ALLIANCE – On February 14, students in the University of Mount Union’s Global Engineering course had the opportunity to learn from alumnus Scott Johnson ’79, who provided an informative guest lecture about his several trips to the United Arab Emirates. Johnson’s presentation preceded the students’ own 10-day trip to the UAE over the 2023 spring break.

Johnson, who earned a Bachelor of Science degree in biology, spoke about his trips to the cities of Abu Dhabi and Dubai and shared his stories and experiences with the architecture, people, culture and food. He provided the students with some great health tips while traveling on long overseas flights and explained the effects of changing environments on our microbiome. Additionally, he provided a review of the UAE history and showed pictures of key sites across the country, ending his lecture by sharing his passion for traveling and connecting with people from across the world.

Mount Union's School of Engineering will be sending 24 junior engineering students to Abu Dhabi in the UAE during spring break as part of a faculty-led trip arranged and led by Dr. Loay Al-Zube, associate professor of biomedical engineering. The trip is part of the Global Engineering Exploration course offered by the School of Engineering.

Students will spend 10 days in the United Arab Emirates, visiting the construction site of Zayed National Museum, the largest oasis in the UAE, and key cultural destinations including the largest UNESCO World Heritage Site in the country: The Hili Archaeological Park. Mount Union students will also work with engineering students from Al Ain University in Abu Dhabi to build and test an innovative water and flood detection system. The Mount Union students designed and built a prototype of the flooding alarm system that will be tested in Abu Dhabi alongside Al Ain University students.

This experience will be an unforgettable one for the Mount Union engineering students and will provide them with a unique opportunity to immerse themselves in a different culture and gain hands-on engineering experience abroad.

Learn more about Mount Union’s global engineering experiences at mountunion.edu/school-of-engineering.