The Innovation Lab on St. Petersburg College‘s 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, the Punjab and Sindh Energy Departments, the Green Building Council and other Pakistani energy organizations.
The group had an informative virtual meeting with Peter Keller, Managing Director at Berkeley Research Group, where they had a wide-ranging conversation on waste to energy projects, state-of-the-art technology, and sustainable energy. Keller has advised key utility clients as the industry went through major deregulation and began to confront the challenges of climate change and the need to decarbonize. Visitors were given a tour of the Innovation Lab on the SPC Seminole Campus after the virtual meeting.
Other projects
As Librarian and Manager of the Innovation Lab, I have partnered with World Partnerships for a few years. Back in November 2019, I 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, I moderated an e-sports/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, hosted by The U.S. Department of State, Cultural Vistas, World Partnerships, and Games for Change.
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.