Engineering Education Engagement - 2020 Winners

2020 Winner for Engineering Education Engagement

Congratulations to Cris Birzer, Nick Brown, Eva Cheng, Sarah Herkess, Beatrix Neville, Tanja Rosenqvist, Jeremy Smith, Alison Stoakley and Jennifer Turner - For ‘Humanitarian Design Summits’

Humanitarian Design Summits is a team application for the AAEE award for Engineering Education Engagement. The application has been led by Nick Brown (RMIT), Sarah Herkess (EWB), Jeremy Smith (ANU), Jennifer Turner (SUT), Eva Cheng (UTS), Cris Birzer (UoA), Alison Stoakley (EWB), Beatrix Neville (EWB) and, Tanja Rosenqvist (RMIT).

In reality this small team represent dozens of academics, educators, and practitioners who have contributed to the design and delivery of the Humanitarian Design Summit program over the past six years.

Engineers Without Borders Australia (EWB) led Humanitarian Design Summits (EWB Summits) are two-week immersive cross-cultural study-abroad programs that embed human-centred values and approaches in engineering, design, and technology.

Since the first EWB Summit in January 2015, over 1,500 students from 35 universities have participated. Sustained success has derived from the purposeful engagement with multiple stakeholders, including EWB, 32 Australian and three New Zealand universities, university students, academics, and dozens of local partner organisations.

The engagement has resulted in approximately $4,800,000 in student mobility funding and almost $500,000 universities’ administrative funding, much from consortia applications.

Through this engagement with EWB Summits, universities across Australasia have produced graduates with greater global awareness, understanding of the implementation of engineering and technology within society, and stronger consideration of the social impacts of engineering. EWB Summits are raising the quality of engineering education across Australasia and redefining engineering as a human-centred profession.