The engineering challenges of developing nations is the subject of an upcoming lecture at the University of Missouri-Rolla.

Dr. Bernard Amadei, professor of civil, environmental and architectural engineering at the University of Colorado-Boulder, will present "Engineering for Developing Communities" at 4 p.m., Monday, March 15, in Room 125 of UMR’s Butler-Carlton Civil Engineering Building. The Porth Distinguished Lecture is free and open to the public.

"There is a need for training a new generation of engineers who could better meet the challenges and needs of the developing world," Amadei says. "In the College of Engineering at the University of Colorado at Boulder, we are developing a new program in Engineering for Developing Communities. Its overall mission is to educate globally responsible students who can offer sustainable and appropriate technology solutions to the endemic problems faced by developing communities worldwide, including the United States. The seminar will describe the components of the new program and some concrete examples of engineering fieldwork in developing communities through a national initiative called Engineers Without Borders."

The lecture series is supported through a fund established by the late Virginia Lee Porth in honor of her father Harry William Lee Porth, a UMR alumnus.

Previous participants in the Distinguished Porth Lecture Series include Ralph Nader, Roger Boisjoly, David Billington and George Campbell Jr.