Advances in Engineering Education

SUMMER 2020 VOLUME 8 ISSUE 2

Using Human-Centered Design to Connect Engineering

Concepts to Sustainable Development Goals
JENNA L. MUELLER
University of Maryland
College Park, MD
MARY ELIZABETH DOTSON
JENNIFER DIETZEL
JENNA PETERS
GABRIELA ASTURIAS
AMELIA CHEATHAM
MARLEE KRIEGER
Duke University
Durham, NC
BAISHAKHI TAYLOR
Middlebury College
Middlebury, VT
SHERRYL BROVERMAN
NIRMALA RAMANUJAM
Duke University
Durham, NC

ABSTRACT

Background. Engineering design is widely recognized as a field that can generate key innova-

tions for complex problems, such as those elucidated in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

However, engineering design training is not widely accessible to the global community, particularly

to people experiencing the challenges that the SDGs are striving to address.

Purpose. This manuscript describes the Ignite program created by the Center for Global Women’s

Health Technologies (GWHT) at Duke University, which uses the human-centered design framework

to apply engineering design concepts to address specific challenges associated with the SDGs.

Design/Method. Undergraduate students participate in a design course (BME 290) to learn how to

create and deliver a technological solution to increase access to light at night, which is a significant chal-

lenge in many communities around the globe. A subset of the undergraduate students partnered with an

energy-poor community in which they implemented a curriculum based on the skills learned in BME 290.

Results. Since 2014, 110 Duke students have taken BME 290, and 22 of those students traveled

internationally, collectively teaching 275 students in Kenya, India, and Guatemala. Students in Kenya

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formed an engineering club and taught the curriculum to an additional 52 peers. Duke students also

trained 15 other university students, both in the United States and Guatemala, who have taught the

curriculum to an additional 150 students in Guatemala, which illustrates the scalability and sustain-

ability of the curriculum across countries, communities, and cultures.

Conclusions. By integrating human-centered design and the SDGs into engineering curricula and

targeting communities that work with women and girls, we believe the Ignite program can impact

three of the SDGs – renewable energy, quality education, and gender equality.

Key words: Multidisciplinary design; international programs; technology applications

INTRODUCTION

In a display of global unity, all 193 countries represented in the United Nation’s General Assembly agreed

to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2015 (Gostin and Friedman 2015). The 17 goals, some

of which include eradication of poverty, good health, quality education, gender equality, and renewable

energy, provide a vision for transformative change across 169 targets by 2030 (Gostin and Friedman

2015). This optimistic vision serves as a call to action for all who seek to create a better future for them-

selves and coming generations. While there is no one formula to achieve these goals, it is critical to create

interdisciplinary problem solvers who have the confidence and skills to work within and outside their

communities to develop solutions that will help meet the SDGs (El-Jardali, Ataya, and Fadlallah 2018).

Engineering design is widely recognized as a field that can generate transformative innovations for

complex problems, such as those described in the SDGs. The intersection of biomedical engineering and

global health has become a particularly attractive sub-discipline because it requires students to com-

bine traditional engineering knowledge with insights from disciplines like public or global health, public

policy, sociology, economics, and cultural anthropology to understand nuanced problems (Clifford and

Zaman 2016). In this context, students learn about opportunities in global health, work in interdisciplin-

ary teams to tackle challenges, and incorporate cultural dimensions into the design solution to enhance

adoption of a technology. Several institutions in the United States are leveraging biomedical engineering

to impact global health through using human-centered design (Richards-Kortum, Gray, and Oden 2012;

Oden et al. 2010; Malkin 2007).

