Humanitarian Engineering Projects Research Articles

Community-Based Participatory Workshop on Recycling Construction and Demolition Waste for the Empowerment of Women and Low-Income Communities in Colombia

This case study presents a community-based, integrated solution to mitigate the environmental impacts of construction and demolition waste (C&DW) as well as empower women and low-income communities in Colombia to find decent and safe work by gaining skills in extracting value from what is traditionally seen as waste. Utilizing a primarily qualitative, participatory mixed method approach to understand the neglected knowledge, expertise, and goals of a low-income community as well as the complex systems that shape their lives, this case study presents a humanitarian engineering project aimed at collaborating with women in low-income communities in Colombia to manage and extract value from C&DW. The objective of this investigation is to connect C&DW management, empowerment, and sustainable community development by utilizing a participatory, community-based workshop. This study is significant as it depicts an inclusive urban mining project with the aim of contributing to sustainable community development methods in community-based engineering projects. Furthermore, this study also contributes to the study of women’s empowerment approaches by demonstrating the use of contextually situated empowerment approaches. Ultimately, although not conclusive, this study is offered as an example of an inclusive urban mining, community-based project, with the hope that it may inform future efforts of this type and promote interdisciplinary collaboration aimed at C&DW management for the empowerment of communities.

Using pictorial action instructions to build a basic humanitarian engineering project

Humanitarian engineering projects mitigate environmental hazards disproportionately affecting health in low- and middle-income countries. However, widespread literacy deficits can create barriers in training low-literacy adults to construct these projects, indicating a need for literacy-adapted training materials. A randomized control trial in rural Guatemala tested the usability of pictorial action instructions, compared to demonstration-only methods, in training low-literacy adults (N = 60; n = 30 per group) to construct a solar bottle bulb. Fourteen days after the training, participants individually constructed the solar bottle bulb. The intervention group received pictorial action instructions to guide them, and the control group completed construction based on memory. Usability was evaluated by measuring the effectiveness and efficiency of construction, as well as user satisfaction and self-efficacy levels. Effectiveness and self-efficacy were significantly better among those in the intervention group compared to the control group. Considering this, the findings support the use of pictorial action instructions in training low-literacy adults to construct humanitarian engineering projects. This method may allow more individuals in rural regions of low- and middle-income countries to successfully construct their own humanitarian engineering projects in a way that is sustainable and scalable. Further research is needed to test these instructions in different settings, on a larger scale, as well as to test the long-term effects of using pictorial action instructions.

Development and Testing of Pictorial Action Instructions for a Basic Humanitarian Engineering Project: A Feasibility Study

The aim of this study was to develop, refine, and assess the usability of pictorial action instructions (PAI) in training low-literacy individuals to build a basic humanitarian engineering project. Health in low- and middle-income countries is disproportionately affected by environmental hazards, often mitigated by such projects, but widespread literacy deficits often necessitate literacy-adapted materials for training. Project-specific PAI were developed, refined, and tested, with the intent of later testing them abroad. Development was based on best practice guidelines for illustrations and easy-to-understand text. The PAI were then reviewed by literacy specialists for content and formatting. Next, a feasibility study was conducted in Utah with low-literacy immigrants who were trained to use the PAI and provided with tools and materials to individually construct the project. Usability metrics gathered included construction efficiency and effectiveness, user satisfaction, and self-efficacy. Effectiveness was 100% and user satisfaction and self-efficacy were both high. Participants provided feedback to improve the PAI’s clarity by changing item proximity and combining or separating steps, and revisions were made. In future PAI development, it would be beneficial to include low-literacy individuals when making the initial sketches to enhance sequence clarity before finalizing the illustrations.

Five Guiding Principles to Enhance Community Participation in Humanitarian Engineering Projects.

