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U EXPANDS PARTNERSHIPS IN PAKISTAN

Sending students on learning abroad experiences, hosting international students and fostering trans-national research partnerships are among the most familiar ways that the U plays an active part on the global stage. What many may not realize is that some of our faculty also play a key role in the development of academic institutions themselves. Indeed, U faculty expertise in the nuts and bolts of academia—from curriculum development and tenure and promotion to research practices and grant proposals—helps to bolster education systems far beyond Utah.

Recently, the University of Utah Office for Global Engagement signed a new memorandum of understanding to help guide the development of nine new degree programs at Swat University of Engineering and Technology (Swat UET) in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. Within three years, this new partnership aims to graduate 15 scholars in a new Swat UET doctoral program.

“Our involvement in Pakistan is not new, it’s expanding,” said Aslam Chaudhry, professor of economics. “The partnership is an extension of work in the region that began six years ago with the U.S.-Pakistan Center for Advanced Studies in Water (USPCASW).”

In 2014, the U was awarded a $10 million grant, part of a $127 million USAID program, that was instrumental in the development of the USPCASW at Mehran University for Engineering and Technology in Sindh, Pakistan. The success of USPCASW, including the U faculty’s approach to capacity building, has made the U a sought-after partner by the Higher Education Institutions of Pakistan.

Through the new agreement the U will also provide technical support in the organization of curriculum, development of applied research centers, stakeholder events and outreach, capacity building workshops, online seminars and diploma courses at the Swat UET campus. A U team will advise on governance and monitoring protocols to ensure lasting success.

“We are grateful for the trust and confidence Pakistani higher education administrators, faculty and students had shown in our approach to satisfy their capacity development needs,” said Dan Reed, senior vice president, Academic Affairs. “We, at the University of Utah, have been very pleased to be part of Swat UET’s journey to professional growth and academic excellence.”

U faculty will also help strengthen Swat UET’s new “International Linkages Office,” which aims to connect other universities of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province to U.S. universities and international partners. Doing so will create study and research opportunities for Pakistani students and faculty and will increase prospects for the region’s institutions to compete on the global research stage.

To advance the implementation of these targets, several U faculty members will visit Pakistan twice a year once public health guidance permits.

“Each year that we worked on USPCASW, mutual trust was expanded into long-lasting and sustainable partnerships,” said Steve Burian, professor, Civil Engineering at the U and project lead. “These institutions know that we have a team that is invested and willing to travel–to really be ‘on the ground’ in order to create lasting collaborations.”

This reputation has paved the way for institutional partnerships with Pakistan’s Higher Education Commission, the National University of Technology in Islamabad, Habib University in Karachi. In fact, the Higher Education Commission in Pakistan is currently chaired by former U Economics Professor Tariq Banuri. Faculty research partnerships have also been established with public services and private industries in the Sindh, Punjab, Gilgit and Balochistan regions. The new agreement with Swat UET will further these efforts.

Global Engagement in the Time of COVID

Dr. Steve Burian Helps Train Pakistan’s Next Professors

In the last days of February, Covid-19 still seemed a far-away threat to most in Utah, but
Dr. Steve Burian was watching closely as international airports began issuing travel restrictions. He had recently returned home from meeting with research partners in Pakistan and was days away from a trip to Egypt to further a Water-Energy-Food nexus project with a group of Fulbright grant recipients.

Burian, a civil engineering professor at the U, is also director of the U Water Center. He’s spent years nurturing global partnerships that advance water security initiatives and inform his teaching. Burian is also passionate about faculty development and was looking forward to delivering an ambitious summer training with the Higher Education Commission (HEC) in Pakistan aimed at preparing newly minted Ph.D.s for the life of a professor.

Like everyone, adapting to the realities of a pandemic would require Burian to pivot.

As travel restrictions made it clear he would not be going to Egypt, Pakistan, or anywhere else for that matter, Burian quickly got to work setting up his home office to support the virtual transition of coursework, advising, research, and facilitation of workshops a world away.

