Engineers Without Borders Ireland (EWB Ireland) – Leaders in Humanitarian Engineering
“Where There Is No Engineer – Designing for Community Resilience” is a collaboration between EWB Ireland and the Development Technology in the Community (DTC) Research Group within TU Dublin. The program brings the world into the classroom to re-imagine the way we teach engineering. Each year we develop a set of design briefs with our development partners around the world, based on the real life challenges faced by communities within a specific country. Students are challenged to innovate and develop solutions and products which are appropriate to the people and the environment. Student teams participate in interactive workshops to design, build and test their concepts. The best teams showcase their innovations at a National Final, where the winning team is sponsored by Davies Ltd. to travel to the selected country to work with the community. The EWB innovation academy also works with a number of teams to develop their concepts. The initiative is supported by a range of flexible learning resources which empower lecturers to challenge the next generation of engineers to be problem solvers and innovators and to contribute in a practical way towards achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The design brief is based on a set of six global development themes, each linked to the UN SDGs;
- Climate Resilient Infrastructure
- Self-Supply Water and Sanitation
- Community Participatory Health
- On and Off (Micro) Grid Energy Systems
- Food Security
- Applying Big Data in the Community
Each theme explores the relationship between People, Technology and the Environment. The setting for this programme varies on an annual basis. The programme is open to students and professionals across the disciplines of engineering, architecture, urban planning, science, business, social science, arts, media etc.
Outstanding undergraduate teams, together with professional teams from each region will be invited to participate in the National Finals where their work is reviewed by a multidisciplinary panel of judges.
The National showcase event is held in June each year. There is an overall award sponsored by Davies Group Ireland. The Davies Award funds the winning team to travel to the country to implement their design concept with a local development partner.
There are four Innovation Awards sponsored by an industry partner. These awards provide funding to teams to develop their concepts to prototype design stage with continued support from TU Dublin and EWB.