Humanitarian engineering (HE) is a very complex endeavour that requires addressing technical problems whilst concurrently engaging the community members who will ultimately benefit from the engineers’ solutions. Community participation is particularly important because it is directly linked to the sustainability of projects. Whilst many strategies have been proposed to engage partner communities, the HE literature lacks a comprehensive framework of guiding principles for more effectively engaging community members. The goal of this study is to develop a framework of principles that can support humanitarian engineering professionals and educators to enhance the participation of community members. In this study, we used a qualitative systematised literature review to collect 49 journal articles focused on humanitarian engineering projects and strategies. The analysis of the collected papers led to identification of five guiding principles: 1) collaborating with local champions (NGOs and similar), 2) harnessing local resources and expertise, 3) integrating ethics and social justice, 4) building trusting and equitable relationships, and 5) creating competent multi or inter-disciplinary teams. The identified principles provide a framework that can enable humanitarian professionals and educators involved in small-scale HE projects to enhance the way they interact with community members. We conclude the paper with a series of questions based on the five principles that may allow humanitarian engineers to reflect on the way they interact with community members and thus enhance their relationships. We also invite other humanitarian engineers to further expand concepts related to the suggested principles, and to explore ways to best apply these principles in practice.

Supporting the Development of Engineers' Interdisciplinary Competence

Background Although interdisciplinarity has been a subject of interest and debate for decades, few investigations of interdisciplinary education exist. Existing studies examine the effects of interdisciplinary experiences on students' development of generic cognitive skills but not the development of interdisciplinary competencies. Purpose/Hypothesis This study sought to explore how engineering students' characteristics, college experiences, and engineering faculty beliefs relate to students' reports of interdisciplinary competence. Design/Method The study used a nationally representative survey sample of 5,018 undergraduate students and 1,119 faculty members in 120 U.S. engineering programs at 31 institutions. Using hierarchical linear modeling, we investigated the relationships among students' curricular and co-curricular experiences and faculty beliefs regarding interdisciplinarity in engineering education on students' reports of interdisciplinary competence. Results This study found that a curricular emphasis on interdisciplinary topics and skills, as well as co-curricular activities, specifically, participating in nonengineering clubs and organizations, study abroad, and humanitarian engineering projects, significantly and positively relate to engineering students' reports of interdisciplinary skills. Faculty members' beliefs regarding interdisciplinarity in engineering education moderated the relationships between particular co-curricular experiences and students' interdisciplinary skills, as well as between curricular emphasis and students' interdisciplinary skills. Conclusions This study identified a small set of experiences that are related to students' reported development of interdisciplinary competence. The study points to the critical role of the curriculum in promoting interdisciplinary thinking and habits of mind, as well as the potential of co-curricular opportunities that bring engineering students together with nonmajors to build interdisciplinary competence.

Reducing rural isolation: a tale of two bridges

Worldwide, more than one billion rural residents do not have all-weather access to markets, schools, healthcare and other facilities, a condition which significantly impedes economic development. In the developing world, where walking is the primary form of transportation, footbridges can provide safe year-round access to these critical facilities by eliminating weather-induced obstructions in the transportation network caused by flooded rivers. This paper presents case studies of two footbridges constructed with non-profit organisation ‘Bridges to Prosperity’. The 81 m long Rio Abajo footbridge in Nicaragua and the 51 m long Gaseke footbridge in Rwanda were constructed with industry partners from North America and the UK. The importance of engaging with the beneficiary communities when working on humanitarian engineering projects was evident during the construction of both footbridges. The significant local involvement in the construction of both footbridges will help to ensure the long-term sustainability of the infrastructure projects.

Global perspectives: First-year engineering students’ views on social engineering projects

The purpose of this research was to investigate the impact of a new first-year course on students’ views on engineering practice and problem solving for a global context. Specifically, we wanted to know how first-year engineering students viewed humanitarian engineering projects, what these projects meant to them, what the specific design requirements are and whether their views on the role of engineers were influenced as a result of the course. A short feedback survey was administered to the class following the completion of the course in 2014. Thirty-six responses were received, collated and analysed (from a total of 50 students), giving a response rate of 72%. This paper presents the findings and discusses the important concepts that engineering students learn and their views about social engineering projects.

