Juarez Lincoln Marti Project: an Example of International 
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Co-operation in Statistics Education and Research.
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(Presented at the Invited IASE Session on Stats Education and Research, 
Int'l Stats. Institute (ISI) Biennial Mtg.; Berlin, Germany. Aug. 2003,
and Published in the Proceedings of Invited Papers of the 2003 ISI.)

Jorge Luis Romeu, Ph.D.
Research Professor, Syracuse University
P.O. Box 6134, Syracuse, NY 13217; USA                                 
Email: jlromeu@syr.edu or romeu@cortland.edu

1. Introduction and problem statement

Modern world has shrunk: technology, communications, economics, everything 
brings us closer to each other now. Hence, modern statisticians, as all other 
scientists and professionals, need to work internationally. Many public and 
private organizations (including IASE) help to internationalize statistical 
work. But there are two main drawbacks: language barrier and lack of resources. 

To successfully address these problems in Iberoamerica, the Juarez Lincoln 
Marti International Education Project (http://web.cortland.edu/matresearch/) 
was created.

Our Project (which, for its educational goals could have also been named 
Sierra-Dewey-Luz Caballero) is completely dedicated to fulfilling four specific 
objectives. First, teaching faculty development workshops in science and 
statistics; second, finding scholarships for faculty; third, donating educational 
materials to universities; and fourth, maintaining an email list service to distribute 
news and information about Education and technology issues.

We have provided these (and other) programs, in Spanish, for nine years, mainly 
to small, public universities in remote provincial areas, where other international 
organizations have had difficulties providing these services, for lack of language 
skills or for lack of resources. In addition, our Project has successfully addressed 
their technical problems. For, having worked extensively under the same constrained 
material conditions of these institutions, we can suggest educational solutions 
that are both, affordable and feasible, for them to implement.

Through its work http://web.cortland.edu/matresearch/history.html), 
our Project strives to build a better US-Ibero American understanding and to help 
forge stronger relations among their academic and research communities, as well as 
among their peoples. The Juarez Project also strives to promote and develop
international professionals that will help consolidate such stronger links between 
peoples of different nations and cultures. The reasons behind our Project efforts 
are described in several newspaper articles written during our work abroad and 
published in the US, Mexico and Spain.
(http://web.cortland.edu/romeu/mexus.html) 

2. Project Main Programs

Our first and most successful program has been finding faculty scholarships. 
Seventeen Mexican professors (http://web.cortland.edu/matresearch/becarios.html) 
have participated in the SUNY Conference on Instructional Technology. In addition, 
a Venezuelan professor spent a month in an Internship at our SUNY Institution, practicing 
new educational methods, modern technology and learning about American institutions. 

(http://web.cortland.edu/matresearch/pasantia.html)

Our second most successful program is teaching faculty development workshops to small, 
poorly endowed, provincial institutions that had difficulties finding instructors 
to provide these workshops. 

(http://web.cortland.edu/matresearch/newprog.html). 

We teach how to teach statistics and science using new technology and the 
pedagogical methods that accompany them. And we also teach how to 
survive the infusion of curriculum technology and how to administer a new course 
while technology is being infused, so the instructor does not perish or give it 
up. Workshop support comes from Grants provided for a target institution abroad.

We then take this opportunity to 
teach a second course, on our own, saving the cost of the airfare (our largest 
ticket item). Other times, cooperatives with several institutions are formed, 
that share the transportation and other costs.

We then teach several workshops in the same trip. A list of institutions visited 
and of workshop topics covered is provided in: 

http://web.cortland.edu/romeu/talks.html.

Our third most successful program is donating materials and textbooks. Here, we 
have had to solve two problems: obtaining the textbooks and sending them abroad. 
We have had the solidarity of many colleagues from SUNY, the American Statistical 
Association (ASA) and Isostat, 
among others, who have donated material. Then, we have taken them in our trips 
abroad as part of our luggage. Or the US Embassy in Mexico has allowed us to send 
them to Texas, and they transport them to their destination. Or the Juarez Project 
has simply absorbed the cost. To date, many boxes of statistics and science text
books, with scores of books, have been sent to eight universities in Mexico, as 
well as institutions in Venezuela, Argentina, Spain and Brazil.

Our fourth most successful program is maintaining an email list for faculty and 
researchers in Latin America, Spain and Portugal 
(http://web.syr.edu/~jlromeu/boletin.html). 

Every month, the Project emails news about opportunities in research and study 
abroad, conferences, web pages with educational materials, work announcements, 
etc. The Project also maintains a Web Page with educational information and materials 
(http://web.cortland.edu/matresearch/edsources.html).

3. Educational and Research Materials Developed 

     
The Juarez Project develops most of the educational materials it uses in its workshops. 
Some of these have found their way into scholarly journals 
(http://web.cortland.edu/romeu/research.html).

Our main courses are on the use of (GPSS) simulation as a tool for teaching intermediate 
and advanced statistics courses. Labs developed using GPSS, and modeling mid complexity 
systems, allow students to obtain “real” data for projects on regression, ANOVA, for designing 
experiments, etc. Several papers on these subjects (e.g. Romeu, 1986, 1997) have 
been published in RSS, ASA and other journals, and on the web 
(http://web.syr.edu/~jlromeu/urlstats.html).

