This special symposium celebrates the opening of the National Museum of the American Indian’s landmark exhibition, The Great Inka Road: Engineering an Empire, with a fascinating look at the material, political, economic, and religious structures that integrated more than one hundred Native nations and millions of people in the powerful Andean Empire known as the Tawantinsuyu. In this segment, Christine Fiori, Virginia Tech University and Clifford Schexnayder, Eminent Scholar, Emeritus, Arizona State University, speak on “Inka and Modern Engineering in the Andes.”
Christine M. Fiori is the associate director of the Myers-Lawson School of Construction at Virginia Tech. She received her PhD in civil engineering, with a concentration in geotechnical engineering, from Drexel University. Her interest in ancient construction led to a National Science Foundation grant to explore the construction techniques of the Inka, specifically the Inka Road in Perú. She has also led student teams to Vietnam, Kenya, Belize, and Haiti to complete community engagement programs.
Clifford Schexnayder is the Emeritus Eminent Scholar at Arizona State University’s Del E. Webb School of Construction. He holds degrees from the Georgia Institute of Technology and Purdue University and has taught construction engineering at Universidad de Piura and Ricardo Palma Universidad in Perú. Before entering academia he worked with major heavy/highway construction contractors. Schexnayder is a member of the National Academy of Construction, the Academia Panamericana de Ingeniería, and is a Distinguished Member of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE).
The symposium was recorded at the Rasmuson Theater of the National Museum of the American Indian on June 25-26, 2015.
