7 August 2010
Forging Engineering Education Partnerships in Kazakhstan
In mid-July, Professor Galim Mutanov, president of IFEES member, the Kazakhstan Society for Engineering Education (KazSEE) and Rector of the East Kazakhstan State Technical University (EKSTU) in Ust-Kamenogorsk, and Professor Valery Antonov, Secretary General of the KazSEE hosted the visit of Hans J. Hoyer, IFEES Secretary General & GEDC Executive Secretary, and Professor Stephanie Farrell, ASEE Board Member and professor of engineering at Rowan University. At the end of a Seminar given by Professor Farrell and Dr. Hoyer, the latter was honored by the EKSTU as Honorary Professor and presented with a beautiful cap and gown.
The purpose of the visit was to discuss strategies to strengthen the accreditation system at EKSTU as well as the Kazakh engineering community as a whole and link them to international organizations such as ABET, the Washington Accord and the Bologna Process. Furthermore, the group discussed strategies to link the KazSEE with universities in neighboring Central Asia countries to explore the formation of a regional engineering education society, as well as link those countries to some of the activities in Kazakhstan as well as IFEES, GEDC and other international efforts related to engineering education. Several Kazakh engineering rectors, deans and other leaders are expected to participate in the forthcoming week of the 2010 WEEF in Singapore under the leadership of Professor Mutanov.
Professor Farrell and Dr. Hoyer had the opportunity to meet several rectors representing the key Kazakh engineering schools, including a visit to Professor and Vice Rector Izim Dussembayev at the Kazakh National Technical University in Almaty. Several rectors and deans have expressed interest to join the GEDC; Dean Turganbayev Yerken of EKSTU has recently joined the GEDC. Dean Yerken was a participant in the IUCEE Summer Faculty Leadership Institute at the Infosys Mysore Campus in 2008. There was also great interest to involve Kazakh engineering students in international networks - a SPEED chapter has been formed on the campus of EKSTU, led by student leader Malykhina Yelena, who will participate in the 2010 WEEF in Singapore.
EKSTU will open the Scientific-Technological Park "Altai," which will be inaugurated in September 2010 by the presidents of Kazakhstan and Russia. Altai has the potential to form successful partnerships with some industrial parks emerging in Rowan University as well as Graphisoft Park in Budapest, Hungary. The partnership between EKSTU and Rowan University is also expected include student and faculty exchanges and project based learning workshops led by Professor Farrell focusing (possibly also under the umbrella of IFEES' new initiative related to faculty capacity building).
New IFEES Initiative - IIDEA
IFEES is pleased to announce the creation of the International Institute for Developing Engineering Academics (IIDEA), a new initiative which will be implemented under the umbrella of IFEES and in partnership with the European Society for Engineering Education (SEFI). The idea was originally conceptualized by its two co-directors Lueny Morell and Anette Kolmos. They are excited about its potentials and are already in discussions with IFEES members in different parts of the world to offer its first faculty/deans capacity building workshops. To read more on this initiative, please click here.
Galim Mutanov - "Economic-Mathematical Methods and Models"
Galim Mutanov, representative of IFEES member society, the Kazakhstan Society for Engineering Education, recently published a book called, "Economic-Mathematical Methods and Models." The monograph presents the issues of working out and applying economic-mathematical methods and models in task analysis and adoption of effective managerial and investment decisions. This book offers budget mathematical models, applying thermodynamic approach to management of economic systems, models of investment decisions adoption in multifarious conditions of distinctness, risk and indeterminacy and their application. This monograph is oriented for students, post-graduates, faculty staff of higher educational institutions, executive directors of enterprises, managers, state and financial office employees.
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