In many ways, Burian was well-equipped to handle the distance learning and collaboration that became ubiquitous when the Covid crisis response was activated. For the past five years, Burian has overseen the Utah-arm of the USAID-funded U.S.-Pakistan Center for Advanced Studies in Water. When daylight dawns in Mountain Standard Time, he’s usually on campus for meetings and classes and, as night settles in the Salt Lake Valley, Burian logs on to video calls with colleagues just waking up in Pakistan. Sustaining such global partnerships requires creativity and communication, even in the best of times. Colleagues must carefully consider time zones, get comfortable with odd-hour meetings, and deftly maneuver digital tools and sometimes-spotty internet.

“It’s definitely time-consuming and a constant balance,” he notes. “But I love the opportunity to interact with people like this. It’s always interesting to me. This type of work builds connections and opportunities that feed back into the U–I see international activity as part of my job and in line with the U’s mission to create global impact.”

This summer Burian has followed through on that commitment and found a way to make good on the HEC professor training in Pakistan he had planned—in spite of the pandemic. “It was, of course, designed to be delivered in-person. Everything was organized and ready to go,” said Burian. Initially, the four instructors involved discussed transitioning the curriculum to an asynchronous course. “But in the end, we just knew it really had to be live,” said Burian.

The team—based in Canada, Pakistan, and the United Kingdom—decided to take turns leading the live virtual seminars and meticulously set up a trove of interactive shared documents and presentations. Together, they’ve guided over 150 doctorate recipients for 10-hours a day, 6 days a week, in teaching and research best practices, writing funding proposals, leveling-up their English proficiency, and managing the varied demands of professorship.

The hours are long and late–Burian admits he currently sleeps between one and six a.m.—but building the professional strengths of Pakistan’s next generation of professors is personally rewarding and gives back to his work at the U.

“We’ve worked through so many aspects of online instruction through this course. It’s definitely benefitting me, and I look forward to helping my colleagues by sharing what we’ve learned,” Burian said.

He recalled participating in an American Society of Civil Engineers Teacher Training Workshop earlier in his career, being selected as a mentor, and subsequently falling in love with faculty development. “I thought ‘well, this is pretty fun’ and I realized how much it was helping me as a teacher and research professional,” said Burian. Thus, in spite of the odd hours, virtual gymnastics, and other hurdles the pandemic has tossed, he perseveres in passing the proverbial torch.

“I, too, get better every day by participating in work like this,” Burian said.

U Water Center Completes USAID Partnership to Establish Research Center in Pakistan

The U Water Center recently completed its five-year USAID-funded strategic partnership between the University of Utah and Mehran University of Engineering and Technology (MUET)—a collaboration aimed at forging solutions to water challenges that inhibit education, health, and stability in Pakistan.

In the five years since it was founded, the U.S.-Pakistan Center for Advanced Studies in Water has drawn together a community of higher education, government, business and local groups working together to create more sustainable development policy through water research.

The project will now transition to a “sustainability phase” aimed at placing MUET as the lead on the Center’s next chapter as a nationally recognized research center in Pakistan. U researchers will continue to individually partner and advise as collaborators on ongoing research and development projects.

Steve Burian, USPCASW project director and U professor of Civil Engineering said of the U’s ongoing commitment to this work: “In December of 2014, I traveled to Pakistan for the first time with my colleague, Dr. Tariq Banuri. During this trip, we cemented in our minds and the minds of our partners, Project Director Dr. Bakhshal Lashari and his team at MUET, that this effort was to be a lifetime commitment. Together with Dr. Aslam Chaudhry, we established the mentality of approaching activities and engagement as a sustained program. This mindset from the start was embraced by the original team and all those that were involved during the project. All were committed to the importance and urgency of the cause.”

Below is a snapshot of what the team has accomplished during the last five formative years of the Center.

