Conference Program

Joe Mertz jr., Ph.D. is an Associate Teaching Professor in the School of Computer Science and in the H. John Heinz III School of Public Policy & Management at Carnegie Mellon University, as well as Associate Director of TechBridgeWorld (http://www.techbridgeworld.org).  His primary teaching interests are in courses and projects that make students aware of community development challenges while teaching strategies and methods to use ICT to address those challenges.

Joe created and directs Technology Consulting in Global Community (http://www.techbridgeworld.org/tcingc), a program that prepares and sends students abroad to consult in developing communities.   Over the last 3 years, 23 students have provided ICT capacity-building assistance in Chile, Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Republic of the Marshall Islands, Republic of Palau, and Sri Lanka. Joe has a B.S. in Computer Science from Penn State, an M.S. in Computer Science from the University of Southern California, and a Ph.D. in Engineering and Public Policy from Carnegie Mellon University.