IEPAL Experience in USA during 2002 as Result of International Cooperations
by Priscilla Elfrey, USA NCS
IEPAL-Intensive Education Program in Advanced Logistics--
is an international exchange project sponsored by the United States Department of Education and the European Union.
Its purpose is to help develop the next generation of internationally-minded simulation professionals.
The web site of IEPAL
http://st.itim.unige.it/iepal
(The site was updated last week and includes links to SGI, DRC, UCF and NCS)
The National Center for Simulation is a partner
and under a community grant sponsored by Enterprise Florida
enabled the University of Central Florida to participate.
Students from UCF have and will participate in the European stages this summer in Germany, France and Italy.
The project was initiated by Professor Agostino Bruzzone of the University of Genoa and is directed by Dr. Roberto Mosca, Director of DIP University of Genoa.
The IEPAL team writing the proposal and managing its activity also include, in addition to NCS, the University of Marseilles in France and Magdeberg University in Germany.
The American director is Professor Robert Signorile of Boston College in Massachusetts.
Also participating is Stevens Institute of Technology in New Jersey. The program builds on several years of exchange visits between NCS and the University of Genoa.
Since 1997, a student from Genoa has, each year interned with the NASA liaison, Priscilla Elfrey and she, UCF's Vincent Amico and Professor Mansooreh Mollaghasemi have visited and presented lectures sponsored by the Liophant Club at the University of Genoa and the Italian Summer School and NCS sponsored a presentation by Dr. Bruzzone.
For 6 weeks beginning September 9, The IEPAL-Orlando component provided IEPAL European students with an overview of simulation in Central Florida as well as focused academic and work experience. . Students attended a National Center for Simulation meeting and visited NCS member companies including Veridian, AEgis and Camber. Ten students from Germany, France and Italy took part in the academic stage; eight in the industrial stage. The students took special classes and engaged in independent study at UCF. They have worked in small teams with NCS member organizations, Dynamic Research Corporation and Silicon Graphics, doing research on next generation web and homeland defense. A third team is developing plans to expand a UCF program, the Internet Science and Technology Fair ( http://istf.ucf.edu/ ) to their home countries. A strong Review and Analysis component enables the program participants to recommend effective future international professional development activities. In March a second set of students will arrive in the US. They will attend classes at Boston College, again work in Orlando with NCS organizations and complete their experience at Stevens.
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