Faculty and students in the North Carolina State University College of Veterinary Medicine are interacting with colleagues in Iraq to teach veterinarians different skills as well as restructure the country’s veterinary system.
After the collapse of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s regime, some professors from universities across the country joined in an effort to rebuild their veterinary system, and Internet technology is helping students at N.C. State communicate with and learn from Iraqis thousands of miles away.
A program in the veterinary school is giving students the chance to help their counterparts in Iraq at the Baghdad Zoo. The new system installed in a classroom allows students and teachers to link up with veterinarians at the zoo and answer their questions, according to Dr. Suzanne Kennedy-Stoskopf, research professor for the vet school’s Department of Clinical Sciences.
Kennedy-Stoskopf and her husband, Dr. Michael Stoskopf, also a professor in clinical sciences, are in charge of the program at N.C. State. The project got started when Scott Willens, a former graduate student, was deployed to Baghdad and began helping to rebuild Iraq’s agricultural system.
“He realized that the Iraqi people enjoyed visiting the zoo, and it was a place that they could go to try to escape what’s going on in their country,” Kennedy-Stoskopf said. “It was a place to congregate that had happy memories.”
According to Kennedy-Stoskopf, Willens contacted colleagues at NCSU. With the help of North Carolina Zoo Director David Jones, who has experience rebuilding the Kabul Zoo in Afghanistan, they were able to raise money to purchase the computers and software necessary for the school to connect with the Baghdad Zoo.
Initially, the program had to overcome a few hurdles, both technological and political, Kennedy-Stoskopf said. Early in the program, she said the team faced problems with the zoo staff not being able to even get to their computer due to curfews and security.
When they were able to get everyone in the right place, the class could only communicate with the zoo by holding signs in front of the camera because the sound would not work, she said.
According to Kennedy-Stoskopf, the biggest challenge was to get the Iraqis enough bandwidth to allow them to connect with the classroom.
“We had a lot of pixilation, a lot of breaking up, a lot of freeze-frame kind of interaction, and we could not hear them, though they indicated they could hear us and see us.” she said.
The team was finally able to tweak the program over spring break so when students returned, she said they were able to communicate with the zoo. Kennedy-Stoskopf said last week was the first class that the Iraqis started asking questions — about topics like frostbite in animals and building reptile houses.
“It’s so basic compared to what we do, but it’s real,” she said. “Those are the real kinds of issues they’re faced with.”
The link, Kennedy-Stoskopf said, will help students know what problems real veterinarians have in other parts of the world.
“There’s a lot of interest in N.C. State students about international experiences or outreach internationally,” she said.
According to Stoskopf, it brings the real world into the classroom.
Faculty and students at the veterinary school are also involved in projects involved in rebuilding Iraq, according to Dr. Prema Arasu, director of Veterinary Medicine International Programs.