Presenters

Recent conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan underscore the need for the US engineering community to assist in building technical capacity in war-torn nations. The US engineering community can muster the expertise of thousands of volunteers to assist reconstruction efforts through rebuilding local professional engineering societies; re-establishing up-to-date engineering education curricula; refurbishing lost or damaged engineering laboratories and libraries; introducing modern standards and codes of practice; and providing expertise to deal with pressing environmental problems such as the Iraqi marshlands. With the re-entry of the US in UNESCO, the lessons learned from capacity building in Iraq and Afghanistan are also directly applicable to developing nations.