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Engineering for Global Development Research Forum

IDETC/CIE/AM3D

ENGINEERING FOR GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT Mark Bryden
RESEARCH FORUM
Meeting the Engineering Needs of the Developing
Tuesday, August 23
World: Understanding Villages as Complex Systems
Time: 2:00pm-3:40pm
Location: 208A, Meeting Level
KEYNOTES Abstract: Today one of the primary challenges confronting engineers is to
develop clean, sustainable technologies that can meet the needs of all of
the world’s people. Traditionally this effort has focused on meeting the
Alice Agogino needs of the developed world. It is generally assumed that products
needed for the developing world already exist or are relatively simple and
Development Engineering: Actionable Research and
hence do not require significant engineering development and support. As
Global Impact
a consequence, many of the products intended to meet the needs of the

poor miss the mark and do not meet their needs. For example:
Abstract: “Development engineering” is a new interdisciplinary field that
• Handpumps are a common and relatively simple technology. And yet
we define as creating solutions that improve human development at scale
it has been reported that approximately 50,000 rural water points in
in low-resource settings. In a graduate program at UC Berkeley, we
Africa are broken and an investment of $200–$300 million has been
couple human-centered design with development applications to
wasted; and
emphasize: 1) Incorporating development goals, constraints and opportuni-
• Cooking fires and cookstoves are some of the earliest technologies
ties; 2) Scaling for impact; and 3) Integration of novel sensors, experi-
developed by humankind; as a consequence, it is often assumed that
ments, and large datasets. We have recently launched a new research
we understand cookstoves and that there is little improvement to be
program that addresses challenges at the nexus of food, energy, and
made in cookstove design. The reality is that although stoves have
water systems through the lens of alleviating poverty and promoting
been studied on a continuing basis for about 35 years, today there is
equity. Our model for STEM graduate education is one that emphasizes
no complete or comprehensive understanding of how to build and
immersive interdisciplinary training, featuring team-taught courses that pair
design a cookstove, and there are no design standards for cook-
faculty in a technology discipline with one in business/social sciences
stoves.
using hands-on project-based learning approaches. Specific training
components (some work in progress) include: (1) interdisciplinary research This talk will explore the need for robust engineering design and deci-
activities and field training, (2) formal coursework, (3) creation of a PhD sion-making tools that can provide holistic systems based products and
minor, (4) creation of a masters’ level certificate, (5) career development, (6) solutions that are appropriate for the complex and diverse nature of
online modules & tools, and (7) formative assessment and evaluation of the communities in the developing world.
program’s effectiveness. Our goal is to graduate students with the
interdisciplinary skills needed to create actionable and impactful research
Biography: Dr. Kenneth “Mark” Bryden is an accomplished practicing
that is transferable from the lab to the field at scale. These skills will be
engineer and a popular, pragmatic engineering professor at Iowa State
highly transferable to contexts beyond poverty alleviation and will
University who teaches from a fundamentals-to-practice perspective. He
contribute to 21st century workforce development.
is the founding program director of the Simulation, Modeling, and Decision
Science program at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory,
Biography: Alice M. Agogino is the Roscoe and Elizabeth Hughes where he has built a multiyear, $10+ million program. In addition, for more
Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of California at than 15 years he has worked on energy systems for the poor in a number
Berkeley and is affiliated faculty at the Haas School of Business, Energy of developing countries.
Resources Group and Women & Gender Studies. She is currently Chair of Professor Bryden has published more than 190 peer-reviewed articles and
the Graduate Group in Development Engineering housed in the Blum co-authored the textbook Combustion Engineering. He has founded two
Center for Developing Economies and has served as Chair of the UC successful start-ups based on his research work and founded the
Berkeley Academic Senate and Associate Dean of Engineering. She works nonprofit ETHOS, a community of 150+ researchers focused on meeting
with over 100 companies and nonprofits on research and educational the needs for clean village energy in the developing world. He has
projects in product design, design for impact and sustainability. She has received three R&D 100 awards, two Regional Excellence in Technology
supervised 156 MS projects/theses, 45 doctoral dissertations and Transfer awards, and a National Excellence in Technology Transfer award.
numerous undergraduate researchers. Agogino has authored over 270 In 2013 he and his coauthors received the ASME Melville Medal.
peer-reviewed publications and has won numerous teaching, mentoring,

best paper and research awards. She is a member of the National
Academy of Engineering (NAE) and has served on a number of commit-
tees of the National Academies.

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