Enrhed Project Newsletter – September 2022
Dear all,
the summer period that is drawing to a close has been eventful for the EnRHEd participants, who worked harder than ever to organize two major international events that proved to be a real success.
In brief, the saying ‘he who hesitates is lost’ is very true, and the EnRHEd team never stops!
One-week Summer School on “Landslides and slope stability analysis in Rwanda” at IPRC-Musanze
Between July 11 and July 16, 2022, an EnRHEd delegation composed by some professors from University of Parma participated to the Summer School on the topic of “Landslides and slope stability analysis in Rwanda” hosted by Rwanda Polytechnic – IPRC Musanze and organized in cooperation with Rwanda Water Resources Board, Rwanda Transport Development Agency and Università di Parma.
The main objectives of this one-week event were improving the awareness of civil engineers about hydrogeological hazard in the Rwandan area, increasing the knowledge of Civil Engineers, Geologists and technicians about the problem of landslides, bringing up the capability of tackling and solving slope stability problems and introducing understanding about problems connected with deforestation.
More than 40 participants, including technicians, civil engineers, teaching staff and practitioners involved in land management and protection at local public authorities enthusiastically attended the activities.
The Summer School has been made possible thanks to the contribution of many sponsors besides EnRHEd and IPRC-Musanze; many thanks are expressed to ICL-International Consortium on Landslides, AIGeo-Italian Association of Physical Geography and Geomorphology, Rocscience, Iah-Aih Italian Chapter, University of Parma.
The event had international relevance and proved to be a profitable opportunity to strengthen the collaborative relationships between University of Parma and Rwandan Institutions; indeed, through the organization of faculty exchanges, online workshops and academic forums between African and European colleagues, relations between the countries have now intensified to the benefit of all.
Click here to see the photo gallery of the event
Workshops at UTAB, INES and UR: hard work rewarded
In July 2022, the EnRHEd delegation in Rwanda was invited to participate in some events hosted by other EnRHEd partner institutions, i.e. UTAB, UR and INES-Ruhengeri.
The University of Technology and Arts of Byumba (UTAB) organized a workshop on “Science, Technology and Management”, which was attended by many students, lecturers and local stakeholders. Several topics were covered during the workshop, from block chains to soil erosion, from circular economy to groundwater and automatic irrigation. The event created an atmosphere of knowledge exchange between Italian and Rwandan lecturers and fostered academic exchange and international relations between the two institutions. During the closing ceremony, the participants agreed to plan new workshops soon.
Click here to see the video streaming of the event
Other partner institutions, namely the University of Rwanda (UR) and INES-Ruhengeri, also hosted further events, albeit more focused on the specific needs of their own students.
The University of Rwanda (UR) organized a seminar involving students in the fields of Civil Engineering, Water Resources and Geology on the following 3 topics: “The geomorphological mapping as source of information for landslide studies”, “Landslides hydrology” and “Site-specific to large-scale landslides susceptibility assessment in Rwanda”. Moreover, a group of lecturers attended a technical meeting to carry out curricular revision activities in the fields of architecture and civil engineering.
INES-Ruhengeri also invited the Italian professors to deliver some short lectures to teaching staff and students. The lectures alternated purely didactic moments with practical discussions on the topics of “Landslides at different scales“, “The geomorphological mapping as source of information for slope stabilization” and “Groundwater: a hidden resource to protect“.
Each event marked one more step towards achieving the goal set by EnRHEd: to build real and lasting capacity building among the EnRHEd partner Higher Education Institutions!!!
Click here to see the photo gallery of the event
One-month Summer School at ULIEGE in Geomatic and Civil Engineering domains
The Summer School on the topics of Geomatics and Civil Engineering was organized by the EnRHEd team at the University of Liège from 22 August to 18 September. It was a great success for all participants, i.e. 14 Rwandan lecturers and a group of Belgian teaching staff members.
The Summer School was a mix of technical workshops, teaching activities, scientific discussions, presentations of academic practices, teaching and pedagogical seminars and practical field trips.
Through this interesting and innovative Summer School, the EnRHEd project aimed at supporting Rwandan partners to improve their academic curricula in the field of land survey and civil engineering, as well as strengthen governance and relations between EU and Rwandan institutions.
The creation of a close-knit team witnessed the Summer School participants working together assiduously to enhance their know-how and teaching skills, while also sharing very important friendly moments. The Summer School’s objective of creating an atmosphere of international exchange and effective capacity building seems to have been fully achieved.
Thanks to those who made this possible!
Click here to see the photo gallery of the event
All of the abovementioned EnRHEd exchanges are allowing staff of Rwandan and European institutions to meet and further discuss about the future, promoting collaboration, establishing good practices of internationalization and stimulating the improvement of the local Higher Education.
The next planned mobility will see many Rwandan students moving to Europe… don’t miss the updates and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Youtube
THE ENRHED TEAM