FinalReport_Research_One-sheet_043020

Three USPCASW Exchange Scholars Moved By Mentorship To Pursue Further Study At The U

May 20, 2019 | The U Water Center

“I always had it in my mind that I would come back,” said Danyal Aziz. In 2016 Aziz was among the first 18 students to participate in a U.S.-Pakistan Center for Advanced Studies in Water Exchange. Since its launch, the program has welcomed 131 visiting scholars, both faculty and students, to advance their water research at the University of Utah and Colorado State University. In 2017, Aziz finished his Master’s degree at USPCASW partner Mehran University of Engineering and Technology and, after working for a year at the Global Change Impact Studies Center in Pakistan, he made good on the intention set years before and returned to the U as a Ph.D. student in Civil Engineering last fall.

When asked why he had set his sights on further study in Utah, Aziz points to the transformative experience and the mentorship he received during his time on Exchange. “The research environment was totally different. The faculty were always encouraging people and lifting people up.” During his appointment as a visiting scholar, Aziz said he gained access to resources that supported his inquiry, faculty involvement that kept him challenged and writing instruction that helped focus and formulate his research methodology. He thanks his mentor, Dr. Tariq Banuri, former U Economics professor and now the head of Pakistan’s Higher Education Commission. “His guidance and feedback on my thesis helped me to refine scientific communication skills. Most of my thesis was developed during that Exchange,” noted Aziz.

Another USPCASW alum, Daniyal Hassan, echoes Aziz’s enthusiasm for the Exchange experience and notes faculty support as the key factor in his decision to pursue a doctorate. “It was always my dream to get a Ph.D. at a reputable University,” he said, but after graduate school, he felt torn about chasing a “formal job” or continuing his studies. “Dr. Steve Burian (Hassan’s mentor and USPCASW project director) advised me to follow my ultimate goal,” he said. With that encouragement, Hassan began submitting applications to his list of dream schools. He was accepted to most of his selections but calls his decision to continue his studies at the U “destiny. It’s my second home.”

Hassan is now hard at work on a NASA-funded project using remote sensing analysis of rainfall to inform drought management practices, while Aziz is focused on the sustainability of urban water systems amid future uncertainties of population and economic growth and climate change, including the supply/waste systems in his current home of Salt Lake City. Aziz and Hassan are both also modeling Pakistan’s Indus Basin water-energy-food nexus under the direction of Dr. Burian.

The two scholars bring the total number of USPCASW grads studying in the U.S. to five, three of whom have decided to continue their studies at the University of Utah.

The first student to blaze a trail back to Utah was Hammad Malik, a Ph.D. student in metallurgical engineering. Malik was mentored during his 2016 Exchange by Dr. Krista Carlson. Earlier this year, he brought the USPCASW experience full circle when he visited Pakistan, this time on a training mission to test the nanostructured water-purifying prototypes he has been developing with Carlson.

Mentorship plays a key role in USPCASW programming. From student-faculty pairings to peer-to-peer faculty partnerships, formal mentorships offer growth opportunities, establish best practices and open doors for future collaborations. Burian stresses “building strong relationships was the foundation of the USPCASW project from the very start. We continue to emphasize this as a key outcome of the exchange program, mission training, joint research projects, and all USPCASW activities.”

Now well into his doctoral study, Malik is continuing the USPCASW tradition of building relationships. He has grown into a mentorship role of his own and now trains incoming batches of Exchange scholars who have a similar academic focus. “I like to help because I know what situation they are in.” He hopes to impart upon each visiting scholar the importance of taking advantage of every opportunity available at the U. “I am fortunate to be here studying and taking courses that interest me. There are so many subjects. So many collaborations. You can’t do that easily in Pakistan.” He motions to his lab behind him–the Crus Center– and mentions his work in the Utah Nanofab Clean Room. Words fail for a moment as he tries to explain what his time at the U means to him. “There is so much here that we can do,” marvels Malik. “It’s been a great journey.”

