Achievement

As part of our program's international component and after substantial planning a preparation during the previous years, including institutional partnership-building in SE Asia, we successfully tested a novel "remote classroom" training mode. IGERT Faculty using video conferencing taught seminar classes at the University of Hawaii from laboratories and field sites in Southeast Asia where our IGERT project research and training is being carried out on emerging infectious disease and other global health issues. One of the "classes" employed a remote satellite terminal, allowing both audio and video transmission from a Hill Tribe village near the Thai-Myanmar border. The real-time audio-visual experience brings researchers and Hill Tribe people, who face significant public health challenges including a current HIV/AIDs epidemic, virtually into the classroom, and students to the research site.