| Scope |
BSD/PCSA humanitarian engineering symposium is an invitation-only, special topics symposium aimed to broaden our community’s perspective to problems facing developing countries around the world. This symposium will advocate for materials research in support of developing countries by inviting speakers who (i) conduct materials research to solve problems of the most basic needs, (ii) work to combine technology development with financial resources to implement technology in developing countries, and (iii) volunteer as students through multiple non-profit organizations. A tentative outline of the single afternoon session is below:
● (2) Materials research talks, 30 min each:
○ Prof. Clive Randall, Penn State University, Materials research for building materials
○ Prof. Ian Nettleship, University of Pittsburgh, Materials research for clean water
● (2) Entrepreneurship and technical development/implementation talk, 30 min each:
○ Mike Stubna, Founder of Ceramic Water Filter Solutions
○ Prof. Khanjan Mehta, Founding Director of the Humanitarian Engineering and Social Entrepreneurship (HESE) Program at Penn State
● (1) Student panel discussing volunteer projects and opportunities for student involvement, 30 min
○ Victoria Christensen, Honduras: Global Brigades
○ Arjak Bhattacharjee, India
○ Wirat Lerdprom, Uganda: Spouts of Water (SPOUTS)
This symposium will attract students and professionals interested in applying the basic science of materials research to problems with many constraints. This field of research has made large impacts on the communities they serve; however, humanitarian engineering is not widely studied in the materials community. This symposium will promote ACerS’ efforts in introducing its new Humanitarian Activities Network (HAN) to the society in a way that engages the audience through the process of impacting a community from start to finish. The student panel seeks to motivate undergraduate and graduate students to take action by traveling to countries to combat problems like access to clean water, affordable housing, renewable energy, and health care, some of which we take for granted living in the US.
** All organizers are associated with ACerS President Council of Student Advisors (PCSA) |