Melton Fellows Broaden Horizons at BIARI

Melton Fellows Karla Palma and Daniel Vera were among the 130 participants from 40 countries attending Brown University’s International Advanced Research Institutes (BIARI), which brought together people from all over the world to address global issues through collaboration across academic, professional, and geographic boundaries. 

Through their participation, Karla and Daniel were successful in broadening their own perspectives and delving into compelling issues challenging the world today.

Karla Palma was one of the few non-engineers in the “Connections and Flows: Water, Energy, and Digital Information” group, where the focus was on analyzing the connections between society and technology. Participants tried to find solutions to different dilemmas that each contributor brought from his/her part of the world, everything from the use of cook stoves in Ethiopia to the implementation of a renewable energy agenda in Turkmenistan.

In Karla’s own words: “I never enjoyed so much working with engineers in my entire life, now I think this is one of my goals for my academic life: to pursue interdisciplinary alliances to work on social justice issues.”

Daniel Vera participated in the Institute of “Human Security and Humanitarian Response: Increasing Effectiveness and Accountability in the Age of Complex Emergencies”. They discussed a wide range of subjects such as best practices in humanitarian assistance, the use of innovative technologies to improve humanitarian response, and appropriated research methods in complex scenarios. 

Daniel recalls: “My participation at BIARI was one of the most challenging experiences of my academic life and had a deeply impact on my interests and approach to my postgraduate career.”

If you'd like to attend BIARI 2015, apply on their website. Applications will be open from October to November 2014.