Engineering for People Design Challenge

Started: 2012
Website: www.ewb-uk.org/engineering-for-people
Twitter: @ewbuk
Location: UK & global

Engineers Without Borders UK works to inspire, enable and influence global responsibility through engineering to address the world's most pressing problems. Its Engineering for People Design Challenge is a radical project being delivered in partnership with universities around the world. Its aim: to create a new generation of globally responsible engineers.

By embedding modules using real contexts in the engineering syllabus, it challenges potential engineers to think about designing solutions that are ethical, environmentally sound and culturally sensitive and understand their future role as engineers in society. Now in its fifth year, the challenge is part of the engineering syllabus in 26 universities in the UK and Ireland, reaching more than 4,600 students. It is also taught at universities in Australia, New Zealand and Malaysia.

The transferable skills graduates gain during the challenge inspire a distinctive mindset and expertise in the drive for engineering being at the heart of sustainable development.

Endorsed by the Engineering Council, and the Engineering Professors' Council, Engineers Without Borders UK is making systemic changes to the way that our engineers are educated; the first step towards using engineering as a catalyst to transform our world.

“The most important thing for me was discovering the human element of engineering," says Tsanko Dimou, graduate and now a mechanical engineer at Arup. "The challenge made me aware of how engineers interact and engage with people, and made me consider our responsibility to them."