2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

As students learn the engineering design process, it is important for them to consider global contexts. However, hands-on experience practicing this skill this is often lacking in standard engineering curricula. From 2021-2022, three workshops were implemented which exposed approximately 100 undergraduate science and engineering students to medical device design for low-resource settings. Each two-day workshop exposes undergraduate students from across disciplines to real world scenarios from sub-Saharan Africa. Participants work in teams to ideate and prototype healthcare innovations for limited resource settings with coaching from international mentors. The program is free for students, with a target audience of underrepresented groups in STEM, including those who have had little to no previous international experience, but have a passion to learn more about design and global health.
Day 1 of the program seeks to give a common background to the participants with the key goals of introduction to the engineering design process with a human-centered approach, practice with empathetic design, discussion with cultural mentors from sub-Saharan Africa, and information on career opportunities in global health. Day 2 of the program is focused on a case study of health care system improvements in Tanzania. Participants choose one of three projects, such as (1) cold storage of vaccines in the absence of electricity, (2) simplification of a glucose monitoring process using local resources, or (3) streamlining health care system accessibility among highly stigmatized populations. At the conclusion of the program, each team explains their execution of the engineering design process and pitches their final concept and prototype to their peers and mentors.
Data related to the curriculum goals is assessed using surveys and instructor assessment at three phases of the workshop (pre/during/post) with qualitative and quantitative approaches and then is examined using statistical software. These data demonstrate how this experience, focused on design-based learning combined with cross-cultural awareness, impacts both undergraduate perceptions of design for limited-resource settings, as well as their personal development of cross-cultural competencies.