I just drafted this for a GU newsletter that's going out, I so infrequently get round to writing anything that I thought it made sense to share it.
I graduated from the University of Glasgow in 2010 with a MEng in Product Design Engineering. This course teaches you how to design and manufacture new innovative products, but on a more general level you become really good at creative problem solving. In my third year of University I learned that I could apply this creative problem solving to more than traditional engineering challenges. I took a summer internship with Engineers Without Borders UK and spent 3 months at an NGO called Shelter Centre, hosted by the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in Geneva. That Summer I worked with Estelle Soh to write the first draft of a new set of guidelines on transitional shelter. In Sri Lanka after the tsunami, in some cases it took nearly 5 years to permanently reconstruct the homes which were damaged. Traditionally, aid agencies would distribute tents in the wake of a disaster, but tents only last 6 months in the field, and people cannot be expected to rebuild their lives in these conditions. Transitional shelter encouraged agencies to instead provide materials such as wood and tarpaulin, and help people to build shed-like structures which can be extended and reinforced over the long reconstruction period and ultimately reused when building their permanent home.
I learned two key things during this placement which continue to inform everything that I do.
1. Understand the bigger picture. Design and construction of shelter was one chapter of twelve. You might have the best design, but if you have no understanding of the cultural context, the politics and the co-ordination of logistics you as a designer have no control over whether your design will impact the lives of people as you imagined. In fact, in the humanitarian world all too often, well-intentioned interventions can actually worsen the situation.
2. The importance of presentation. Like most sane people, when Tom Corsellis (CEO of Shelter Centre and architect by training) took a ruler to the screen of his computer to point out that the text on my conference invitation was misaligned, I found myself thinking this seemed a little extreme. However, by the end of the Summer I saw first-hand the importance of being a stickler for details. We had just presented the first draft of the guidelines at UNHCR, and someone remarked that it was far superior to what they could ever produce in such a short time frame. It was then that I realized by taking the time to make sure everything we sent out was highly polished and professional, a small NGO of “6 people in a shed” could have a huge influence on the big players in their industry.
In order to better understand policy I became involved in the Royal Academy of Engineering’s Standard Leadership Award Scheme and took courses in public outreach, renewable energy, and leadership. I became interested in the UK Design Council and how design and innovation can be used to improve public services such as healthcare and transportation. This passion helped me receive a fellowship from the Kennedy Memorial Trust allowing me to pursue my graduate studies in Mechanical Engineering at MIT.
http://sheltercentre.org/
http://www.ewb-uk.org/programmes/placements
http://www.raeng.org.uk/education/undergrad/programme.htm
http://www.designcouncil.org.uk/
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