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Engagement in Practice: Some Do’s and Don’ts in Partnership Development for a Successful Humanitarian Engineering Project.

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Conference

2019 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Tampa, Florida

Publication Date

June 15, 2019

Start Date

June 15, 2019

End Date

June 19, 2019

Conference Session

Engaging Community through STEM partnerships

Tagged Division

Community Engagement Division

Page Count

10

DOI

10.18260/1-2--32713

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/32713

Download Count

519

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Paper Authors

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Shiyin Lim Santa Clara University

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Sydney Thompson Santa Clara University

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I am a senior mechanical engineering student at Santa Clara University, with a passion for implementing social justice through engineering.

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Tonya Lynn Nilsson P.E. Santa Clara University

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Tonya Nilsson is a Senior Lecturer in Civil Engineering at Santa Clara University (SCU), where she regularly facilitates pedagogical training for other faculty. Prior to joining SCU, Tonya was an Associate Professor at CSU - Chico.

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Abstract

This paper presents lessons learned by Santa Clara University undergraduate students and their faculty advisor after more than four years of relationship building with and design projects for a community in rural Rwanda. Initial projects and communication did not incorporate a Human Centered Design Thinking approach, which was detrimental to early project success and community trust with the community. The described humanitarian engineering work is led by a team of volunteer undergraduate students who change from year to year. Through reflection on project challenges, the team leaders developed a unique sub-team that has evolved over several years to have a focus on building community between our team members and our Rwandan partners. As part of relationship building, the sub-team is responsible for the cultural and technical education of both our team members and our Rwandan partners. An overview of early failures, how they informed the role of the sub-team, and the resulting changes to our design and communication approaches that led to recent successes will offer insight for other institutions looking to develop humanitarian engineering programs.

Lim, S., & Thompson, S., & Nilsson, T. L. (2019, June), Engagement in Practice: Some Do’s and Don’ts in Partnership Development for a Successful Humanitarian Engineering Project. Paper presented at 2019 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition , Tampa, Florida. 10.18260/1-2--32713

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