University of Utah grad student uses spaceborne radar to study Pakistan’s glaciers

The Water Center | March 5, 2018

The glaciers tucked high in the rugged Karakoram Range play an integral role in the life of Pakistan and the whole of the Indus Basin. In a region known for sparse rainfall and an almost complete dependence on irrigated agriculture, the waters of the Indus River are a lifeblood—and the mother of the Indus is the glacial meltwaters of the Karakoram.

University of Utah PhD student Jewell Lund has dedicated herself to studying the changing dynamics of Pakistan’s glaciers. Jewell’s research is using spaceborne radar and satellite imagery to track changes in glacial patterns. “Glaciers are great recorders of climate,” she observes. “And we didn’t have consistent data for much of the region until quite recently.”

There are broad implications for the data Jewell is collecting. Pakistan is not only dependent on the Indus for agriculture, by far the largest driver of its economy, but also on hydropower to fuel industrial development. Any change in glacial runoff will cascade through every aspect of Pakistan’s economy, and could trigger increased tensions with India over water allocation and the implementation of the Indus River Treaty.

The Karakoram is also a bit of an anomaly for glaciologists in there is no one-size-fits-all answer to how its glaciers are responding to a changing climate. Jewell talks about what is known as the “Karakoram anomaly,” wherein some areas of the range’s glaciers are receding, and in others they are actually growing. Jewell notes the unique climate dynamics that are at play in the region. “You have the effects of the Indian monsoon, currents coming off the Arabian peninsula, and the mountains make their own local weather. The Karakoram is at the nexus of one of the largest atmospheric circulation system on the planet.”

When asked how she became interested in the study of glaciers, Jewell talks about a passion for alpine climbing. “Through mountain climbing I came to understand how dynamic, powerful, and fragile the world’s snow and ice are.” She also speaks of the important role glaciers play in the earth’s hydrosphere. “Glaciers are the earth’s largest reservoirs of fresh water, and a scarcity of fresh water is not just a challenge for Pakistan, but for societies around the world, including the Intermountain West.” Jewell hopes that some of the lessons being learned through studying Pakistan’s glaciers can be applied to help solve real world problems. “If the work I am doing can help our society learn and develop new tools to increase our resilience, well, that is hugely motivating for me.”

Engineering Solutions to Africa’s Water Crisis

The Water Center

“I have the best job in the world,” says Dr. Scott Benson as he begins to describe his journey from being an environmental engineer, to a medical doctor, to working on the front lines of public health in the developing world. “My work allows me to deal with the whole spectrum of human health. As a doctor, I can treat the patient. As an engineer, I can examine and reorganize the systems so that people don’t get sick in the first place.” Dr. Benson learned this approach to dealing with public health through working on the ground in the Dominican Republic, Peru, India, Pakistan, and most extensively in Ghana. He now serves as an Assistant Professor at the University of Utah’s School of Medicine specializing in infectious disease.

Dr. Benson’s experience has taught him that solutions to public health issues in the developing world are often surprisingly simple. It is often a matter of tracing the root cause of the illness, and the most crucial systems to study in disease prevention are those dealing with water delivery and sanitation. Most infants and children in the developing world die from waterborne pathogens that could be prevented through better sanitation. Studies by the United Nations and the World Bank identify water-related diseases as one of the world’s most pressing—and preventable—public heath crises.

“Many diseases around the world could be prevented through the design and implementation of better systems,” explains Dr. Benson. “The lens of an engineer is a different perspective on disease. The doctor looks to cure the patient; an engineer looks to find ways to redesign systems so that communities aren’t exposed to the elements that are making them sick in the first place.” This approach to public health requires a high level of local community involvement and trust. Dr. Benson views this community engagement as the key to success in any international development program. “Communities need to be involved, to understand the benefits of clean water and sanitation, to have a voice.”

Dr. Benson uses a project in the African village of Barekuma as an example of gaining successful community buy-in. A group of international donors were interested in helping the rural Ghanan community gain access to clean drinking water. Before moving forward, he and his team sat down with local leaders to listen to the concerns of the community. From the local tribe’s perspective, clean drinking water was of secondary concern compared to a massive outbreak of schistosomiasis. Schistosomiasis is a waterborne parasite that infects over 250 million people around the world, leading to tens of thousands of deaths each year. Seventy percent of the children in Barekuma were infected with the parasite.

