Humanitarian engineering project changing lives in India
Five students, two weeks and millions of lives potentially changed.
They’re the statistics associated with CQUniversity’s 2024 Humanitarian Engineering Program, held at Amrita Live-in-Labs® in India.
“Five Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) students have recently returned from India where they spent time working in communities as part of our annual program,” Associate Professor in Engineering Shameen Jinadasa explained.
“Firstly, they explored their adopted community seeking opportunities to build capacity by applying civil and humanitarian engineering methods,” he said.
“Then, they engaged with a cross-section of individuals to understand their needs and capabilities through empathy mapping, facilitating appropriate engineering suggestions for the community.”
Third-year student Rylee Donald, who lives in Cairns and colleague Juliette Lewis from Rockhampton, were teamed up on the trip where they visited Pullincunno Kuttanad - a low-lying coastal area known for its intricate network of canals.
“This location is particularly vulnerable to climate change and extreme weather events,” Rylee explained.
“This poses significant challenges to the local community, including the fact that they do not have a sustainable flood shelter to keep them safe during this time. These floods result in the displacement of residents and livestock, producing social, economic and environmental issues for the community.”
The ‘solution’, Rylee explained, was to design sustainable, flood-resistant temporary shelters for displaced residents and livestock, whilst employing community engagement to meet their unique needs.
“Juliette and I engaged with the community to understand their specific requirements and concerns and we facilitated collaborative design sessions with residents to prototype designs.”
The duo created a community-centred, post-disaster temporary shelter prototype - which also formed part of their assessment.
Fellow students that attended the trip included Brad Purdon (Dysart), Chloe Coombe (Rockhampton) and Elise Green (Mackay).
“The purpose of this program is to provide our students with opportunities to design engineering solutions that will help the quality of life of other people,” Assoc Prof Jinadasa said.
“When we have engineers working in an office or a lab, there’s a gap between community and professionals,” Assoc Prof Jinadasa explained.
“By working together, they are able to come up with practical and sustainable concepts that benefit both the engineers and the community,” he said.
Four more CQUniversity students will head to India in November for the second round of the 2024 Humanitarian Engineering program – all of which are funded through Destination Australia’s Cheung Kong Exchange Program.
Assoc Prof Jinadasa said Humanitarian engineering was becoming popular across Australasia with CQU’s Civil and Humanitarian Major now accredited by Engineers Australia.
