ENGRG 4950 - Engineering Leadership: Social Impact Trek

Fall, Spring. 2 credits. Letter grades only.

Open by application only. Students must be legally able to travel internationally to a destination country.

E. Dawson.

Course offers experience with practice of socially responsible engineering leadership in emerging markets. The first part of the course (February – March) is dedicated to research, preparation, and project planning. Students work in teams with an international partner organization to identify potential engineering solutions to local challenges. Based on this research, they design a project to be implemented during a self-funded spring break trek to the partner country (year dependent). Following the trek, students reflect on their experiences in discussion groups and through written assignments. Through this class, students will be exposed to topics including social entrepreneurship, sustainable development, corporate social responsibly, and private-public sector development from an international perspective. They will gain experience working in teams in an unfamiliar environment with time pressure, uncertainty, and limited resources.