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Management Development
Initiative (MDI) -
An Information Technology (IT) Project
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Year: 2002-2005
Grant #: USAID Grant GS-10F-0311K
Grant Amount: $1,408,562
Location: Egypt
URL: http://www.ag.vt.edu/ail/
Virginia Tech has partnered with Planning and Learning Technologies, Inc. (PaL-Tech) and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) to win a United States Agency for International Development (USAID) project to help build a technology university in Egypt. The project, Management Development Initiative (MDI) Phase 2, supports the development of a private, not-for-profit university to be called Nile University. The university is being built on a 300-acre site in a rapidly expanding desert suburb of Cairo known as 6 October City. The primary goal of the project is to seek to enhance education for Egyptian companies. Although Egypt has a strong base of engineering and science graduates, observers agree that the schooling these students receive is too theoretical. Moreover, courses are conducted in Arabic, not English, which means that many of the resources of the e-commerce and Internet age are beyond the reach of these students. The challenge for the project is to establish a model for the reeducation of the rich pool of human resources quickly and provide a practical orientation in management and engineering skills to form the base for a modern IT-oriented workforce.
The new concept university will be devoted exclusively to information technology and will focus on professional development and graduate studies. The university will be staffed with a combination of national and international faculty in order to establish solid ties with sources of information knowledgeable about international trends and resources. The highly competitive market for skilled IT professionals makes alternative schemes for faculty recruitment, retention, and human resource management key areas for research and planning.
Virginia Tech, as a major subcontractor on the PaL-Tech/PwC Team, is providing the core technical assistance in working with the university to design the program for graduate and professional education and to prioritize the core technical areas for curriculum development and faculty recruitment. Four priority subject areas have been identified as starting points for the project: Computer Engineering, Communication Engineering, Information Technology, and Technology/Information Management. Virginia Tech is also providing the expertise to draw up the specifications and plan for the procurement of the necessary equipment, software, connectivity, and other resources needed to set up the university and its community linkage activities.
Virginia Tech's involvement in the project is the fruit of a collaboration between two university units: the Virginia Tech International Institute for Information Technology (VTIIIT) and the Office of International Research and Development (OIRD). Representatives from both units visited Egypt in 2001, laying the groundwork for this project. Project implementation takes advantage of the strengths of both units: OIRD is managing the $1.4 million project subcontract while drawing on the vast technical expertise available to VTIIIT.
"The leadership of Leonard Ferrari (Vice Provost for Special Initiatives and Director of VTIIIT) has been crucial in garnering this project for Virginia Tech", said S. K. De Datta, Director of OIRD. "OIRD is always looking for ways to tap faculty talent throughout the university to promote international research, teaching, and service. Dr. Ferrari immediately saw the potential for combining forces. The IT area is a major growth area for donor-funded projects, and this cross-campus partnership puts us in a strong competitive position to further university goals towards world class and Top-30 Research status in the future."
As a subcontractor on MDI Phase 2, Virginia Tech is in an excellent position to establish a long term relationship with Nile University for programs like faculty exchange, joint degree offerings, and provision of professional short courses. In the future, as other technology universities are established, similar relationships may also be developed. It is anticipated that the academic program of Nile University will eventually be expanded to include undergraduate curricula. The initial post-graduate and professional levels program will be designed to accommodate this subsequent expansion of the program.
The technical assistance provided by Virginia Tech is led by Dr. Sedki Riad, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Director of the Time Domain & RF Measurement Laboratory at Virginia Tech. "Dr. Riad is another major reason PaL-Tech approached Virginia Tech to form this university/private sector partnership," according to Dr. De Datta. "He has more than 35 years of experience, is internationally known for his contributions to communication and information technology, and has lectured and conducted research in IT applications throughout Egypt and the Middle East."
Dr. Riad serves as resident Senior Technical Advisor to the university and the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology for three and one-half years of the four year project. Dr. Riad is supported by additional short-term technical assistance provided through VTIIIT.
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