While interdisciplinary programs in global health have the potential to yield innovative solutions

for the SDGs, the learners of engineering design comprise a relatively small pool of students. En-

gineering design curricula have traditionally been taught in a capstone course in the final year of

college to engineering students (Todd et al. 1995; Zhan et al. 2018), the majority of whom are male

(men received approximately 80% of all undergraduate engineering degrees awarded in the US in

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2017 (National Science Foundation 2017)). Consequently, engineering design training is not widely

accessible to the global community, particularly to people experiencing the challenges that the

SDGs strive to address. Successful realization of the SDGs necessitates a future in which the people

who imagine and build technology mirror the people and societies for whom they build it. Thus, it

is critical to place essential skills and tools needed to solve community challenges in the hands of

those at the level of the problems. Referred to as liberatory design, this involves instructors design-

ing “with” instead of “for” the community in need (Bennett and Rosner 2019).

We have created a social innovation program called Ignite that uses the principles of human-

centered and liberatory design to educate a global community of students on engineering concepts
through design thinking rooted specifically in the SDGs. The Ignite curriculum contains three key

components: (1) creation of a physical prototype, (2) a community-based design challenge centered

on the use and implementation of the prototype, and (3) peer-to-peer learning, which results in a

virtuous cycle of learners who become leaders who generate more learners. The engineering concepts

focus on the creation of a practical solution related to an SDG. The design solution is targeted at a

challenge that learners within the community consider important.

In our initial implementation of the Ignite program, we sought to address challenges associated with

energy poverty in low-income communities. One of the major barriers to productivity in energy-poor

communities is access to light. Approximately 2.8 billion people worldwide live without electricity

(Amegah and Jaakkola 2016). Energy poverty also has a gender bias, with girls being more impacted

than boys, owing to their larger share of domestic responsibilities (Munien and Ahmed 2012). For

these reasons, Ignite started with teaching students how to build a flashlight, which could be used

to perform a variety of tasks at night. The circuitry required to build a working flashlight is relatively

simple and can be completed quickly, which enables students to experience the design process from

idea through functional solution in a short time and build confidence from the completion of their work.

Our program began in 2014 with Duke University undergraduate students who learned the con-

cepts of the Ignite program through a design course cross-listed between the Pratt School of Engi-

neering and the Trinity School of Arts and Sciences. A subset of the Duke undergraduate students

partnered with an energy-poor community in Kenya, India, or Guatemala, where they implemented

a curriculum based on the skills learned at Duke. The curriculum covered topics in circuitry, optics,

and energy, and the lessons were translated into design activities that relate to SDG #7 (affordable

and clean energy), while simultaneously addressing SDG #4 (quality education).

The beneficiaries of the Ignite program have been predominantly female students between the ages

of 14 to 24. In the Kenyan school, the sustainability of the model was realized by creating a leader-learner

model in which the learners became leaders, enabling the curriculum to be replicable and scalable through

peer-to-peer instruction. Simultaneously this allowed students to internalize the concepts through ­teaching

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them to peers in the community in which they live. In India, mothers of middle school and elementary

school students participated in Ignite and demonstrated that this program can also be used as part of

adult education in innovation and entrepreneurship. The Guatemalan program, which was geared toward

middle school and high school students, included a component related to student career goals.

METHODS

Human-Centered Design as a Framework for the Ignite Curriculum

Human-centered design, used to develop and implement the Ignite program, has three formal

phases: hear, create, and deliver (IDEO.org 2017). During the hear phase, designers engage directly

with the community and hear the needs of key stakeholders. In the create phase, designers collaborate

with community members to brainstorm solutions, develop prototypes, and solicit input and feedback.

During the deliver phase, designers work with a diverse set of stakeholders to develop a sustainable

way to bring their design into the broader community. Through this iterative process, designers often

modify their product after the deliver phase with continual input from the community. An illustration

of how human-centered design was used to develop the Ignite program is included in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Overview of the Ignite program. Duke students take a course to learn

engineering skills related to energy poverty and light. Duke students then work with a school

in an energy-poor community and implement the flashlight curriculum using the skills that

they learned. As the students become the teachers in these communities, they gather design

feedback, which they share with the following year’s students.

