Engineering Leadership Development Faculty and Students Return to Benin

Posted by Dana Marsh on January 21, 2014 in Faculty & Staff, Outreach & Service, Students | 0 comments

With the assembled baobab machine: kneeling: Kelly Mulcahey: standing (l to r): Anthony Aliberti, Manan Gill, Emma Hocker, Dan Normanyo, Dr. Kodzo Gbewonyo, BioResources International, and Chris Hersh.

by Mike Erdman, Walter L Robb Director of Engineering Leadership Development

Dr. Brice Sinsin, Rector of the University of Abomey Calavi (UAC), traveled half-way across the globe to visit Penn State in the summer of 2013 and Penn State returned the favor over Thanksgiving break later that year. Penn State has been collaborating with UAC, in Cotonou, Benin, on the development of mechanized processes for agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa. These efforts include improving the processing of the highly nutritious indigenous fruit, baobab, as well as developing methods to extract a butter substitute from another local crop, pentadesma.

The team at the facility at the University of Abomey Calavi. First row (l to r): Anthony Aliberti, Kelly Mulcahey, and Emma Hocker. Standing (l to r): Dr. Flora Chadare, Manan Gill, Dr. Alphonse Quenum, Dr. Yann Madode, Dr. Julien Adounvo, Chris Hersh, and Mike Erdman

Mike Erdman, Walter L. Robb Director of Engineering Leadership Development at Penn State, visited Benin in January 2013 with students Erick Froede and Alyssa Joslin, and invited Dr. Sinsin to visit Penn State to further discuss opportunities for research and development. While here, Dr. Sinsin met with President Rodney Erickson, Vice Provost for Global Programs, Michael Adewumi, College of Engineering Associate Dean Renata Engel, and many others. Erdman returned to Benin in November with a team of 5 students – Kelly Mulcahey, Chris Hersh, Anthony Aliberti, Emma Hocker, and Manan Gill – where they delivered a new baobab processing machine for use in a cooperative farm in the north of Benin. While there, Dr. Sinsin invited them to provide a seminar to students and faculty on leadership and to tour various parts of the University and sights in southern Benin, including the Ouidah slave route and Python Temple.

For more information about Penn State’s ongoing work to develop an efficient baobab machine, read the Fall 2012 issue of Engineering Penn State.