A Program of US and African Collaborative Research and Education for Sustainable Energy Systems

 Researchers and educators in engineering and sciences face a serious “man” power shortage that must be addressed if the US is to continue to be a leader in technology. This shortage is particularly acute within several fields concerned with critical infrastructures, such as, energy and electric power systems. Part of the shortage stems from the generally low number of domestic students entering the more technical fields but also represents a failure to attract women and under-represented minorities to these areas. Often, prospective students do not see these fields as relevant to addressing societal concerns. There is also a shortage of trained faculty who could run programs in, for example, electric power even should enrollments be allowed to increase or research programs greatly expanded. At the same time, there are a large number of international students and researchers who could contribute to addressing the research problems of concern within the US. To the extent that many of these problems are global in nature, this international workforce of researchers and educators can provide a valuable resource. Indeed, there are already many isolated instances of international cooperation; however, these do not fully create the level of cooperation needed to make a significant impact. We have established a research center from the authors efforts over several years of collaboration with researchers around the world through conferences, workshops and short-term visits. In particular, initial endeavors have focused on collaboration with African researchers through a series of conferences on the African continent and more recently through research exchanges at U.S. universities. The objective in our on-going work is to engage in more substantial exchanges and to help develop a research and education infrastructure that can take advantage of a wealth of under-utilized knowledge and man-power in Africa as well as a region whose energy and information technology infrastructure can be used as a test bed. We believe the center can serve as a model of international cooperation in research and education. This paper describes the initial organization of our center and our plans for activities. Key Words Energy systems, international education, international research cooperation, up to 5, alphabetical order and, separated by commas.