On August 24, 2021, the 2021 PKU-UChicago International Policy Action Lab (IPAL) program, held from July 19 to August 20, 2021, was successfully closed through Zoom. With diverse courses and rich activities, this program provided top global students and working professionals with a five-week interdisciplinary academic experience of high quality.

　　Focusing on econometric tools and public policy analysis, the IPAL program continued its rigorous interdisciplinary academic tradition and provided courses taught by senior faculty from PKU School of Economics and UChicago Harris School of Public Policy, namely Introduction to Programming in R, Policy Analysis and Causal Inferences, and Faculty-Led Capstone Project (a course to apply program leanings). David Chrisinger, the IPAL academic director from UChicago also organized two successful lively and practical writing workshops.

　　Besides, five professional lectures focusing on the leading-edge topics of global development, were delivered both online and offline, widening participants’ global versions and motivating them to study international policy.

　　Lectures delivered by invited experts and scholars

　　The IPAL program also organized an online visit to Paulson Institute, a non-partisan, independent "think and do tank" dedicated to fostering a US-China relationship, for participants to enjoy in-depth participation. The directors of Paulson Institute Beijing Representative Office introduced their institutions and programs, and gave pieces of advice to participants who wish to get involved in related fields in the future.

　　Along with rigorous courses and lectures is the seamless community building activities, which broke the limits of time and space among participants due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The IPAL program designed a variety of online and offline social events, enabling participants to get to know the two universities and expand their interpersonal networks. In addition, two Q&A sessions were organized to respond to questions that students were most concerned with, such as exchange application and graduate school admission.

　　Community building activities held both online and offline

　　At the completion ceremony, many participants shared their experience and mentioned that although the intensive schedule was challenging, the program served as an opportunity to step out of their comfort zone and try to climb to the top of the academic ladder.

　　Source: https://newsen.pku.edu.cn/news_events/news/global/11034.htm