Institute for Ethical and Civic Engagement

New Faculty-led Global Seminar: Engineering for Developing Communities in Haifa, Israel

Office of International Education, November Newsletter

Beginning in the summer of 2010, Prof. Bernard Amadei, in conjunction with the Office of International Education, will run a summer Global Seminar in Haifa , Israel . Dr. Amadei is a professor of Civil Engineering and Director of the Mortenson Center in Engineering for Developing Communities at CU-Boulder.

The Global Seminar will be offered in partnership with the Technion Israel Institute of Technology, one of the world's most renowned science and technology universities. What makes this program particularly unique is that CU students will work alongside Israeli engineering students with the goal of solving real life problems faced by communities in Israel .

The students will participate together in a course on sustainable community development and in doing hands-on team work in the field and in the laboratories for the duration of the program. In order to give students real world development experiences, they will work on all aspects of project planning, management and execution.

Project deliverables include: (i) weekly progress reports; (ii) reports that contain an overview of the discussions leading to the chosen solutions; (iii) user's guides for community residents to insure project sustainability; and (iv) reflective journals demonstrating student progress. In addition to the course and the project, students will participate in basic culture and Hebrew language activities.

During the past few years, there has been a growing interest in the CU-Boulder Engineering for Developing Community Program at both graduate and undergraduate levels. The program's mission is to provide “integrated and participatory solutions to humanitarian development by educating globally responsible engineering students and professionals to address the problems faced by developing communities worldwide.”

The College of Engineering & Applied Science's vision as articulated in its latest strategic plan is: “to be a world leader in engineering research and education, with an emphasis on integrated and discovery learning on engineering for global society.”

This global seminar provides students a great opportunity to do integrated educational and research focused work in a global setting.

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