Development engineering

Development Engineering is based on the belief that engineering has the potential to improve the situation of low-income communities by integrating insights from the social sciences along the entire arc of technological innovation, from prototyping to production at scale.

The course emphasizes project-based learning and human-centered design. It trains future EPFL engineers to contribute to helping resolve global societal challenges with a particular focus on emerging and developing countries. By putting the users' needs of low-income countries in the center of the design process, the chances of widespread adoption and therefore large-scale impact are significantly increased. Engineering disciplines have repeatedly been reinvented, leading to the emergence of aerospace engineering and biomedical engineering for instance. 

Development Engineering follows suit as a new emerging discipline with the ultimate aim of poverty alleviation and sustainable development.

Learning Outcomes:

By the end of the course, the student must be able to:

• Identify essential technologies and how they contribute to sustainable development
• Analyze affordable, sustainable, and socially acceptable technology solutions, for development
• Elaborate the interlinkages between development, humanitarian action and peace promotion.
• Carry out Development engineering projects in an interdisciplinary manner, i.e. integrating the contributions and expertise of different disciplines.
• Propose sustainable and socially responsible business solutions, adapted to the specific context of Low and middle-income countries.
• Characterize underlying causes and effects of extreme poverty, faced by emerging and developing countries.

Videos to watch before 16h15.

- (3.1) Case study xray (16’)
- (3.2) Tech innovation process (14’)
- (3.3) Impact canvas (12’)
- (3.4) Impact canvas: using the tool (14’)

16:15 - Introduction to the 2nd part of the class and launch of group work 2.