Addis Ababa University, as part of its standing collaboration with the University of Michigan has hosted four students. The students are set to stay at AAU for two months (1 June – 24 July, 2015) working on a collaborative project with AAiT’s Civil Engineering and St. Paul hospital’s Biomedical Engineering students and professors.
Two of them, Shreeniwas and Ishi are working with Dr. Bikila Teklu, head of the department of Civil Engineering, AAiT to look at twenty seven intersections in Addis Ababa. They will be looking at pedestrian traffic intersections to find places that could potentially be made safer. They have planned to identify these safer points and present them to a team at AAiT who are also working on these intersections.
The other two students, Allison and Julia collaborate with four AAiT Biomedical Engineering students learning about unmet maternal health needs in St. Paul hospital. They are observing in the maternity ward, documenting challenges and creating preliminary mock-up designs to addresses this issues.
Mr. Asres Bantigegn, head of the newly launched office for International Students and Scholars coordinates and supports the students’ collaborative project and their stay at the main campus. Office for International Students and Scholars is a new unit hosted within  the office of the External Relations, Partnerships and Communications of the Addis Ababa University.