As more and more big-name universities form research and teaching partnerships with schools and hospitals in Singapore, Duke may be getting in on the game, too.
A group of six faculty members and administrators left for Southeast Asia this week to continue negotiations, which have been going on for about a year, with Nanyang Technological University and Singapore General Hospital. Bruce Kuniholm, vice provost for academic and international affairs, explained that the potential partnerships would be in biomedical engineering and medicine, but he said details are still in the works.
"I'm optimistic that something will come of this," Kuniholm said.
He would not comment on the project's cost to Duke, saying ongoing negotiations are ironing out specific figures.
"If their economic development board is willing to consider investing in the relationship, Duke obviously will be, too," he said.
Kuniholm is traveling with Dr. Ed Holmes, dean of the School of Medicine; Kristina Johnson, dean of the Pratt School of Engineering; Marianne Risley, administrative director of the Center for Emerging Cardiovascular Technologies; Robert Taber, director of the Office of Science and Technology in the Medical Center; and Professor of Biomedical Engineering Olaf von Ramm, the point person for the University's initiative and the director of the CECT. Once they return at the end of the month, Kuniholm said, he will have a better estimate of the initiative's details.
Aside from research, the initiatives could add a second study-abroad option for engineers, adding to the existing Australia program.
"This is one of the prospects I'm genuinely excited about," Kuniholm said, explaining that only about 10 percent of engineering students spend time abroad, as compared to almost half of students in Trinity College.
"This is a strategic partnership for undergraduates to go to Singapore, and a great step forward for internationalization," he said.
Nanyang Technological University's Biomedical Engineering Research Centre emphasizes a commitment to the "consolidation and coordination of interdisciplinary research abilities," according to its mission statement.
The center has partnerships with three hospitals, including Singapore General.
In the last several years, several American universities-including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Cornell and Stanford universities-have started up partnerships in Singapore, saying the country is a prime site for developing both interdisciplinarity and internationalization.
"One of the key reasons is that Singapore does put a tremendous amount of emphasis on education...," said Anddie Chan, assistant director of the Singapore-MIT Alliance.
MIT currently works with one Singaporean university to operate two programs: one in advanced materials and one in high-performance computation for engineered systems.
By July 2001, the alliance will include another Singaporean university and will run three more programs-in manufacturing systems and technology, computer science and engineering and chemical engineering.
"Being able to explore new areas with a university in another part of the world in a programmatic way is very important," Chan said. "They allow us to do things more strategically... for the long-term."
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