The Minor in Humanitarian Engineering explores the role and application of engineering to disadvantaged, marginalised and vulnerable communities to improve quality of life and support empowerment. It provides a connection between engineering and development, placing human well-being at the centre of engineering practice. Students will explore how engineering and technology can contribute to a range of humanitarian and development contexts, from disaster response to long-term community development, both domestically and internationally. It extends participants discipline knowledge through courses in humanitarian action and development contexts and multidiscipline approaches to complex challenges. The need to collaborate and communication with stakeholders from other disciplines and cultures will be emphasised to ensure engineering is contributing to positive impacts as part of broad multidiscipline approaches.
Learning Outcomes
- describe the domestic and international Australian humanitarian aid and development sectors including current priorities, practices, contexts and focus;
- understand the role and limitations of appropriate engineering practice within multi-disciplinary approaches to humanitarian or development contexts incorporating social, economic and environmental factors and outcomes;
- demonstrate the necessary personal skills to work in a humanitarian or development environment, including cross-cultural competency, communication, creativity, ethical practice and critical self-reflection; and
- apply engineering discipline knowledge to multi-disciplinary humanitarian or development contexts and describe how humanitarian principles and skills can inform and enhance discipline practice.
Requirements
This minor requires the completion of 24 units, which must include:
6 units from completion of ENGN3013 Engineering for a Humanitarian Context
6 units from completion of introduction to development courses from the following list:
ANTH1002 Culture and Human Diversity: Introducing Anthropology
ANTH1003 Global Citizen: Culture, Development and Inequality
ENVS1008 Sustainable Development
POLS2011 Development and Change
6 units from completion of humanitarian and development context courses from the following list:
ANTH2009 Culture and Development
ANTH2005 Traditional Australian Indigenous Cultures, Societies and Environment
ANTH2017 Culture, Social Justice and Aboriginal Society Today
ANTH3014 Indonesia Field School: Contemporary Change in Indonesia
ECON2900 Development Poverty and Famine
ENVS2005 Island Sustainable Development: Fiji Field School
ENVS2017 Vietnam Field School
INDG2001 Indigenous Cultural and Natural Resource Management
INDG3001 Public policy development and implementation and Indigenous Australians
PASI2003 Environment and Development in the Pacific
PASI3005 Pacific Islands Field School
POPH3000 Introduction to Population Health
SOCY2030 Sociology of Third World Development
EMSC4706 Introduction to Natural Hazards
6 units from completion of multidisciplinary engagement courses from the following list:
ENGN3410 Engineering Sustainable Systems
ENVS3007 Participatory Resource Management: Working with Communities and Stakeholders
ENVS3021 Human Futures
ENVS3040 Complex Environmental Problems in Action
VCUG3001 Unravelling Complexity
VCUG3002 Mobilising Research
SCOM3027 Science and Public Policy
SCOM3029 Cross Cultural Perspectives in Science Communication
OR
6 units from completion of courses from the languages and cultures subject area.
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