Summary

This project will achieve a basis for the future development of a Warwick Humanitarian Engineering Centre. By the end of the project, a network of internal and external contributors will be established, human resources will be teamed up for the Warwick Humanitarian Engineering Society which will encompass academic staff, non-academic staff and students, and an interdisciplinary module under the topic 'Introduction to Humanitarian engineering' will be introduced. The future plans of the applicants are to introduce a Warwick Humanitarian Centre that will include teaching and research alongside humanitarian engineering. The teaching/learning process will lead to highly trained professionals to provide better designs and systemic solutions to humanitarian challenges while simultaneously, the research process will help build trust and ownership amongst the stakeholders and facilitate the implementation of new solutions. The Centre's activities could be used from other innovators and communities to solve humanitarian problems.

The teaching plans of the current project include the introduction of a new Interdisciplinary Module, under the title 'Introduction to Humanitarian Engineering while in the near future a group of more interdisciplinary modules around the same theme, i.e. (a) Energy and humanitarian challenges; (b) Sustainable Developments in Emerging Economies; (c) Infrastructure in Emergencies (Water supply; Sanitation; Shelters; Energy supply); (d) Emergency and Crisis Management (disasters and emergencies; management of effective humanitarian relief;assessment, planning and management of emergency response; how communities and individuals are affected by disasters).

At the current phase the project can reach all UG and PG students of several departments i.e. Engineering, Humanities, Social Sciences, Medical Sciences, Business and Economics, Politics and International Studies, who can become members of the Warwick Humanitarian Engineering Society and act voluntarily towards the scope of Humanitarian Engineering. The interdisciplinary module will be available to PG students from the aforementioned departments who could undertake it and enrich their knowledge and skills towards this theme.

Several parties will be involved in the project including Warwick students and staff from several departments, external specialists in field of Humanitarian Engineering (academics from other Universities, i.e. University College London, Loughborough University, Coventry University etc) and non-academics) and volunteer bodies/organisations (Engineers without Borders, redr UK, Manisha UK, Refugee Action, Institute of Civil Protection and Emergency Management, WES etc).