EDSGN 452Projects in Humanitarian Engineering

2 credits · Engineering Design · Penn State

Multidisciplinary student teams engage in integrated design of real-world humanitarian ventures. EDSGN 452 Projects in Humanitarian Engineering (2) EDSGN 452 is intended to promote civic responsibility and enhance the student's abilities to engage in research and design, project management, communications, professional conduct and the understanding of user needs. This is accomplished by students undertaking team-based engineering projects in community service with partner community organizations. The projects offer real-world engineering design experience, from problem formulation through performance assessment. The project offerings will include a mix of local and international offerings. Students work on multidisciplinary teams with a project supervisor (i.e., faculty or practicing engineer) and a representative from the partner community organization. Projects are selected based on academic content, potential significance to the partner community, commitment of the partner community organization, and student safety. Students also examine the politics of technology, the relationship between engineering and communities (either domestic or international), and ethics in engineering practice. This includes the ways that engineering can be used positively and negatively in development. In the course of their work, the students will examine the ways that economic, social, cultural, political, and other contextual considerations are implicated in engineering design. Students are challenged to think critically about how engineering can be done most effectively to support community goals, and how engineering can weaken community efforts if done insensitively. These issues are explored through discussions of the relevant scholarly theory and through their manifestation in the course projects.