April 7, 2004

College of Engineering Helps Lay Foundation for Better Engineering Education in Ecuador

Nuñez

You can barely see the walls in Roberto Nuñez’s office. Books are stacked from floor to ceiling, encroaching on the windows, many of them donated by his colleagues in the civil, construction, and environmental engineering department at North Carolina State University. Nuñez soon will make a second shipment of hundreds of these books to Ecuador where they will be restacked on library shelves for the benefit of teachers and building construction engineers.

“Ecuador has very limited libraries,” said Nuñez, lecturer and senior construction specialist for the department. “Teachers are forced to provide very detailed lectures because resources are very limited for student investigations.” Supplying these textbooks is just a small part of Nuñez’s overall mission and recent impact on his home country.

With the help of a seed grant from NC State’s Office of International Affairs, Nuñez — along with departmental colleagues Dr. Sami Rizkalla, distinguished professor of civil engineering, and Dr. Michael Leming, associate professor of civil, construction, and environmental engineering — planned, prepared and implemented a number of technology transfer seminars in Ecuador last summer. Approximately 450 members of the country’s engineering community attended, including students, faculty, practicing engineers, contractors and government officials.

According to Nuñez, the country-wide interest that these seminars generated was exciting, but not surprising.

Ecuador is home to the Andes Mountains and located in one of the most active seismic zones in the world. Typical of a developing country, most of its infrastructure projects are built with concrete materials using traditional, often out-of-date, design and construction methods. Those in the construction field were understandably anxious for new ideas.

The seminars covered a range of topics in concrete technology designed to provide Ecuadorian contractors and engineers valuable tools to enhance the quality of their work. Seminar topics included new design and construction provisions, building codes, quality control techniques, non-destructive testing, condition assessment, and repair and rehabilitation of concrete structures using fiber-reinforced composites.

With such a large turnout and positive feedback following the seminars, Nuñez considered the trip a success. Still, the visit merely laid the foundation for a more in-depth exchange.

As a direct result of this first contact, members of the Ecuadorian government invited Nuñez and Dr. Sarah A. Rajala, associate dean for research and graduate programs for the College of Engineering, to present a session at an all-day workshop focused on continuous improvement of engineering education in Ecuador. The session emphasized the importance of certification of engineering programs for the economic development of Ecuador.

According to Nuñez, the government understands that foreign companies need engineers with an internationally recognized degree when they are building abroad. With accreditation, Ecuador would have a recognizably skilled pool of human resources to assist with such construction projects. This would not only make it a more appealing place for outside construction companies to build, but would also generate higher-paying jobs for local engineers.

Rajala, who has considerable expertise with ABET (Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology) certification, said they were expecting no more than a dozen participants, but 80 to 100 attended her session. Rajala noted that those in attendance, including several university chancellors and deans, seemed genuinely committed to providing quality education to the citizens of Ecuador, but they are struggling because financial resources are so limited. Who would be in charge of an accreditation program — government, universities or a separate organization — is also a key issue.

Participants expressed a desire to continue the dialogue with NC State, and as a result the university formed a cooperative agreement with the Universidad Técnica de Loja (UTPL), a leading distance learning institution in South America that reaches more than 17,000 students. A recent project between NC State, UTPL and the American Concrete Institute (ACI) allowed for the establishment of the first certification program for concrete technology in Ecuador.

The College of Engineering benefits from these alliances with more prospective students from Ecuador inquiring about graduate school at NC State. “Growing up in Ecuador, I knew about a few large U.S. universities through similar technology transfer seminars,” Nuñez said. “Now NC State has a very solid presence there. It’s a win-win situation. And we have exciting plans to expand our presence in other Latin-American countries.”

— pishney —

(Photo: Roger Winstead)

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