The team recast its attention to identifying the root cause of the outbreak: the standing water the children were playing in, and the lack of adequate sanitary facilities at the local school. Engineering a solution to the outbreak became the priority. By adding an eight seat sanitary toilet to the school, and with the help of local villagers, filling in the areas of standing water with gravel, the infection rate amongst the village children dropped for 70% to under 10%. The results of the project were tangible, and encouraged village leaders to take on further water and sanitation projects. “It is important for international development programs to work,” says Dr. Benson, “to deliver.” One key lesson he took away from the experience in Barekuma was the importance of listening to the local community. “My job starts at the community level, and then works from there towards building effective infrastructure that helps solve real community problems.”

It is important for international development programs to listen to local communities, according to Dr. Benson. “A top-down approach to water and sanitation issues isn’t the most effective. The best development programs are working to train local communities to solve their own problems.” If a community understands the benefits of water and sanitation projects, they will work to sustain them. “People just need to know what to do. We have the technology, the know-how, to solve many of the world’s water scarcity and sanitation problems. But it will require a sustain effort.” The key, according to Dr. Benson, is empowering local communities, and building up the capacity of individuals and institutions to meet their own needs and resolve their own problems over the long haul.

Technology and Venture Commercialization in Pakistan

Universities are generally tasked with the organization, creation and transfer of knowledge.  The most effective Universities transfer this knowledge in three ways: 1. To students 2. Publications, conferences, literature, books, etc… AND 3. To society to make an impact.  Transitioning the knowledge created and organized in a University setting to society represents a vital function of Universities and one primary mechanism of doing so resides in what is referred to as Technology Transfer – at the University of Utah it is called Technology and Venture Commercialization (TVC).  The University Utah has developed a functioning and productive TVC and it was my goal to go to Pakistan to help Universities in that great country determine how best to set up their own TVC.

During my four days in Pakistan I had the pleasure of meeting with various academic, government and business leaders from different organizations across Pakistan and was pleased to make new friends and engage in many productive discussions on innovation, entrepreneurship and their intersection with University research.  Specifically, I met with administrators and faculty members from Mehran University of Engineering and Technology (MUET), University of Karachi, Institute of Business Administration – Karachi (where I was given a review of IBA’s marvelous entrepreneurial programs and a tour of their business accelerator), University of Karachi, ISRA University, Dawood University of Engineering and Technology, SMI University, Riphah International University and the Sukkur Institute of Business Administration.  I was also pleased to meet with various government leaders from the Pakistan Higher Education Commission, The Pakistan Science Foundation and the Australian Government Trade Commission in addition to the Vice President of the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry.

After my meetings, I have a much better feel for the status of innovation and entrepreneurship on the campuses of various Universities in Pakistan and specifically at MUET.  Overall, I feel the faculty at Universities in Pakistan, specifically MUET, are among the brightest of those I have ever met and have great capacity to innovate in their respective fields.  There is great potential to transfer the innovations developed by these great faculty at Universities in Pakistan and I propose Universities in Pakistan start the process with the following:

  1. Every University needs to develop and implement an Intellectual Property (IP) Policy that specifically delineates who owns and manages IP developed at the University and how are any revenues split with the inventors.
  2. Encourage faculty to invent and disclose such inventions to the Offices of Research, Innovation & Commercialization (ORIC).  To start this process, ORIC’s need to develop and distribute a form for faculty to disclose their inventions to ORIC as well as train faculty on innovation and entpreneurship.
  3. The University ORIC’s need to establish a process for initially evaluating all disclosures coming from faculty.

The path to developing a successful and productive TVC is long and not easy but will be rewarding and has great potential to be a powerful engine of economic growth in Pakistan.

