Engineering Innovation for Global Challenges : Peacebuilding in Refugee Camps: Creating Innovators and Witnesses

We present the design of a year-long engineering course, offered at USC Viterbi School of Engineering, that aims to teach students how to design products, services and technologies with a human-centered approach to help solve the needs of people caught in the midst of global crises. The course is geared towards students who are: interested in learning about the relationship between technology and society; who have a demonstrated interest in engineering for peacebuilding and community development and in designing solutions for the developing world; and who are tuned to cultural, economic and geographical nuances of the affected regions. The course is built on the three principles of create, collaborate, innovate as well as engineering diplomacy: namely, it is a systems-oriented, interdisciplinary thought process to problem solving and the analysis of global humanitarian crises. It provides students with an understanding of the design process, research methodologies and innovation strategies using a team-based project work through the process of observation, visualization, systems thinking, rapid prototyping and iteration. This paper provides an overview of the course, its description and content, and progress made so far in the accomplishment of its objectives.