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

0432535康伯巴奇在这次规划访问中，PI将为加纳和肯尼亚未来的本科工程研究项目奠定基础。美国本科工程专业的学生通常接触到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，稳定的电力供应、充足的燃料、随时可用的替换零件和熟练的劳动力往往是既定的。PI打算为学生提供加纳和肯尼亚的工程研究经验，在那里，个人的足智多谋，观察，推断和推理的能力，以及应用科学基础的能力将受到挑战和发展。 这次规划之旅的目的是确定非洲合作者和适合未来本科生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核心功能来提高他们的教育。在利用有限的资源重建这些功能的过程中，本科生将学会应对一系列工程需求和规格，这些需求和规格是发展中国家恶劣环境所特有的。将鼓励学生采用极简主义的方法来设计，使用基础物理，化学和数学作为工具，引入和加强可持续工程的概念。在这次规划访问期间，PI将制定一项计划，不仅通过接触新的工程环境来提高学生的工程技能，而且还将在个人和社会资源远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，生态和环境意识可能会采取一个新的重要性，因为学生考虑在这种情况下工程解决方案。此外，计划中的项目将为学生提供与非洲合作者合作的机会，他们可以从中了解东道国的文化，以及对不同工程需求的更多反应。

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.