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Revived ‘Educate the Educators’ held in Texas

News | July 30, 2015 | By:

The revived Educate the Educators program hosted 43 visiting professors July 28–29 in Austin, Texas.
The revived Educate the Educators program hosted 43 visiting professors July 28–29 in Austin, Texas.

The Educate the Educators: Environmental Uses of Geosynthetics Training Program for University Professors concluded its two-day run yesterday at the University of Texas at Austin.

Supporting and sponsoring organizations helped in funding and conducting the new Educate the Educators sessions July 28–29 on the UT-Austin campus.

The revived Educate the Educators is a cooperative effort fostered by the International Geosynthetics Society (IGS), the North American IGS chapter (NAGS), the Geosynthetic Institute (GSI), the International Association of Geosynthetic Installers (IAGI), the Geosynthetic Materials Association (GMA), and other industry and academic organizations.

The original Educate the Educators programs were conducted from 1994–1998 under the direction of Prof. Dave Elton at Auburn University.

The program was re-launched with the recognition of a mutual industry/government/university need to increase the availability of instruction in the use of geosynthetics. This includes the need for more graduating engineers with an awareness and working knowledge of geosynthetic materials and their roles in groundwater protection, waste containment, the design and construction of safe disposal facilities, and the uses of geosynthetics in transportation and other infrastructure construction.

Principal speakers at the 2015 Educate the Educators (L–R): Barry Christopher, Christopher Consultants; Jorge Zornberg, University of Texas-Austin, and Richard Brachman, Queen’s University.
Principal speakers at the 2015 Educate the Educators (L–R): Barry Christopher, Christopher Consultants; Jorge Zornberg, University of Texas-Austin, and Richard Brachman, Queen’s University.

Boyd Ramsey from GSE, and the immediate past-chairman of GMA’s Executive Council, sent this July 30 message to supporting and sponsoring contributors:

“Yesterday we completed the Educate the Educators event in Austin, Texas. We hosted 43 visiting professors from North America and participants from Italy, Peru, China, Indonesia, and Egypt who will carry this program back to their respective countries and [we hope will] hold an event there. I have a sincere hope—and impressed upon the participants—that the goal of this program was to have the participating professors change the curriculum at their respective institutions and add geosynthetics instruction. We will, of course, do follow up and track our progress, but we have certainly supplied them the information and materials that they need to accomplish this.

“We did a very good job, but this could not have been accomplished without your support. Thank you for your efforts and assistance … we have done something to benefit our respective organizations, our industry, and the world and environment.”

Ron Bygness is the senior editor of Geosynthetics magazine.

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