US-Africa Planning Visit: Undergraduate Engineering Research in Ghana and Kenya

在这次计划访问中，PI将为未来在加纳和肯尼亚的本科工程研究项目奠定基础。美国工科本科学生通常接触工程研究和设计经验，这些经验借鉴了发达工业化国家的强大基础设施。例如，持续的电力供应、充足的燃料、随时可用的替换零件和熟练的劳动力，通常都是给定的。该项目旨在为学生提供在加纳和肯尼亚的工程研究经验，在那里，个人的智谋、观察、推断和推演的能力以及应用科学基础的能力将受到挑战和发展。这次计划之旅的目的是确定非洲合作者和适合未来本科研究项目的特定工程挑战；例子可能包括确定非洲结构的设计特征，这些特征有助于它们保持恒定的内部温度，或者确定有效和分散的发电方法。在这样的项目中，学生将通过将公认的工程解决方案解构为其核心功能来增强他们的教育。在利用有限的资源重建这些功能的过程中，本科生将学会对发展中国家恶劣环境中所特有的一系列工程要求和规范做出反应。学生将被鼓励采用极简主义的方法来设计他们的设计，使用基础物理、化学和数学作为他们的工具，引入和加强可持续工程的概念。在这次计划访问期间，PI将开发一个项目，不仅可以通过接触新的工程环境来提高学生的工程技能，还可以在个人和社会资源远少于发达国家的社会和经济环境中提供经验。在这种情况下，当学生在这种情况下考虑工程解决方案时，生态和环境意识可能会具有新的重要性。此外，正在计划中的项目将使学生有机会与非洲合作者一起工作，从他们那里，他们既可以了解东道国的文化，也可以了解更多对不同工程需求的反应。

0432535CumberbatchIn this planning visit the PI will lay the groundwork for future undergraduate engineering research projects in Ghana and Kenya. American undergraduate engineering students are usually exposed to engineering research and design experiences that draw upon the strong infrastructure of a developed, industrialized nation. Consistent power supply, abundant fuel, and the ready availability of replacement parts and skilled labor, for example, are often a given. The PI intends to offer students engineering research experiences in Ghana and Kenya, where personal resourcefulness, the ability to observe, infer, and deduce, and the ability to apply scientific fundamentals will be challenged and developed. The purpose of this planning trip is to identify African collaborators and particular engineering challenges appropriate for future undergraduate research projects; examples might include identifying design features of African structures that contribute to their ability to maintain a constant internal temperature, or identifying effective and decentralized methods for generating electrical power. In such projects students would enhance their education by deconstructing accepted engineering solutions into their core functions. In the course of reconstructing these functions using limited resources, the undergraduates would learn to respond to a set of engineering demands and specifications that are unique to the harsh environments found in the developing world. Students will be encouraged to adopt a minimalist approach to their design using fundamental physics, chemistry and mathematics as their tools, introducing and reinforcing the concept of sustainable engineering. During this planning visit the PI will develop a program that will not only improve students' engineering skills via exposure to a new engineering milieu, but will also provide experience within a social and economic environment where individuals and societies have far fewer resources than in the developed world. Under such conditions, ecological and environmental awareness will likely take on a new importance as students consider engineered solutions in this context. Furthermore, the program being planned will give students the opportunity to work with African collaborators, from whom they can learn both about the culture of their host countries, as well as about a greater repertoire of responses to diverse engineering demands.