West Virginia UniversitysOffice of International ProgramsandDepartment of Civil and Environmental Engineering,College of Engineering and Mineral Resources, have received a grant of $197,000 that provides opportunities for civil engineering students to study cross-border transportation and logistics engineering issues.
This is aNorth American Mobility Program, which is supported by separate grant awards from agencies in the United States, Canada and Mexico, with the total project funding at $650,000.
The project is being developed by a trilateral consortium of six universities, which includes WVU and Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in the United States; thecole de technologie supérieure, Montréal, of the Université du Québec, and University of Regina, Saskatchewan; and the Universidad de Guanajuato and Universidad Autnoma de San Luis Potosin Mexico.
The project, Transportation and Logistics Engineering Consortium for Development of NAFTA Trade Corridors, will continue through 2011. The four-year project will provide 42 exchange students with travel stipends of up to $3,000 each for study abroad. The U.S. partner universities were awarded the grant by the U.S. Department of Educations Fund for the Improvement of Post-Secondary Education (FIPSE). The other partners received funds from agencies in Canada and Mexico.
West Virginia University, along with its partners, are among a few select institutions that are working on cutting-edge international curriculum development,said FIPSE program officer Frank Frankfort in making the award on behalf of the U.S. Department of Education.
This is the second major FIPSE grant awarded to WVU s Office of International Programs in the past 18 months. At WVU , Daniel Weiner serves as project director in his capacity as international programs director, and special programs coordinator George M. Lies will coordinate the project with WVU s study abroad staff and civil engineering faculty.
WVU is at the forefront in developing consortiums that lead to study abroad exchanges for university students,Weiner said.Our other FIPSE grant with the Division of Music already led to nine student exchanges and a half dozen faculty exchangesall in less than one year. These exchanges provide more opportunities for our students to gain competency in their fields.
In WVU s Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, students interested in this study abroad project will work with Leonel Medellin and David Martinelli, who will serve as academic faculty advisers. They will help select qualified students and advise them on core courses for a semester at the partner schools.
The overarching goal, according to Martinelli, who helped initiate the consortium with Sergio Silva, chair of Guanajuatos civil engineering unit, isto enhance the skills, knowledge and research potential of students and faculty in transportation and logistics engineering, and gain a better understanding of language and culture.
One aspect, he said, is that their work will help create a multimodal, integrated transportation development plan for North America anda way for the universities to achieve something where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
The participating students will get to know their own country from a different perspective,said Medellin,while at the same time, students will be learning how similar problems are perceived and addressed abroad. In staying in different countries for one or two semesters, they will be able to get real-world experience and enhance their global understanding.
The intent,he added,is to have engineering students graduate from WVU with an international vision for solving problems related to increased traffic between NAFTA member nations. And this project is intended to improve cross-border trade corridors with ideas that minimize negative energy and environmental effects.
WVU students interested in the study abroad program can get more information by visitinghttp://www.wvu.edu/~intlprog/exchanges/naftaengineering.htm.
Besides student exchanges, the consortiums faculty will do residencies in partner countries, working on research and curriculum development. The project team will collaborate at trilateral meetings and annual FIPSE project directorsmeetings and establish a Web portal for problem solving to engage all campus-based engineering students. Results of the research activities will be used to update current courses.
We are delighted to start this venture with our south-of-the-border partners,said Pierre LHeureux, director the Office of International Relations and Student Recruitment atcole de technologie supérieures, Montreal, of the Université du Québec, the lead university in Canada.We are looking forward to working with the group in 2008 for the launch of our mobility project.