Intertech-an engineering, technology, and education exchange across the western hemisphere

Abstract

In 1989, the idea of Intertech (the Inter-American Council on Engineering and Technology Education) was born of conversations at an American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE) Conference, among a couple of US faculty and a Mexican university engineering dean. Their grand vision of Intertech settled into a first meeting in 1990, and has continued biannually throughout the decade. This paper traces the highs and lows of the dream: to foster relationships among engineering and technology educators and their institutions throughout the western hemisphere in order to improve the exchange of technology and encourage an international perspective. Challenges of Intertech's fledgling organization, fragile resources and communication struggles are laid out to develop a case study of this pan-American initiative. The author discusses whether its first decade reveals unattainable objectives or whether it suggests the groundwork for a 21st Century success.