose-Hulman's Office of Global Programs once invited the king of Sweden to Flint Michigan to see an innovative implementation of Swedish technology - and the king accepted.

While that's a hard act to follow, Dr. Li made connections once again when he invited two representatives of the Swedish Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) to Rose-Hulman on May 30, 2012 to meet Rose-Hulman faculty and discuss possibilities for student exchanges between schools. By day's end, the Global Programs Associate Dean had a firm commitment from the KTH reps, Linda Andersson and Helena Legnell, that KTH would receive Rose-Hulman exchange students.

For Rose-Hulman juniors and seniors, the transition into KTH classes shouldn't be too traumatic - at KTH all upper level classes are taught in English. As  Andersson presented a PowerPoint tour of her school's academic programs to Rose-Hulman faculty from Physics, Chemistry, Engineering Management, Chemical Engineering, and Electrical and Computer Engineering, she pointed out that nearly a quarter of KTH's student population of almost 14,000 are students visiting from other countries. KTH also offers many dual degrees in conjunction with schools of other countries.

As a University, KTH is divided into "nine decentralized schools," which means, according to Andersson, "you don't get the interdisciplinary aspect" that students experience at Rose-Hulman. On the plus side, Andersson mentioned, turning to Dr. Throne of the ECE department, the School of Communications and Information Technology is located in "Kista, the Silicon Valley of Sweden - Ericsson is located there." She added that the KTH School of Computer Science and the School of Chemical Science and Engineering are "very keen on developing a relationship with Rose-Hulman."

The program is set to begin in the fall of 2013, when KTH will receive its first group of Rose-Hulman students on campus in Sweden.