They remember being targeted by al-Qaida during the war

Abdulkadum Alyasiri lost eight close friends during the Iraq War, compatriots who were targeted and killed by al-Qaida because of what they represented.

They were university professors.

"About 300 university professors in Iraq, especially in Baghdad, were killed," said Alyasiri, dean of Najaf Technical Institute, during an interview last week at Oregon State University.

Abdulkareem Jawad, a Kerbala University mechanical engineering professor, said he was threatened more than once because of his job.

"They could have kidnapped me or any member of my family. They set fire to my brother's business," Jawad said, speaking through an interpreter.

Since 2008, the violence has decreased drastically because religious factions set aside their differences, Jawad said.

"We are going about our life ordinary. … Now it is good. It is very good," Alyasiri said.

The new ordinary life for about 20 Iraqi university presidents and engineering professors, including Alyasiri and Jawad, included a two-week trip to Oregon this summer.

The Iraqis are learning about sustainable building and design and green energy during a series of workshops that will last through Thursday. Most of the sessions so far have been held at OSU, but they also were scheduled to visit the Hatfield Marine Science Center, the Pioneer Mountain-to-Eddyville realignment project on Highway 20 and construction work in Portland.

The program is designed to boost Oregon businesses while helping Iraq prepare to replace damaged buildings and infrastructure.

The Iraqi delegates signed a memorandum of understanding with OSU that could lead to more cooperation in the future.

A major problem Iraqi universities face is outdated laboratory and research equipment, said Dilshad K. Jaf, director of engineering projects for the Kurdistan regional government's ministry of higher education.

The Internet became available in Iraq after 2003, so faculty members aren't as isolated as they used to be from their peers in other countries, Jaf said.

Pay for professors increased after Saddam Hussein's regime fell, and Jawad said he no longer needs a second job to support his family.

Jawad recently built a house out of Styrofoam panels, the only one of its kind in his hometown. He has to run the air-conditioner only a few hours a day in the summer to keep things cool.

"It cost me a little more than I thought, but I think it is cost-effective down the road," he said.

Iraqis are thinking more these days about saving resources, including money, but Jawad worries that many are resistant to change.

"If we can change the set of mind, my people will take the right steps toward sustainability," he said.

The Iraqi university representatives came to Oregon through the efforts of OSU engineering faculty and the Michael Scott Mater Foundation, which used a $27,000 grant from the Oregon Built Environment and Sustainable Technologies Center to attract more than $400,000 from a variety of other sources.

The relationship between OSU and Iraqi campuses began a year ago, when OSU alumnus Josh Mater, then a captain in the U.S. Army, gathered engineering textbooks worth $10,000 to donate to the University of Dhi Qar in Nasiriyah. Mater, now the CEO of the Michael Scott Mater Foundation, had been stationed in Iraq and saw firsthand the need for supplies.

Kyle Odegard covers

Oregon State University.

He can be contacted at kyle.odegard@lee.net