Lessons from a student-led development project in Peru: Aligning technical and educational perspectives

With the growth of student interest in humanitarian engineering development projects, a critical assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of this type of work is crucial to success. While a number of models exist for joining development with technical expertise in humanitarian engineering projects, this paper focuses on the experiences of students working on a program in Peru within the Greater Austin Chapter of Engineers Without Borders (EWB)-USA. This program is a unique EWB-USA program that builds on ongoing academic research in the Peruvian Andes at the University of Texas at Austin and regional efforts by The Mountain Institute to mitigate the effects of climate change on Peruvian communities that need technical solutions to water issues. We contrast the benefits and struggles of pursuing a student-led initiative with a regional scope. Specifically, this case study shares how the roles of partnerships between universities, private sector, government, and nongovernmental organizations create challenges and opportunities for a student-led humanitarian engineering program. The key challenges identified are (1) effectual use of U.S. team members, (2) building trust and open communication with in-country partners, and (3) understanding community dynamics and adapting projects to their local context. We present how development of a ‘non-traditional engineering classroom’ framework can serve as a proactive means for facilitating effective knowledge transfer, critical reflection, and service-learning to improve project outcomes.

Community Development: “EZ HEAT” Westwood Solar Furnace Project

This paper presents a humanitarian engineering project in Denver, Colorado's Westwood community. This project was a collaboration with Metropolitan State University of Denver, the Mortenson Center in Engineering for Developing Communities at the University of Colorado Boulder and the non-profit community group ReVision International. This paper discusses the implementation of a helpful technology solution for the community that could alleviate an identified problem common for households in Westwood. This paper presents the project through all the steps: community appraisal, analysis, problem identification, strategy planning, implementation and a plan for monitoring and evaluation. The community analysis identified the financial burden of high energy bills on the residents of the community as a pervasive problem that could be alleviated with a simple design, the solar furnace, a box built using recycled aluminum cans, plywood and acrylic plastic that heats the house through the conversion of solar energy into warm air.To demonstrate the technology, students from MSU Denver constructed and tested 4 different solar furnace design units, and implemented a pilot test at Re:Vision's (a local NGO working in Westwood) office. held a focus group with community leaders (“promotoras”) for discussion about the pilot unit, calculated energy and cost savings for the design, and developed a plan to continue the project from pilot stage to community implementation and installed 4 demonstration units on family households.The paper addresses the capacity and risk analysis for this design, the design itself, the implementation plan, the monitoring and evaluation plan which are the natural next steps in the project.

Pico-Hydropower Franchising in Rural Honduras

This paper describes a four-year effort to alleviate poverty in rural villages of Honduras by creating financially self-sustaining electricity businesses at the village level. What began as a humanitarian engineering project undertaken by students and faculty at Baylor University, subsequently evolved into a larger effort of social entrepreneurship that included the incorporation of companies in the United States and Honduras. A novel micro-franchise business model was created that used small hydropower systems to generate electricity in local villages, and local villagers having vested financial interests to maintain, distribute, and protect these systems. Two of the authors relocated to Honduras to install village-level franchises, but numerous problems plagued the project. A few months after we launched the businesses, however, a fatal flaw was identified in the business model regarding the pace at which new systems could be deployed. Disclosure of this flaw resulted in the loss of funding. This paper will attempt to share the successes and failures of this project. Focus will be given to the most innovative aspects of our project which were largely entrepreneurial in nature. Technical details, when they are novel, will be shared, but hydro electric basics will be omitted where there is existing literature.

A Model for Sustainable Humanitarian Engineering Projects

The engineering profession should embrace a new mission statement—to contribute to the building of a more sustainable, stable, and equitable world. Recently, engineering students and professionals in the United States have shown strong interest in directly addressing the needs of developing communities worldwide. That interest has taken the form of short-and medium-term international trips through Engineers Without Borders—USA and similar organizations. There are also several instances where this kind of outreach work has been integrated into engineering education at various US institutions such as the University of Colorado at Boulder. This paper addresses the challenges and opportunities associated with balancing two goals in engineering for humanitarian development projects: (i) effective sustainable community development, and (ii) meaningful education of engineers. Guiding principles necessary to meet those two goals are proposed.