IIn the humid heat of a South China summer, 22 students from the UC Riverside School of Business, led Professor of Practice Sean Jasso, traded their usual campus routines for lecture halls, factory floors, and even a Kung Fu studio halfway around the world. From July 13 to 18, they took part in the UCR AI-Tech Immersion Program, a week-long partnership with South China Normal University (SCNU) held across the twin innovation hubs of Foshan and Guangzhou.
It was not a typical study-abroad experience. It was a crash course in how artificial intelligence is reshaping industry, manufacturing, and business strategy in one of the fastest-growing economic regions on Earth — the Greater Bay Area/Foshan.
A Global Classroom
The UCR students didn't make this journey alone. They were joined by three students from the University of Canterbury in New Zealand and eight from the University of Aberdeen in Scotland — Aberdeen being one of SCNU's partner institutions. Together, the group formed a genuinely international cohort, with students comparing notes on business practices, technology adoption, and campus life across three continents before they'd even sat down for their first lecture.
That international mix became one of the defining features of the week. Classroom discussions turned into cross-cultural conversations. Site visits became shared discoveries. By the end of the program, students weren't just learning about Chinese business — they were learning how to collaborate across borders, disciplines, and cultures, a skill set increasingly essential for anyone entering global business today.
Inside the Week
The curriculum blended theory with hands-on exposure. Mornings often began with lectures exploring artificial intelligence and its role in powering the Greater Bay Area's rapid economic transformation — a region that links Guangzhou, Foshan, Shenzhen, and Hong Kong into one of the world's most dynamic manufacturing and technology corridors.
From there, students headed into the field. Visits to advanced manufacturing plants and robotics facilities gave them a front-row seat to smart manufacturing in action — automated production lines, AI-driven quality control, and the kind of industrial innovation that's easy to read about in a textbook but far more powerful to witness in person.
The program also made room for cultural immersion. Students traded business case studies for Kung Fu lessons, learning traditional martial arts forms as a way to connect with Chinese culture beyond the classroom. It was a reminder that understanding a country's business landscape means understanding its people and traditions too.
Throughout the week, UCR students worked alongside SCNU faculty and students on collaborative projects, applying what they'd learned in lectures to real problems and perspectives shaped by their Chinese peers. The week closed with a certificate ceremony, celebrating the students' completion of the program and the connections they'd built along the way.
Gratitude and Global Partnership
None of it would have been possible without the work of hosts, faculty, and staff on both sides of the Pacific. South China Normal University's team was widely praised for their generosity, careful planning, and dedication to international education — the kind of effort that turns a study-abroad program into a genuinely transformative experience.
Back home, the trip was the product of close collaboration between UCR's International Affairs and Education Abroad team (Faculty-Lead-Education-Abroad Program-FLEAP) and the UCR School of Business team.
More Than a Trip
For the 22 UCR Business students who made the journey, the AI-Tech Immersion Program offered something a classroom back in Riverside couldn't fully replicate: a direct, immersive look at how AI and smart manufacturing are reshaping global business, delivered alongside peers from New Zealand, Scotland, and China itself.
It was a week of lectures and factory floors, robotics and Kung Fu, new friendships and new frameworks for understanding the global economy. And as this year's cohort returns home with new perspectives — and no shortage of photos to prove it — the partnership between UCR and South China Normal University looks poised to keep growing.
Programs like this are offered throughout the year by the International Affairs and Education Abroad office. Explore your options and discover the many opportunities available to UCR students.