Designing humanitarian engineering from practice: Experiences and outcomes in a developing world context

Abstract

Some universities and engineering schools around the world have developed programs and initiatives related with engineers making social and environmental impacts. This paper presents the results of a two years design process of a humanitarian engineering educational Program at Universidad Sergio Arboleda in Colombia in South America from a practical perspective. The Program looks for the generation of professionals more aware of their decisions where they change the perspective from "knowledge owners" to "design facilitators". It is based in three main conceptual paths: Social Appropriation of Technology, Listening and co-creation, and facilitation of social business model for communities. The main goal of this Program is to provide our engineering students with systemic thinking methodologies and skills, while been sensitive to a social context in order for them to be able to identify the main actors and variables of complex systems, and at the same contribute in the solution of complex problems. For the purpose of achieving this goal, the Program seeks to maximize the spaces of interactions between professors, students and communities to generate transversal knowledge between different disciplines and co-create solutions in a participatory way, teaching them how to work in a multidisciplinary context.