SKYPE Meeting Between CETIC and University of California Los Angeles (UCLA)

On Friday, 29 August 2014, a skype meeting was held between the members of CETIC, Cameroon and members of the Department of Mathematical Modelling and Scientific Computing of the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), USA. The aim of the meeting was to initiate a collaboration between CETIC and UCLA on the area of E-services for “Health-Agriculture-Biology-Environment”.

Attendees

1. Professor Maurice       Tchuente (CETIC, Faculty of Science, University of Yaounde I)
2. Professor Thomas       Smith (Center for Tropical Research, UCLA)
3. Dr. Kevin Njabo (Center for Tropical Research, UCLA)
4. Dr. Samuel Bowong (CETIC, Faculty of Science, University of Douala)
5. Dr. Hippolyte Tapamo (CETIC, Faculty of Science, University of Yaounde I)
6. Dr. Judith N. Torimiro (CETIC, Faculty of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, University of Yaounde I)
7. Professor Charles Awono Onana (CETIC, Higher Institute of Engineering, University of Yaounde I) – absent
8. Dr. Ryan Harrigan (Center for Tropical Research, UCLA) – absent
9. Dr. Trevon Fuller (Center for Tropical Research, UCLA) – absent

Recommendations: Following the meeting, several recommendations aiming at giving concrete expression to the collaboration between CETIC and UCLA were made , notably :

(1)   Letter of Intent for Collaboration should be presented to the UCLA from CETIC of University of Yaounde I and a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) established

(2)   Thematic Area of Collaboration: Health and Training

(3)   Co-Supervision of Masters’ and Ph.D. students’ research projects to generate preliminary data that could be used to apply for funds

(4)   Creation of a Research Team in CETIC made up of those who participated in this Conference and others as necessary

(5)   CETIC should provide funds for research in Academic Year I (2014/2015)

(6)   Resource mobilization: CETIC and UCLA will apply for grants to support activities of CETIC. UCLA team will use existing network to facilitate this process.

(7)   Student and Staff Exchange Programs are possible between CETIC and UCLA for several topics including genomics, GIS, etc. A Fund needs to be raised for this purpose.