American Association of Bangladeshi Engineers and Architects, Inc., (AABEA) (www.aabea.org) is a non-profit professional organization established in 1984 and registered in the State of Pennsylvania. At present, it consists of 12 Chapters in various states/regions nationwide, and a Central Executive Committee, which rotates every two years among Chapters’ areas. The mission of the organization is t
o provide services to its members as well as greater Bangladeshi community in various areas in North America. The present Central Executive Committee (CEC) is located in Silicon Valley, California. All services provided under the auspices of AABEA are funded from generous contributions by its members and other community members. Some of the services that AABEA has provided during last few years are:
Provided Career Development Services for Engineers, Architects, and IT professionals through various workshops and technical seminars;
Provided Engineer-in- Training (EIT), Professional Engineering (PE), and AutoCAD software training classes for Bangladeshi American students and engineers;
Provided various workshops for women to enhance their participation and skills in workplace;
Organized Science Fair and Art competitions for K1-12 students annually as part of the youth development program;
Providing limited scholarships for needy Bangladeshi students in pursuing their college education
AABEA has a job search sub-committee that continuously helps job seekers to find jobs, to prepare resume and to enhance interview skill;
AABEA hosts various Job Fairs by inviting Federal agencies as well as public and private enterprises. In addition, AABEA offers educational and research support to improve technical education in Bangladesh so that their graduates can compete in the world market. AABEA, in collaboration with Intel Engineers and Intel Foundation’s matching grant, developed a new state-of-the-art computer lab at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), Dhaka, and another at Chittagong University of Engineering & Technology (CUET), Bangladesh. This effort included development of the laboratory, development of modem curricula for undergraduate engineering program and initiating Very Large Scale Integrated (VLSI) Circuit area graduate program. The cost of this program stood at $160,000.00 at BUET and $20,000 at CUET. AABEA also developed the Robert Noyce Simulation Lab (RNSL) and Linux Lab for BUET with necessary Ansoft SW design package license. AABEA also initiated a Joint Research Center for Advanced System Engineering (JRCASE) project to facilitate Education, Research & Development (R&D) on Very Large Scale Integrated (VLSI) Circuit at East West University (EWU), Dhaka, and at CUET, Bangladesh. So far, about $30,000.00 has been spent on this project
AABEA also developed the marketing tools for Bangladeshi IT companies to sell their products in US market places in collaboration with the World Bank. As for its humanitarian activities, AABEA raised funds to help the disaster-stricken areas of the world, including cyclone disasters in Bangladesh, earthquake in Haiti, and tsunami-devastated countries, in association with Salvation Army and Bangladesh Mission in USA to name a few.