U.S.-Pakistan Centers for Advanced Studies in Water

Making Strides: The first year of the The U of U, USAID Pakistan Water Center

In December 2014, The University of Utah, in partnership with the United States Agency for International Development [USAID], announced a $10 million, five-year project to bring a Partner Center for Advanced Studies in Water [PCASW] to Pakistan.

Since the announcement of the project, significant progress has been made in the development of the program’s curriculum and course structure for the educational aspect of the center that will be partnered with Mehran University of Engineering and Technology [MUET] in Pakistan.

Ramesh Goel is an Associate Professor and Graduate Director for the University of Utah’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. His work at the University of Utah focuses on three specific areas, nutrient and wastewater recovery-based treatment, surface water quality, and microbiology.

“During year one [of the PCASW project] I am helping to develop environmental engineering courses and the curriculum at MUET,” Goel said. “We’ve worked extensively to choose what courses and topics that should be included, and selected what core courses should be developed across the disciplines such as health, water resources, and environmental engineering.”

A team of faculty from the University of Utah visited Pakistan in June 2015, to conduct a teaching workshop. While there, they were able to discuss the planned curriculum and the layout for credit hour requirements for the offered programs.

“The courses I’m helping with will primarily focus on water, wastewater treatment, ecology, and microbiology courses,” Goel said. At its core, Goel’s work meets on the intersection of environmental engineering and environmental biology, helping to create a curriculum that focuses on practical, sustainable water treatment for the region.

“Waste water is normally regarded as just waste, but it is also a resource. The goal is to see how to make waste water treatment energy neutral, and how to recover important resources from it,” Goel said. “I come from the region, so I know a lot of the problems that exist there, as well as the cultural values, and what environmental sustainability is needed there. The water issues we addressed in the 70s and 80s here in the United States are what they are facing in Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh now.”

While more than 40% of the surface water in the United States remains contaminated, the country has made significant strides in water treatment since the Clean Water Act of 1977. The goal of the PCASW is to help Pakistan and the surrounding region make similar improvements in the coming years.

Goel explained that much wastewater can contain valuable resources that can potentially be recovered during the treatment process and put to good use in other areas such as being processed into fertilizer. With research history into ecological water environments such as Utah Lake, the Great Salt Lake wetlands, and the Jordan River, Goel hopes that his work will prove useful in addressing the issues currently prevalent in Pakistan’s water supply.

“In areas such as Pakistan the surface water contaminants are more prominent because of issues such as industrialization and urbanization,” Goel said. “This causes river pollution and surface water pollution, and they need to be able to look into those issues more closely.”

One of the most important aspects Goel hopes to tackle with the curriculum development at MUET in Pakistan is the idea of simple, sustainable treatment systems. While the United States has made advanced leaps in water treatment in recent history, his goal is to put in place the basic foundational treatment systems that will allow for further research and growth in the future rather than trying to recreate more advanced treatment systems currently in use in the U.S.

“We can not go into this with fancy ideas and nanotechnology. My research addresses fundamental forms of wastewater treatment,” Goel said. “Just looking at the microbiological quality of their drinking water, or creating cost-effective, energy-efficient treatment systems; these aspects of my research integrate very well with what is needed there in Pakistan.”

The ultimate goal of the PCASW project is to create a self-sustainable research center in Pakistan. With this in mind, a number of courses across the disciplines there will focus on sustainability efforts to help maintain the center and its research even after the 5 year USAID funding is over.

With sustainability being such a broad concept that requires a significant, multifaceted effort to maintain, Goel believes that the best way to start is through simple inspection and working at the most basic level from the ground up.

“We really need to look at the existing state of the infrastructure there before we can decide how to go about making it sustainable,” Goel said. “We must observe where the current system stands in regards to water, health, and freshwater availability.  Only then can we address the issue of sustainability by addressing things like pollution, water treatment, and public awareness.”

