Nicholas Pelletier
Class of 2009
Major: Biomedical Engineering
Project Center: Cape Town, South Africa
Interactive Qualifying Project: Assessing methods for redeveloping the transportation system in the city's central business discrict
Student Project Perspectives
Nick Pelletier
Past Student Blogs
Nick's Cape Town Entries
January 7, 2008
Week 8: There’s no place like home
It is true, there really is no place like home. The seventeen hour plane ride was just how I had remembered it, extremely long! When we finally landed in New York, though, I immediately felt like I was home. Even with a three hour car ride still to go, New York felt like home. Maybe it was the snow which we definitely had not had in Cape Town. Either way, it was good to be back.
The Last Week
The last week in Cape Town was definitely about wrapping up a lot of loose ends. First there were last minute souvenirs to buy. With Christmas ten days away, I bought most of my Christmas gifts in Africa. Of course we had to finish up the project which in the last couple of days basically became all we did, lunches became working lunches and end time became bed time. After putting seven weeks into this project, we wanted it to be the best it could be not only to impress our professors but also our sponsors who had helped us out so much along the way. We finalized our routing for the system and developed a station design all while finishing our final report and presentation. Our final report ended up being just about 104 pages. It was the first time in my life I was actually trying to cut down on pages in a paper rather then make it longer. The final report is really the culmination of fourteen weeks of research and analysis. The hard part was cutting down all this information into a 25-30 min presentation. Our final presentation was to not only our advisors and our liaison but also to many members of our department. In the end, our liaison was very happy with our results and so were we. It really felt like we had made a difference in our time there and it was a worthwhile experience. We learned so much about office dynamics that you simply don’t learn in the WPI environment. There were times when I felt like we were actually in the show “The Office.” We met so many great people and it was definitely hard to say bye when it was all over. It isn’t a simple “See you soon.” We formed some really great friendships with some people that we might never get an opportunity to see again. We truly owe them a lot for not only helping us along the way, but showing us some of their favorite aspects of the City they call home. Good news is our liaison and his family might visit the United States next year and we will be able to return the favor.
Which side of the road?
It’s true, there has been multiple times in the first couple weeks of driving again when I’ve had to think about what side of the road I was supposed to be on. After eight weeks of traveling on one side of the road, it has been difficult to make the mental change back over to the right side of the road. There were a lot of adjustments. I still find myself thinking that French fries are chips and potato chips are crisps. It took at least five days for me to stop getting up at 5:00 a.m. consistently. The largest adjustment is probably falling back into my life where I left off. While on IQP it almost seemed like my real life was on hold for eight weeks. Coming back, there were plenty of things to catch up on. I’m pretty sure my dog thought I was never coming back. I have to start looking for an internship and figure out what I want to do for graduate school. There was plenty of backed up mail, people to see, and stories to hear. So much happened while I was gone but everyone also wants to hear stories of South Africa. It has been great to have winter break to catch up on all these things and get ready to head back to WPI. I am ready to head back, though. I never thought I’d say this, but I think I’m ready to get back to my biomed classes. Transportation has been fun...but I need a break.
Conclusion
How do you summarize eights weeks into a final paragraph? It is like trying to summarize a 104 page paper into a final conclusion. The WPI project system gave me the opportunity to do something I probably won’t have the opportunity to do again. It is very unlikely I will have the chance to travel abroad for eight weeks again or at least not for a very long time. This system engulfed me in the culture of another place while allowing me to gain working experience. I learned so much through our project when it comes to writing and presenting. I am noticing things about transportation in the United States I simply hadn’t noticed before we left. Cape Town has a lot of work left before the 2010 World Cup and I think it would be interesting to go back one day and see how it all turned out. I also have a new appreciation for the world around me, especially a new understanding of the continent of Africa as a whole. The commercials you see on TV about the South African settlements mean more to me now because I actually know people back in South Africa living in those conditions. There are so many aspects of this trip that are just impossible to experience on campus at any United States university. I now know why people who have gone on a WPI IQP say they wish they could do it again.
I hope this has been informative if you are looking at WPI, looking at the Cape Town IQP, or just looking to read about what I’ve been up to.
Any questions email me at npelly@wpi.edu
Nick Pelletier
Class of 2009
January 3, 2008
Week 7- Crunch Time
It is really starting to sink in that we now have less than two weeks left in Cape Town. There are two thoughts that come to mind. First, it is exciting that in just over a week we will be home with family and friends most likely reliving the entire experience from start to finish with everyone we see. The other thought that comes to mind is this means that we have less then two weeks to pull together all the loose ends of our project into a complete final product... that’s where the stress comes in.
December 3, 2007
Week 6
Thanksgiving week
One big plus to having a project during B-term is this past week we worked Monday and Tuesday but then got the rest of the week off for Thanksgiving break. Not only did this give us a break from our project but it also gave us a chance to fit in a ton of the things that we wanted to do while we were here. I also had the excitement of having my parents come and visit for the week and had the ability to show them around the city, which I had been calling home for the last five weeks. With so much to show them, I along with some of my friends, tried to plan the week out to ensure they got to see as much as possible.
November 26, 2007
Week 5
Making Progress
This past week included significant progress within our project as well as within our Cape Town experience. With our project we conducted extensive surveying on the ridership of the two bus routes that enter the CBD from the North. This weekend, we also checked two major locations we wanted to see off our list of things to do. Having passed half way, it is really setting in that we need to continue making progress on both of these fronts every week to not only have a very successful project, but also to complete everything we hope to do while we are here.
November 16, 2007
Week 4
Half way!
One of the things that is great about Cape Town is there is truly a multitude of things to do. In the same aspect it is very easy to spend a lot of money with so many things to do. I can honestly say, though this week was on a pricey side, it was full of some once in a lifetime experiences. Though I do want to make it back to Cape Town someday, I want to get in as much as possible. For example, swimming in the Indian Ocean, though it sounds small and insignificant, it is just one of those things I want to say I have done in my life time. It is these sort of once in a life time experiences I have in Cape Town every single day that make this the trip of a lifetime.
November 6, 2007
Week 3
Starting to adjust
There are so many adjustments I didn't think of when planning to go abroad. For example, simply figuring out where to go when you need a loaf of bread or how to get there. Something like that at home takes very little thought, takes a lot more thought in a new environment. As the weeks have gone on, though, as a group we have started to fall into a rhythm. Some adjustments have been easy, while some we've had to learn the hard way for example:
November 1, 2007
Week 2
Exploring the City
In talking to some of the people we met on the plane, we quickly learned that the night we were landing in Cape Town was the night of the final game of the Rugby World Cup. South Africa was playing England for the title. We arrived at the Big Blue, where we would be staying for the next 8 weeks, just in time to see the end of the game. As I was unpacking the things in my room I heard shouts from the lobby, the game was over, South Africa had won. At that moment I didn't really comprehend how big this victory really was for this country. That night the streets were packed with fans celebrating and shouts could be heard long into the night. It was truly an exciting way to spend our first night in Cape Town. A little over a week later we were able to attend the victory parade down the streets of Cape Town. The energy was similar to that when the Red Sox won the World Series in 2004. I think I am officially a Springbok (the South African team) fan now.
October 30, 2007
Week 1
On My Way to South Africa
Hi, my name is Nicholas Pelletier and I am a junior biomedical engineering major. I will be completing my interactive project in Cape Town South Africa this B-term with twenty-two other students as well as two faculty advisors. Outside of school work, I am the president of the fraternity Phi Kappa Theta as well as a member of the student support network and the co-chair of the campus's Relay for Life.
