Baylor Professor Lectures In Vietnam...From Waco

A Baylor University engineering professor is joining three other academics from around the country in lecturing at several universities in Vietnam as part of an educational program funded by a $70,000 U.S. Faculty Scholar Grant.

Dr. Benjamin Kelley, dean of Baylor's School of the Engineering and Computer Science and professor of engineering, is lecturing to 17 Vietnamese students at Hanoi University of Technology via videoconference. Kelley is teaching a biomedical engineering course, lecturing on the topic once a week for the next 11 weeks.

"This is a great program because it exposes these Vietnamese students to a Western-style education, which is much more interactive than the students are accustomed to in the classroom," Kelley said. "It also works well for the students because they can hear the lecture at the university, at home or at one of the many Internet cafes around the city."

During the fall semester, Kelley and graduate assistant Rhett Rigby developed a curriculum for the course. Last month, Kelley spent three weeks on site in Hanoi, teaching the students in English. Kelley is now continuing the course through distance learning, utilizing materials he designed specifically for the course.

The course is built around a design project of an orthopedic bone plate. The students form teams, conduct the engineering analysis and will write a full design report to be presented in May, when Kelley will return to Hanoi to teach the final two weeks of the course in person.

In future years, Kelley plans to continue teaching similar classes through funding by Vietnam's Ministry of Education to further expand the Hanoi Technologies' biomedical engineering program. He hopes to develop a web-based book so that the course can be taught at other Vietnamese universities.

For more information, contact Dr. Kelley at (254) 710-6835.