Engineering for Developing Communities (EDC) is a course in the Civil and Earth and Environmental Engineering departments at Columbia University that is focused on engineering projects for the developing world. The course attempts to expose students to the unique challenges of these projects and provides a chance to interact with real-world clients and projects. In order to successfully affect these targeted communities, students must go outside the usual scope of engineering practice and consider other salient aspects of the community such as governance, economics, and social life.

Due to the growing popularity of the class, the number of projects has expanded from one to five. This year, the projects include:

• optimizing the design of bamboo vehicles.
• designing sustainable schoolhouses in Ghana and Sri-Lanka.
• investigating plans for a waste-to-energy plant and improving lighting through solar street lights in collaboration with the Accra millennium project
• working with Engineering Without Borders (EWB) in India to develop an efficient cook-stove prototype.
• developing a latrine to be implemented in Ghana, also contributing to an EWB project.
  

Within each larger project is a group of smaller projects focusing on one aspect of sustainable development. The design for the smaller projects is developed by 2 to 3 engineering students, with guidance from the professor, teaching assistant, and members of the associated organization.

To download the class final presentation or the class final report please click the following links below:

EDC Final Report (PDF, 27.3 MB)		EDC Final Presentation (PDF, 27.3 MB)

EDC is taught by Professor Patricia Culligan and assisted by Pablo Prieto-Munoz.
To contact Professor Culligan click here.

Previous class websites: 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008