US-Ghana Student Research: Lessons from Africa - Undergraduate Engineering Research in Rural Ghana

美国-加纳学生研究：非洲的教训 - 加纳农村地区的本科工程研究

• 批准号: 0553789
• 负责人: Toby Cumberbatch
• 金额: $ 13.92万
• 依托单位: Cooper Union
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2006
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2006-09-01 至 2009-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0553789&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: US; Ghana; Student; Research; Lessons

This award will support U.S. undergraduate students to work in rural communities in northern Ghana to research engineering solutions related to the availability and quality of water, energy and shelter. The students will collaborate with a team of Ghanian faculty and students led by Dr. Francis Momade from College of Engineering of Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumasi. This project's unique combination of hands-on, project-based learning, research on appropriate engineering technologies, cultural and language immersion, and pre- and post-travel academic activities will give students insight into how engineering research can address problems associated with the supply of natural resources and the impact of their usage on the environment. Working with their Ghanaian colleagues, the students will deconstruct each problem into its core components, synthesize and design an appropriate, often minimalist, approach that incorporates input from the stakeholders, includes indigenous resources and techniques, and has the potential to be sustainable.In addition to receiving research training and hands-on experience with the rigorous demands of engineering in a developing nation, this project will help students understand what it means to live in another culture as an outsider, how people from different cultures frame questions differently, and how framing questions differently can have important consequences for how engineering is done and what results are achieved in a project. The students will be exposed to a different engineering culture, where engineering education, practices, and methods are often constrained by a dramatic lack of resources. They will work with those who use the research results and they will try to derive solutions with potential to improve the lives of people in rural communities across the developing world. The project aims to give students an appreciation of sustainable design within the broad context of human society and limited natural resources. As practicing engineers, this knowledge will be of benefit to the U. S. and the world at large.

该奖项将支持美国本科生在加纳北方的农村社区工作，研究与水、能源和住房的可用性和质量有关的工程解决方案。学生们将与来自库马西夸梅·恩克鲁玛科技大学工程学院的弗朗西斯·莫马德博士领导的加纳教师和学生团队合作。这个项目的动手，基于项目的学习，对适当的工程技术，文化和语言沉浸研究，以及旅行前和旅行后的学术活动的独特组合将让学生深入了解工程研究如何解决与自然资源供应相关的问题及其对环境的影响。学生们将与加纳同事合作，将每个问题分解为核心组成部分，综合并设计一个适当的，通常是最低限度的方法，该方法将纳入利益相关者的投入，包括本土资源和技术，并具有可持续性的潜力。除了接受研究培训和实践经验，以满足发展中国家工程的严格要求，这个项目将帮助学生理解作为一个局外人生活在另一种文化中意味着什么，来自不同文化的人如何以不同的方式提出问题，以及以不同的方式提出问题如何对工程的完成和项目的成果产生重要影响。学生将接触到不同的工程文化，工程教育，实践和方法往往受到资源严重缺乏的限制。他们将与使用研究成果的人合作，并尝试找到有可能改善发展中国家农村社区人民生活的解决方案。该项目旨在让学生在人类社会和有限自然资源的广泛背景下欣赏可持续设计。作为实践工程师，这些知识将有利于美国。S.乃至世界