Iraqi Delegation Visits Campus

Improvements Sought to Vocational Ed and Training

Engineering Dean John Ting, third from right, and Rachid Hankour of Geocomp Corp., far right, with the Iraqi delegation.

A high-ranking delegation from Iraq recently visited the College of Engineering as part of the United Nations’ Habitat program to improve the quality and relevance of technical and vocational education and training in the country. UMass Lowell was one of several universities that the delegates visited in Massachusetts.

During the visit, the Iraqi educators met with Engineering Dean John Ting; Prof. Clifford Bruell, chair of the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department; Assoc. Prof. Kenneth Lee of Civil Engineering; and students Walter Thomas and Julianne Rhoads of the UMass Lowell Solar Decathlon Team.

The delegates’ objective was to acquire up-to-date knowledge on housing and building construction technology and establish educational partnerships and channels with technical institutions and colleges in the United States. This is in support of the U.N. program’s goal to rehabilitate and modernize Iraq’s technical and vocational education and training sector by reorienting and improving the existing system, thereby helping prepare young Iraqis in joining the country’s workforce.