Founded 2009 | Area served International | |
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Founder American Society of Mechanical Engineers, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Engineers Without Borders Type International development and education Charity Focus International development, Sustainable development, Appropriate technology, Open source, Health, Water, Sanitation, Architecture, Aid, Infrastructure and Education Location ASME headquarters, 2 Park Ave. New York City, United States | ||
Engineering for change
Engineering for Change (E4C) is an online platform and international community of engineers, scientists, non-governmental organizations, local community advocates and other innovators working to solve global development problems. The organization's founders are the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, and Engineers Without Borders USA. E4C facilitates the development of affordable, locally appropriate and sustainable solutions to the most pressing humanitarian challenges and shares them freely online as a form of open source appropriate technology.
Contents
Members of the E4C community use the platform's online tools to share knowledge and collaborate. They work together to design and apply technical solutions wherever they see the need. Solutions fall into seven categories on the organization's Web site, and they can include big infrastructural projects such as community water purification and bridge building, or smaller, personal technologies such as bicycle-powered electricity generators and cellphone applications for healthcare.
Engineering for change manifesto
History
In 2009, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers created a website to pull together the disparate sources of information on appropriate technology and solutions in global development. The site aggregated information, hosted a library of often little-known technologies, and offered tools to enable collaboration among development teams worldwide. Throughout 2010, the site operated in alpha and then beta with a mostly closed group of users. A public site, at engineeringforchange.info, mirrored some of the content on the test site, but without all of its functionality. IEEE and EWB-USA signed on as partners in time for the public launch on January 4, 2011.
At present, the organization has more than 25,000 members. Many of them are also members of the founding organizations, which have a combined membership of more than 500,000.
Solutions Library
E4C users can post projects they are working on and challenges they are having to gain insight from the wider community. They can use an open-source archive of solutions to development issues that include models for development projects, tested devices and other information gleaned from global organizations. The members can learn how to use their skills in developing countries and resource-poor areas from experts in their fields. They can also track the projects that interest and contribute their own advice and information.
Education
Education is an important part of Engineering for Change. The Web site provides educational materials on how to design and implement solutions, and an archive of relevant academic programs.