Week 1 in Gent #HogsAbroad in Belgium

Bonjour!

Today is the third day in Gent, Belgium and it is absolutely beautiful here! We are staying at the top floor of the hostel and the view is unreal. I mean look at it:

In the past two days, we have already had 7 lectures on topics of sustainability such as Sustainable Agriculture, Plant Production, Animal Production, Beer Fermentation and more. Being an Industrial Engineer, I had no background of most of the topics being lectured, so at first it was a little hard to keep up. However, much of the topics always relate back to the politics and economics of the city or country, which can relate to everyone. Most of it comes down to whether or not the agriculture or production is cost efficient. In class, we have learned about the current dietary needs of the population and what the dietary needs of the population should be and based on these trends, farmers are able to figure our which crops are needed to be grown in order to meet demand and based on the current diet of the population, agriculture sustainability is trying to promote a more healthy lifestyle within the country. I also learned about the biological economy which included food, lipids, and oleochemicals. Many oils are produced from different elements and serve different purposes by producing different nutrients. Much of industrial engineering skills can be applied to sustainability in ways that can improve the processes used in sustainable agriculture. In class, we also learned about the fermentation of beer and the processes that are involved with producing the famous Belgian drink. Through the lecture and tasting the beer, I have learned that the sweeter the beer/ the more sugar, the higher alcohol content the beer is. Each beer produced will differ upon which process is used to make the beer. Types of beers include: pilsner, pale ale, Indian pale ale, trappiste, dubbel, triple and much more. On the third day, we took a whole day to tour different companies that dabble in the sustainable agriculture field. We toured Ardo, one of the largest frozen food packaging plants in the world. This has been my favorite thus far, because inside the production plant, I saw many aspects that deal with industrial engineering topics learned in Schoo. I saw conveyors, machines and automation and saw things that could benefit an industrial engineer. Much of the processes in Ardo production plants featured automation, which is what Industrial Engineers use as part of function allocation in production plants. However, I still saw room for improvement within the facility, such as finding a way to automate the filling of boxes onto the box building conveyor. Scheduling of the production plants to minimize idle time in order to maximize production time could also be improved. The fact that one machine, only available to one vegetable for 6 weeks out of the year could also be improved to maximize the utilization of the machine. Much of the topics learned thus far could benefit from the use of an industrial engineer to optimize time and prevent further waste.

VIB

Ardo

While here, I have noticed many differences between Belgium and Arkansas. I have noticed that many of the people in Gent are a bit more shy than many in Arkansas. On the first day, while walking around the city, I would wave or smile while walking past a local and receive no response. While talking to a person from the University, I was told that people in Gent don’t normally wave or make small conversation with people that they do not know, and that makes it hard for people to get to know each other around this city. Most people in Arkansas would return the wave or smile while walking past a stranger. I have also noticed the difference in architecture and roads. In the city center of Gent, there Is a lot of old architecture and churches and much of the roads are made from cobble stones. The architecture is beautiful and really captures the historic presence of the city of Gent. The cobble stones, while adding to the historic aesthetic is difficult to walk on and I bet difficult to ride a bike on, too. I have also noticed that taxes are including in the prices here in Gent. When the price says 10 euros, the price is really 10 euros (I bought a waffle for 10 euros and it was worth it, delicious!) and you don’t have to tip while out at restaurants, because the waiters get paid better and do not expect it. I have noticed that the meals in Belgium are very different. For breakfast, it is normal to have a crescent or roll with some salami or meat and cheese and juice or coffee for breakfast. Whereas, breakfast in Arkansas is usually cereal, oatmeal, or eggs and bacon. Lunches in Belgium are also the biggest meal of the day. The lunch portions at the University are always big and good, too. Then for dinner, the portions are a bit smaller. At home in the U.S., dinner is always usually the biggest meal for me, so it’s different to see that here in Belgium, the biggest meal is lunch. I won’t lie, the jet lag has been a bit of a struggle, but the more time I spend here, the better it will get.



Au revoir!

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My name is Dasher Smith and I am from Tulsa, Oklahoma. I am a current junior at the University of Arkansas studying Industrial Engineering. I am one of seven children in my family and the first to study abroad!!!

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Industrial Engineering major Dasher Smith is spending the May intersession 2018 in Belgium with our U of A Faculty-Led: Sustainability in the Euro Food System with the help of our our Office of Study Abroad Scholarship and the College of Engineering Study Abroad Grant.

Read more from Dasher at sites.uark.edu/ds021

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