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Tele-Engineering from the Inka Road |
Published in: | Engineering for a Smarter Planet: Innovation, ITC, and Computational Tools for Sustainable Development: Proceedings of the 9th Latin American and Caribbean Conference for Engineering and Technology | |
Date of Conference: | August 3-5, 2011 |
Location of Conference: | Medellin, Colombia |
Authors: | Cliff Schexnayder Edward J. Jaselskis Christine Fiori Gerardo Chang Recavarren Manuel Celaya
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Refereed Paper: | #21 |
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Abstract |
The National Science Foundation sponsored a research project in the cordillera of western South America to
reverse engineer the Inka Road. Reaching the Inka Road high in the sierra is difficult, thereby creating a challenge
for bringing students and technical experts together collaboratively for the project. In order to meet this challenge,
the researchers pioneered the use of a satellite-based audio and video communication tool–tele-engineering. With
this tool the team in the sierra of Perú was able to examine the physical conditions of the Inka Road real-time with
other engineers and students located at various universities, and with a non-engineer audience at the Smithsonian
Institute in Washington DC. This paper describes how technical Inka Road aspects were collaboratively examined
with remote experts and presented to a large non-engineer audience. These communication technologies are
applicability in designing and constructing projects in remote locations where specialists may not be readily
available and for bringing real engineering experiences into the classroom.
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