Rodger had two internships with MIT-China: A fall internship in the Lubrication Department at Shell Shanghai, which is in charge of downstream processing of lubrication oils, including mixture formulation and oil characterization. He worked on two projects: bringing advanced viscosity characterization capabilities to SST and writing a computer application for viscosity data processing. The main purpose of these projects were to rapidly improve characterization capabilities within SST and to simplify complex data processing techniques.
Prior to interning with Shell, Rodger spent the summer teaching at three universities with the MIT-China Educational Technology Initiative (MIT-CETI): "Coming to China, one of my goals was to learn more about people in China that were around the same age as me. On a consistent basis, my only interaction with Chinese speakers is with my parents, who have a vastly different perspective on China as the newer generation. At CETI, I was able to not only interact in a meaningful way with students my age, but also interact with a large variety of students from different parts of China, each giving me a new perspective from which to view China as a whole. This cultural exchange, in both directions, was the most valuable experience I had in China in my perspective. I think this should be a primary selling point for CETI in attracting other MIT students who are interested in China as a culture. There is no other program I can think of, through MIT or some other method, that can offer the depth and breadth of cultural exchange that CETI offered me during these 8 weeks."
