International Collaboration

	PROF. N. R. Shetty President, ISTE

Prof. N.R. Shetty, President, ISTE has been elected to the Executive Council of  International Federation of Engineering Education Societies (IFEES) with Head Quarters in Washington DC, USA for a period of two years by the official representatives of the world in the 1st Annual Meeting of IFEES held on October 9, 2006 in Rio-de-Janeiro, Brazil, the venue of the American Society of Engineering Education's (ASEE) 5th Global Colloquium and Conference. Later in the 1st Meeting of the Executive Council of IFEES on October 10, 2006, he was elected as one of the Vice Presidents of IFEES.

Mission and Goals of IFEES
The Federation's overarching mission is fostering collaboration and learning among the world's engineering- education societies. This will require participating organisations to share with one another not only the sorts of Issues and problems each is grappling with but possible solutions. The creations of a global marketplace of "nest practices" under the auspices of IFEES will enable members not only jointly address engineering -education challenges worldwide, but to strengthen their organisations and their capacity to support faculty and students. 

This cross-fertilization of ideas should be particularly useful to emerging engineering-education societies, and their equivalent organisations, in providing productive value-added services to their individual members. Indeed, IFEES must become a virtual global community where people, courses and data are shared, as well as ideas. It must become a community that enhances the capacity of engineering faculty, students and practitioners to understand the varied cultures of the world and work effectively in them. It must become a community of societies, faculty, students and companies with a shared goal of promoting the globalisation of engineering, with all its promise for both the developed and developing world. 

Finally, it must become a community that brings together talented individuals from the world's emerging societies and universities as well as international corporations that have a pressing need to well- trained engineers who can work in a global environment. In short IFEES must be a "flat-world facilitator"

Our Hearty Congratulations!