Science & Technology

Penn Abroad: Rising senior Ricardo Del Rio in Switzerland

Del Rio says a highlight of his spring semester in Zurich was hiking and skiing in the mountains. 

Ricardo Del Rio standing outside with snow-covered mountains behind him
Rising senior Ricardo Del Rio -- an electrical engineering major in the School of Engineering and Applied Science from Guadalajara, Mexico -- studied abroad at ETH Zurich in Switzerland during the spring semester.

Penn Abroad offered students studying abroad during the spring semester the opportunity to create a video about their experiences for a new contest. Rising senior Ricardo Del Rio is an electrical engineering major in the School of Engineering and Applied Science, who is also in the accelerated master’s program for robotics, from Guadalajara, Mexico. He studied at ETH Zurich in Switzerland.

Why did you choose to study in Switzerland?

I had heard about ETH Zurich a lot before, and I was very attracted to the program when I saw it offered by Penn Abroad. Also, I knew Switzerland was a wonderful place, and I’m a nature lover.

What was a highlight during the semester abroad?

Hiking and skiing in the middle of the mountains was definitely a highlight for me. Being surrounded by huge mountains made me feel small yet so powerful. It was a great time to put things in perspective and learn more about myself.

How do you think your abroad experience may impact your career at Penn and your goals for the future?

I definitely learned a lot about computer architecture and hardware accelerators for machine learning and data analysis, so it made me get interested in it. At the same time, experiencing a different education system gives me ideas on how to integrate my whole college experience better. Finally, it’s encouraged me to maybe follow a career in Europe.

Ricardo Del Rio also wrote a post for the Penn Abroad blog.

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