Educational institutions in the United States and India are joining forces to develop a specialized curriculum. Samantha Power, Administrator for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), announced this initiative during her address at the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure's (CDRI) Governing Council meeting on Monday.
"We are going to be working with universities like Virginia Tech and the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) to create a curriculum on infrastructure resilience, offer certification courses for infrastructure management, and support research focused on infrastructure resilience," stated Samantha.
The endeavor follows a USD 5 million commitment made by Power last year to establish partnerships between American and Indian institutions of higher education.
During the meeting, Power also passed the co-chairmanship of the Governing Council and Executive Committee to France, represented by Ambassador Aurelian Lechevallier, signifying a global partnership in addressing infrastructure resilience.
Power emphasized the long-term impact of investments in education, fellowship programs, scholarships, and certifications, noting their potential to shape generations to come.
Illustrating the tangible outcomes of such programs, Power cited examples of groundbreaking innovations developed by CDRI fellows.
In Australia and Sri Lanka, fellows engineered a revolutionary fiber optic sensor system capable of detecting water pressures and ground movements in real-time, providing vital early warnings for potential disasters like landslides.
In India, CDRI fellows are leveraging satellite data and crowd-sourced information on flooding patterns to enhance flood prediction models, enabling communities to receive early warnings and mitigate risks effectively.
"We need to see more of this innovation around the world, and we need to see these solutions spread to more places," Samantha said.
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