Global Humanitarian Engineering Solutions: A Partnership Between Mercer University and the United Nations Humanitarian Response Depot
- Conference
- Location
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Salt Lake City, Utah
- Publication Date
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June 23, 2018
- Start Date
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June 23, 2018
- End Date
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July 27, 2018
- Conference Session
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Humanitarian and Sustainability in a Global Engineering Context
- Tagged Division
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International
- Page Count
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14
- DOI
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10.18260/1-2--30560
- Permanent URL
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https://peer.asee.org/30560
- Download Count
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862
Paper Authors
Michael F MacCarthy
Mercer University
orcid.org/0000-0003-4224-9894
Michael MacCarthy is an Assistant Professor of Environmental & Civil Engineering at Mercer University, where he directs the Engineering for Development program. He has 20 years of experience in water resources engineering, international development, and project management, including nearly a decade living and working in less-developed countries (as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Cameroon, an infrastructure and community development engineer in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mali, & Mauritania, and an engineering for development researcher in Madagascar, Bolivia, South Africa, Mozambique, & the Dominican Republic).
Holly F. Berns Mercer University
Holly Berns earned her BSE in mechanical engineering from Mercer University in 2017. She has
helped with research regarding water and sanitation hygiene principles (WASH) in Madagascar
for Mercer on Mission and innovative supply chain solutions for the World Food Program (e.g.
temperature control of SNF - Thermal Shield). She is a past United Nations Intern for
UNHRD LAB in Italy.
Ryan Monty United Nations Humanitarian Response Depot
Graduated in May 2017 with a BS in mechanical engineering and a minor in physics. After graduating I took an internship with the United Nations Humanitarian Response Depot (UNHRD) which eventually led to my current position as a engineering consultant for the UNHRD innovation lab.
Mitzi Erin Brett
Erin Brett graduated from Mercer University with a Masters and Bachelors in Environmental Engineering. As the first Mercer student to intern with UNHRD in Brindisi, she helped to build the partnership between the two entities. She now works for an Environmental Engineering consulting firm in Orlando, Florida and is a member of Samaritan Purse’s Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) where she was most recently deployed as a WASH Logisitician in Dominica for the Hurricane Maria response.
Zachary Lewis Martin
Zachary L. Martin graduated from Mercer University with a Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering as well as a Master's degree in Engineering Management. He has volunteered with Mercer on Mission as an assistant with researching health and water sanitation practices (WASH) for families in eastern Madagascar. He currently works for Burns & McDonnell, a consulting engineering firm, in the Aviation & Federal industry.
Pietro Sannipoli United Nations Humanitarian Response Depot
Pietro Sannipoli is part of the UNHRD Lab since its establishment and he is currently its Project Manager for the Thermal Shield. He also takes part in the relationship with universities providing support in identifying and guiding new projects. Pietro holds his Master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Alma Mater Studiorum University of Bologna, Italy, where he specialized in Industrial Management and Supply Chain.
Nicolas Jerome Messmer
Walid Ibrahim
Scott Schultz Mercer University
Dr. Scott Schultz is the Associate Dean and an Associate Professor of Industrial and Systems Engineering in the Department of Industrial Engineering at Mercer University in Macon, Georgia. He also consults at the Mercer Engineering Research Center in Warner Robins, Georgia. He comes from an Industrial background with thirteen years of experience with Ford Motor Co. in Dearborn, MI and Windsor, Ontario and two years of experience at the North Carolina State University Furniture Manufacturing and Management Center. Ten of his years at Ford were as an Information Technology manager in areas of development, installation and support. His primary research and teaching interests are in scheduling, heuristics and process modeling.
Katelyn C.N. Dimopoulos Mercer University
Katelyn Dimopoulos was the captain of the Mercer University Division 1 Women’s Soccer team and recently earned her BSE in mechanical engineering from Mercer University in 2017. She traveled to Madagascar as part of the Mercer on Mission program to research water and sanitation principles (WASH). She worked as a United Nations intern for the UNHRD Lab in Italy for 3 months and is currently working as an Engineer-In-Training at KCI in Georgia, USA.
Abstract
Mercer University’s Engineering for Development (E4D) program prepares students to become leaders in implementing sustainable solutions for people and the environment, with an emphasis on improving the lives of under-served populations. The United Nations Humanitarian Response Depot (UNHRD), an entity of the World Food Programme (WFP), is responsible primarily for procurement, prepositioning, and transport of relief non-food items on behalf of the international humanitarian community, for over eighty global organizations. Since early-2015, Mercer's E4D program has been a partner with UNHRD LAB, the research and development lab that focuses on providing better solutions to UNHRD and its partners, specifically to improve logistics support equipment and provide solutions for reducing waste from relief item packaging.
This paper describes: (1) background on UNHRD and Mercer's E4D program, (2) the initiation and development of the Mercer-UNHRD partnership, (3) key ways in which the partnership is advancing interests both for Mercer's engineering students and UNHRD, including through student research and design projects, (4) how UNHRD-Mercer research topics are being used to pique students’ interest while they learn fundamental engineering concepts, and (5) future plans to grow the partnership.
MacCarthy, M. F., & Berns, H. F., & Monty, R., & Brett, M. E., & Martin, Z. L., & Sannipoli, P., & Messmer, N. J., & Ibrahim, W., & Schultz, S., & Dimopoulos, K. C. (2018, June), Global Humanitarian Engineering Solutions: A Partnership Between Mercer University and the United Nations Humanitarian Response Depot Paper presented at 2018 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition , Salt Lake City, Utah. 10.18260/1-2--30560
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