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The OAS Summit of Engineering for the Americas

24th LACCEI International Multi-Conference for Engineering, Education and Technology

“Engineering without Borders: Artificial Intelligence, Knowledge, Innovation, and Alliances for a Future from the Americas”
July 15-17, 2026 (Hybrid) – Santiago (Chile)

LACCEI 2026 will be held in in person at InterContinental Santiago and virtually through Agora Meetings Platform.

Register Now

Humanitarian Engineering in Latin America (HELA) at LACCEI 2026

New Deadline: March 2nd, 2026

Aligned with the theme of joint LACCEI/OAS conference theme “Engineering without Borders: Artificial Intelligence, Knowledge, Innovation, and Alliances for a Future from the Americas”, there will be a track related to HELA with the goals to:

  • Propose guiding principles, practices, and exemplars to align engineering, AI, knowledge, innovation and Alliances for a equitable, and social just future for all the Americas, specially vulnerable communities.
  • Showcase examples of Humanitarian and Community Engaged Engineering initiatives in different institutional and national contexts of the Americas countries.
  • Create a network of engineering professionals and educators committed to advancing HELA to serve the most vulnerable communities in the Americas.

To accomplish these goals, HELA track will have speakers, call for papers, and a collaborative network building activity. We will showcase innovative initiatives and create a network of professionals and educators dedicated to promoting humanitarian and community-engaged engineering in the region. Join us in shaping a future where technology serves as a catalyst for social good.

Speakers

Proposed and selected speakers should be able to present guiding principles, practices, and exemplars to align engineering, AI, knowledge, innovation and Alliances for a equitable, and social just future for all in the Americas, specially vulnerable communities. Possible speakers include:

  • Bryann Avendaño-Uribe
  • Carlos Vignolo
  • Juan Lucena
  • Pali Singh
  • Rodrigo Palma
  • Sandra Merchán
  • Sofia Schlezak

AGENDA OF HELA-TRACK 2026

Thursday: July 17, 2025

  • 8.00-10.00: Keynote speakers (30 minutes each including Q&A) – Dr. Rodrigo Palma, Ing. Sofia Schlezak, Dr. Bryann Avendaño-Uribe, and Dr. Pali Singh
  • 10:00-10:50: Roundtable discussion with EWB/ISF representatives from Chile (Eng. Álvaro Leguia) , Argentina (Estela Cammarota), and Colombia (Dra. Catalina Ramírez Cajiao)
  • 14.00-15.00 or 15.10-16.00: Papers presentation (In Person), and invited speaker (Dr. Carlos Vignolo)
    • #1222: Rehabilitation of a Solar Energy System in Indigenous Territory Through Community Power
    • #1575: Faculty Development and Educational Governance in Humanitarian Engineering in Latin America: HELA Workshop Design for Central American Faculty
    • #2666: International Academic Cooperation and Capacity Development in Engineering Education: The UPM–ESPOL Case Study

Steering Committee 2026

Co-Chairs

  • Dr. Juan Lucena. Colorado School of Mines. USA
  • Dr. Pali Singh. Villanova University. USA

Program Coordinator

  • Dr. Sandra Merchan Rubiano. Researcher. Universidad de La Salle. Colombia.

Members

  • Ordóñez-Franco, Patricia. Dr.
  • Cordeiro Cruz, Cristiano. Dr.
  • Ochoa, Alexei. Dr.
  • Giordano Lerena, Roberto. Mg
  • Valenzuela, Loreto. Dr.
  • González, Claudio Camilo. Dr.
  • Acero, Andrés. Dr.
  • López, Edgar Omar. Dr.
  • Santos-Ordoñez, Adriana. Dr.

Call for Papers

We invite submissions of papers that highlight innovative initiatives related to Humanitarian and Community Engaged Engineering (HE) in the Americas. They must be aligned with the three main categories of Engineering of the Multiconference and Full Paper Format (hybrid):

  • ENGINEERING EDUCATION (EE)
  • ENGINEERING RESEARCH (ER)
  • ENGINEERING PRACTICE (EP)

What is a humanitarian and community engaged engineering initiative?

It is an educational or professional initiative that reimagine engineering to achieve social justice, equity, and sustainable development for the most vulnerable people.

We invite papers that showcase examples of HE-related initiatives such as courses, projects, incubators (semilleros), design competitions, learn-by-doing spaces (makerspaces, aulas STEAM, etc.), and meet the following criteria:

  • Clearly describe the drivers that led to the creation of the HE-related initiative beyond the good intentions of faculty and students to solve a community problem.  These could include fulfilling an institutional mission of social responsibility, how a community requested the services of engineers at a university, responding to specific government or corporate calls to serve the needs of vulnerable communities, etc.
  • Clearly describe how interdisciplinary collaborations between engineering and non-engineering disciplines (social sciences, life sciences, business, social work, etc.) did (or could have) contributed to more successful initiatives.
  • Clearly describe how the beneficiaries of the initiatives (communities, schools, persons with disabilities) were (or could have been) involved throughout the initiative, hopefully beyond being mere recipients of engineering solutions.

Important Dates

  • October 6, 2025 – Call for Paper (CfP) – Register here
  • October 6, 2025 – Early bird registration open
  • January 31, 2026 – Deadline for Full Papers (FP) and Work in Progress (WP) submissions (Eastern Daylight Time – EDT)
    • February 16, 2026 – Extension – New Deadline for FP and WP submissions (Eastern Daylight Time – EDT)
    • March 2, 2026 (Only HELA Track) – New Deadline for FP submissions (EDT)
  • April 20, 2026 – Acceptance notification for FP
  • April 30, 2025 – Submit final version of the accepted paper (FP)

How to send my paper?