In November 2013, the leadership of IEEE visited stakeholders in several African countries to develop a better understanding of key opportunities to expand engineering capacity on the continent. The trip –the second of its kind in 2013— was intended help IEEE to refine and develop emerging efforts that are being pursued with the goal to strengthen, support and advance the engineering ecosystem in Africa.
The trip was led by 2013 IEEE President Peter W. Staecker and included visits in Kenya, Ghana and Tanzania. The other members of the delegation werel be Prof J. Roberto de Marca, President Elect; Prof. Michael Lightner, Director and Vice President Educational Activities; Matthew Loeb, Staff Executive; Eileen Lach, General Counsel; Tara Wisniewski, Director, Corporate Development.
During the trip, the delegation met with various private and public sector stakeholders including local section members, national ministries of education, science and technology, industry regulators, engineering academia, IBM Research – Africa, Samsung Engineering Academy, WHO Africa, UNDP, GeSCI and others