The University of Houston has signed a memorandum of understanding with an Angolan university intended to boost technical training and reduce the southwestern African nation’s dependence on foreign technical expertise.

UH will collaborate with faculty at the University Agostinho Neto (UAN) to improve training, mainly connected to oil and gas, enabling more Angolan students to populate open positions in the oil-rich nation.

University of Houston engineering professor John Lienhard and petroleum engineering director Christine Ehlig-Economides have been elected to the National Academy of Engineering, one of the most highly regarded professional engineering organizations in the world.

No one ever said it was easy to work fulltime and pursue a master's degree in petroleum engineering from the University of Houston -- especially if you live in Mexico.

But it can be done.

Thanks to a new distance-education program at the UH Cullen College of Engineering, 16 students who are employed by Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) in Mexico will graduate this week at the UH Hilton Hotel. It will be the first time any of the students have ever been on campus at UH.

The UH Composites Engineering and Applications Center for Petroleum Exploration and Production is recognized as the world’s leading research organization in the engineering of composite material for offshore oil, gas exploration and production. Click here to read more.