Our research group explores the application of engineering technology throughout the world, and we are attuned to the global trend toward transcending political and physical boundaries. Using our evolving understanding of appropriate technology and place-based design, we strive to deliver innovative engineering capabilities and expertise to people both in modern industrialized cities and in tradition-centered remote villages, addressing the specific infrastructure needs of each. Our efforts place heavy emphasis on rural communities, which have become threatened by a global trend toward urban migration. The loss of farming communities in many societies can imperil the food security of nations without resources to import supplies from others. We believe that rural access to basic needs like water, electricity and roads will increase migration back to the breadbaskets of alternately developed countries, supporting self-sufficiency and improved physical mobility of all citizens dependent upon local foodstuffs.
At the same time, we reassert our dedication to engineering as an objective in itself, focusing on the unique responsibilities and challenges of technical design work, unburdened by characterizations of engineering as social development processes. This paradoxical unification of engineering with social sciences while deliberately separating technical problem-solving from other development responsibilities creates an entirely new way of pursuing technical solutions to engineering challenges around the world.
Join us in our effort to redefine engineering’s role in international infrastructure implementation and better equip our international engineers for work with societies that differ from their own!