The Innovation Lab at the Seminole Campus hosted another World Partnerships and United States Department of State’s International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) for their “U.S. Technology and Solutions for Waste-to-Energy Initiatives” project for Pakistan. There were visitors from the Sindh Environmental Protection Agency, Energy Departments (Punjab and Sindh), the Green Building Council, and other Pakistani energy organizations.
The group had an informative virtual meeting with Mr. Peter Keller, Managing Director at Berkeley Research Group, where a wide-ranging conversation on waste-to-energy projects, state-of-the-art technology, and sustainable energy was discussed. Mr. Keller has advised key utility clients as the industry went through significant deregulation and began to confront the challenges of climate change and the need to decarbonize. A tour of the Innovation Lab on the SPC Seminole Campus was conducted after the virtual meeting to exchange ideas on emerging technologies.
Chad Mairn, Librarian and Manager of the Innovation Lab, has partnered with World Partnerships for a few years. In November 2019, he met with eight scientists representing Vietnam, Estonia, Egypt, Zambia, South Africa, Paraguay, Malta, and Argentina to support the “Hidden No More: Empowering Women Leaders in STEM” project sponsored by the IVLP Division.
They continued to meet virtually over the years and, in fact, had plans to meet inside virtual reality, but there were difficulties getting equipment due to strict export controls. Regardless, they have had success using more traditional tools like Zoom to stay connected. This IVLP program is coming back later this year!
In 2021, Chad moderated an esports/gaming panel where twenty participants from Argentina, the Bahamas, Barbados, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guyana, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Uruguay, and Venezuela all logged in from across the Western Hemisphere to discuss “Video Games for STEAM and Entrepreneurship.”
The U.S. Department of State, Cultural Vistas, World Partnerships, and Games for Change hosted the webinar.
“World Partnerships has a worldwide mission for educational, cultural, commercial and professional exchange with current and emerging global leaders. U.S. Embassies and Consulates in more than 100 countries have screened the movie ‘Hidden Figures’ for international audiences, generating discussions on race, gender equality, and women in STEM careers. These successful screenings inspired the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) where women leaders who represented ‘hidden talent’ in their home countries visit the United States to explore U.S. efforts to prepare women and girls for careers in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM).”