In addition to the aid and development Goel hopes to bring to Pakistan through the PCASW project, he believes there is the potential for significant academic impact back at the University of Utah as well. Not only will the development of new environmental engineering and sustainability curriculum be beneficial to the faculty involved, but the research opportunities presented by the region are also highly beneficial.

“Exchange programs such as this allow for research opportunities you don’t normally get,” Goel said. “Access to areas like this with many polluted rivers can act as model environmental systems that can be used for additional study and research.”

Ultimately, Goel said the final objective for the entire University of Utah team involved in the PCASW center is to develop a team of sustainability-minded engineering students and faculty that can help propel Pakistan into becoming a shining beacon of water research and sustainability for the entire region.

“The overarching goal is to convey the knowledge that we have here to help create a robust environmental engineering program there,” Goel said. “We want to prepare engineers who are not only engineers but ambassadors and global thinkers. We want them to not only be able to solve local problems but be able to address global issues as well.”

http://water.utah.edu/

University of Utah to Engage in USAID-Funded Partnership for Pakistani Water Center

When it comes to international scientific research and humanitarian effort, few organizations carry as much clout as the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). In December, 2014, the University of Utah announced a significant partnership with USAID-funded Partner Center for Advanced Studies in Water [PCASW] in Pakistan.

The USAID project is a 10 million dollar undertaking, with 2 million dollars in funding allocated for the center every year over the course of five years. The project involves more than fifteen faculty members just from the University of Utah, and will support a number of students and administrative staff for the center.

USAID, through funding by the American public, will be setting up three separate centers in Pakistan that will cover food security, water and energy. In order to help each of these centers develop strong education and research programs, USAID designated institutions in the United States to partner with the Pakistan locations. The University of Utah was selected as the U.S. center that will aid the water center at the Mehran University of Engineering and Technology [MUET].

The University of Utah will be working with partner institutions for the project including Colorado State University, City University of New York, The University of Nevada, Las Vegas, the Stockholm Environment Institute, and UNESCO.

The University of Utah side of the project is being led by Steve Burian and Tariq Banuri. Burian who is an Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering as well as Associate Director of the Global Change and Sustainability Center [GCSC] at the university, has worked on a number of USAID-funded projects in the past including a proposed project in India that is still under consideration.

Burian and Banuri teamed when they found out that USAID was taking applications for the Pakistan Center for Advanced Studies on Water. Burian has experience working on water projects including international research through the Global Change and Sustainability Center, and believed that the University of Utah was the perfect fit for the USAID project.

“Tariq and I got together and decided to pursue the opportunity because we thought it was a great fit,” Burian said. “We got together a team that spans partners from across the country from different universities as well as international partners from the Stockholm Environment Institute and UNESCO among others, as well as more than a dozen experts from across campus.”

With the University of Utah successfully confirmed as the partnering university of the PCASW project, efforts have been under way to nail down the specifics of the project moving forward, with the overall objective being the successful set up of a self-reliant, fully operational water center in Pakistan.

“The goal of the project is to advance the water education and research programs in Pakistan with our focus being to help MUET become an international leader in water education and research,” Burian said.

The University of Utah will be focusing on four key graduate programs with MUET: water and sanitation, hydraulics and irrigation, integrated water resources and management, and environmental engineering.

“We will be helping MUET to develop research programs that fit within these themed areas that will integrate with the curriculum,” Burian said. “This will help them to train graduate students with a research program integrated that will help them to get a better education.”

One of the other areas in which the project will be focused will be gender equity. Says Burian “It’s an international problem trying to get women into engineering, and we do a lot of work to try and improve that here at the University of Utah. So we will be taking some of our ideas and programs and working with the Women’s Resource Center and the Society of Women Engineers here on campus in conjunction with Pakistan’s programs to implement similar programs.”

Banuri is especially interested in working with local entities to help bring about gender equality within the engineering program while still tailoring it to cultural practices.

“Tariq Banuri is very well connected, with a great international network in Pakistan, so he is working to create a relationship with different groups that can help us,” Burian said. “In the U.S. we have a number of national women’s groups, but over there they are much more focused, much more strategic in what they do.”