Workshops on the uses of the Minitab statistical software, as a tool for the introductory 
and intermediate statistics course, are also taught. Labs developed in Minitab, using 
macros and lis files, provide practical examples that are then emailed to students, 
or are posted in the Web. A research paper on this topic appears in 
http://www.minitab.com/resources/whitepapers/pizza.htm.

Courses on the use of technology in teaching, research and administration have been 
taught in several countries. Our research on assessing the effects of technology in 
science teaching, via a method vs. control experimental design, appears in  
http://www.oswego.edu/cit96/proc/romeu.pdf.

The use of Projects and Cooperative Learning methods has also been among our workshop 
topics. Projects, by goups of four to six students, allow greater student interaction and
 learning and leave more time for faculty to dedicate to teaching the subject matter. 
Two papers on this topic were presented at two education conferences.
(http://web.cortland.edu/romeu/groups.html)

Course administration, one of the greatest problems of technology infusion, is a topic 
we have dealt with at length. When introducing so many new techniques we are taxing the 
instructors time. We must also provide them the means to survive this experience, 
so it takes a hold and flourishes. A paper on this topic (Romeu, 2002) was also 
recently published.
 
A complete MS in O.R. Curriculum was totally developed for the University of Comahue, 
in Argentina, via the Internet, by a group of international faculty. This extraordinary 
experience is the proof that international cooperation, via Internet, can achieve 
highly at a very low cost. This graduate program is currently in full operation in 
Neuquen, the Argentinian Patagonia.

     
A key goal of our Project is the development of International Professionals, who 
can get off an airplane and “hit the ground running”, when working abroad. 
We have described the necessary conditions in several international forums and in a 
journal article (Romeu, 2001).
 
Finally, our Project has also developed several research proposals (in Education and
the ecology) submitted to the U.S. Depts. of Education and State, FIPSE and NSF, 
among other organizations. They are outlined in 
http://web.cortland.edu/matresearch/proposals.html. 

4. Critical Assessment

The Juarez Lincoln Marti Project accomplishments, achieved in its nine years of 
existence, constitute its best assessment. Eighteen faculty have obtained scholarships 
through the Project, to attend conferences abroad. Many boxes, with scores of textbooks, 
have gone to institutions in Mexico, Venezuela, Argentina, Brasil and Spain. We have 
taught, under Fulbright, the US State Department grants, or cooperative arrangements 
between the institutions receiving it and the Juarez Project, a dozen faculty development 
workshops in Mexico, Venezuela and Spain.

An email list provides technology and educational information to over two hundred 
faculty in Latin America, Spain and Portugal. And all of this has been achieved with a 
shoestring budget, voluntary work of our Project personnel, donations from private 
and public institutions:
Fulbright, Fulbright Alumnus, Comexus, SUNY FACT and UUP Union, ASA, US Embassy 
in Mexico, Mexican Consulate in NYC) as well as with private citizens donations.

In addition, several other parameters help us assess the quality of such achievements. 
Our Project receives more workshop requests than we can meet. Papers and materials 
developed from our work and research experiences are published in peer-reviewed journals. 
We are included in the Fulbright Speakers Specialist
Roster that will provide funds to deliver more workshops, etc.

But the ultimate assessment is in the genuine warmth with which our work is received 
and appreciated, by these institutions, and the feeling of accomplishments they provide us all.

5. Summary and Future work

The Juarez Lincoln Marti International Education Project is here to stay. We are 
constantly looking for new opportunities that allow us to make even more contributions 
to education in Iberoamerica. Some of these new opportunities include the following:

We seek to develop additional programs and workshops in the area of statistics, math 
and science education as well as in uses of technology. We are also starting to develop 
other areas, such as teaching in secondary education, where another Project member 
has already given short presentations during our workshops abroad.

We are looking into becoming a Non Profit Foundation, in order to be able to submit 
NSF proposals and to receive grants and donations from foundations and public organizations. 
With these additional moneys, we can support other instructors with different offerings, 
more travel and workshops abroad, and send more educational material to Iberoamerica.

Finally, if the reader or anyone else wants to find out more about our Juarez Project, 
provide suggestions, make a donation of books or materials, or just let us know how you 
feel about our work, they can contact us via the email, postal address or web page 
given in this paper.

REFERENCES

      Romeu, J. L. (2002). Course Administration: the often forgotten component of 
technology infusion. Journal of Educational Technology Systems. 31(4) 305-310.
      Romeu, J. L. (2001). On Preparing International Professionals (in Spanish). 
Revista La Ciencia y El Hombre. Universidad Veracruzana, Jal. Ver., Mexico. Vol. XIV (3).
      Romeu, J. L. (1997). On Simulation and Statistical Education. American Journal of 
Mathematics and Management Sciences. Vols. 3 & 4.
      Romeu, J. L. (1986). Teaching Engineering Statistics with Simulation. Journal of the 
Institute of Statisticians (RSS Series D). 35 (4).