Georgia Institute of Technology School of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Tokyo, the largest metropolitan area in the world, is home to almost 38 million people. While “sustainability” might not be the word that comes to mind upon hearing about a city of this size and magnitude, the city manages to grow without depleting of Japan’s natural resources. That's why Tokyo was chosen as the setting for the new Japan Program on Sustainable Development — a collaboration between Georgia Tech's College of Engineering and Tokyo Tech.

Maimuna Jallow, a third-year civil engineering major, came back to campus this spring after a semester studying in Europe. With funding from the Joe S. Mundy Global Learning Endowment, Jallow took classes at Georgia Tech-Lorraine and explored the continent. Jallow said her months abroad left her with “newfound personal strength, courage, independence, and a strong appreciation of public transportation and infrastructure.”

Civil engineering undergraduate Andrew Melissas spent his spring semester studying at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, with support from the Joe S. Mundy Global Learning Endowment. He calls that time “the best four months of my life.”

A group of Georgia Tech students has just returned from two weeks studying bicycle infrastructure in the Netherlands and contrasting the Dutch approach to American standards. The overwhelming consensus: it’s not just bicycles that define the Dutch transportation system. Rather, it's the integration of biking with all forms of public transit and infrastructure planning that makes the Netherlands’ famed bike culture a way of life.