The additional two aspects of the partnership with the University of Utah will be center sustainability and university exchanges.

The exchange program will consist of experts coming from Pakistan to the University of Utah and its partnering Universities to take non-traditional courses on water research within specific fields.

Ramesh Goel, Associate Professor and Graduate Director of the Civil and Environmental Engineering program at the University of Utah, will be one of the faculty contributing to the project. His expertise will be applied to working with waste matter treatment, nutrient recovery and water quality.

According to Goel the opportunity for hands-on research through the exchange aspect of the PCASW program will be one of the key aspects to creating a successful graduate program at MUET.

“With the students from Pakistan visiting, there will be a great training component, because with not only students, but faculty members coming here, and with us going over there to train faculty members, the idea is to make the infrastructure sustainable there so they can conduct independent research in the future,” Goel said. “Environmental pollution, water scarcity and water pollution are not just local issues, they are global issues. So this center will help students to become global leaders in their field.”

“If the University of Utah is to become an international organization, we must become global leaders by engaging ourselves in global issues,” Goel said. “I think that’s where international engagement such as this is a necessity.”

Exchanges will likely focus on two areas, one providing the opportunity to help develop the graduate programs at MUET, but also the opportunity to provide courses that can improve faculty teaching techniques.

“They have a lot of interest in teaching, and we have a strength in the effectiveness of our engineering education,” Burian said. “We had a program that we just started called ‘The Wasatch Experience’ which myself, Tariq, Dan McCool and others on campus helped to put together. This program helps the teachers here to get better at teaching sustainability within their individual programs. So we plan to do something similar for the professors at MUET and other institutions of higher learning in Pakistan.”

The exchange portion of the program mandates that at least 50 exchanges take place over the course of the project; however, Burian believes the number of exchanges that will actually take place will likely exceed that mandate.

Some of the problems Pakistan is dealing with right now regarding their water supply are surface water contamination, lack of sanitary engineering, and the lack of a proper sewage system. These are the issues U.S. populations were facing as little as 30 years ago. Much of the progress that has been made here in the U.S. since the Clean Water Acts of 1978 will not only be similar to the progress that is hoped to be made in Pakistan, but critically for educational purposes, it will be observable.

“The beauty of what we can learn from Pakistanis that they don’t have the systems that exist in our part of the world,” Ramesh Goel said. “It will be an excellent opportunity to use what we learn there for model purposes for education. So instead of simply telling a student from one of my classes what we did in 1970s, I can instead show them that same process in action that took place slowly here in the United States.”

Goel said that much of what we can learn here in the U.S. from this venture will be about water conservation. Many countries, including Pakistan have much more limited water supplies than we do here. So while the U.S. may be decades ahead of them in terms of water treatment and sanitation, we are more lacking in terms of conservation.

“Often, here in the United States we tend to waste a lot of water, however in South Asia they often don’t waste as much, which is something we can learn from and integrate into our own society,” Goel said. “Water treatment is not always the solution. If we learned to conserve water waste and use, then we would have a lot less waste water to treat, but to do that we need to learn those lessons from societies in Asia like Pakistan. So those are the lessons I think we can bring back home.”

“Our goal is to affect change with several things for the better for Pakistan’s water education programs,” Burian said. “We want to help them have a broader water and engineering program that relies on much more practical and relevant education research.”

What this will mean for the PCASW program is that there will be a very heavy emphasis on hands-on research.

Says Burian. “We want to help the Pakistanis make partnerships with communities and other research entities to address problems relevant to Pakistan. We want them to become a problem solving entity there. Our hope is that in five years MUET is looked upon as the place people go to when they have a problem, knowing MUET has the capacity to aid them. We’re very excited to not only help Pakistan do this, but also to create our own energy and momentum in water research. We hope to create an entity that not only helps us individually, but also becomes a hub for others at the university to come and work in water. This whole concept of working together within global engagement is very exciting in what we hope will be a big impact.”

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