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Hear Phase - Selection of Community Partners and Identification of a Specific Community Need

To identify potential community partners, we initially collaborated with faculty and staff leaders

from DukeEngage (https://dukeengage.duke.edu/), a program that gives undergraduate students at

Duke University an opportunity to engage in service learning with communities in the U.S. and abroad

through an immersive, 8-week experience. We sought to identify DukeEngage experiences that:

1) focused on education, literacy, community development, or outreach, 2) worked with schools and

communities that experienced challenges related to the SDGs, and 3) were interested in incorporat-

ing hands-on STEM curricula into school programs. Through DukeEngage, we identified community

partners in both Kenya and India. The subsequent expansion of the program into Guatemala was
driven by a student-led group called Desarrolla, a club that aims to connect the Duke community

with Latin America. In total, we partnered with four different schools between 2014 and 2018: the

Women’s Institute for Secondary Education and Research (WISER) in Muhuru Bay, Kenya; Tulipdale

Public School in Kolkata, India; the Future Hope school in Kolkata, India; and Instituto Indígena

Nuestra Señora del Socorro (INSS) in San Andrés Semetabaj, Guatemala.

In our initial implementation of the Ignite program, the specific needs statement we addressed was

“students need access to light at night to be productive in school”. This needs statement, developed in

collaboration with faculty and students at our first partner site, WISER, was based on the premise that the

students at WISER often did not have reliable access to electricity to complete homework assignments

and study for tests after dusk. This need was turned into an opportunity to teach engineering concepts

and design thinking in the context of a problem that directly impacted students in the community.

Create Phase - Curriculum for Duke Students Offered as a Duke Course

The design course “Women’s Health and Technologies” (listed as BME 290) was open to all students

from the Pratt School of Engineering and the Trinity School of Arts and Sciences at Duke University.

No pre-requisite courses were required prior to enrollment in BME 290. The backbone of the course

was a series of lectures and debates designed to provide context for the hands-on component in

which undergraduate students from all years (freshmen through seniors) and a variety of disciplines

(both engineering and non-engineering) worked together in teams to learn and apply the human-

centered design process to create a solution to energy poverty. Each team aimed to design a renewable

energy-based light source for an underserved community in an international setting. Mixed design

teams provided both horizontal (engineering and non-engineering) and vertical (first year through

fourth year students) integration, which enabled bi-directional learning and peer-to-peer mentorship.

The first offering of the course had three primary components: lecture, debates, and lab. The

lectures covered global disparities in income, education, and health, with a focus on how these

­inequalities disproportionately affect women. Students learned about strategies to address each of

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these disparities through case studies that demonstrated how the human-centered design process

could be used to create innovative solutions to global challenges. Debates included topics such

as “Should there be a different standard-of-care between high- and low- resource settings?” and

challenged students to conduct, research, and write substantive analyses of big questions in the

global health space. During the first half of the semester, labs focused on teaching students the

engineering skills needed to build a renewable energy-based flashlight as well as measurement and

testing techniques. During the second half of the semester, labs were dedicated to prototyping and

testing solutions designed to address a specific community need that is reflected in the SDGs. They

identified this need by engaging with key community stakeholders.

Deliver Phase - Implementation of a Curriculum that Integrates Design Thinking, Engineering

­Concepts, and a Community Relevant SDG at a Partner Site

Undergraduate students in BME 290 designed light-based solutions that fulfilled specific ­community

needs. A subset of the students, referred to as the Duke student leaders, developed a curriculum to

teach students at the community partner site a variety of engineering concepts and skills that would

enable them to solve relevant local problems, such as a lack of light walking to and from school, or a lack

of sufficient lighting to cook meals or complete homework. The curriculum was implemented at each

site over a period of 6 to 8 weeks (the length of a typical DukeEngage program). Through the creation

of durable, rechargeable lighting solutions, student learners were taught concepts such as electricity

and magnetism, renewable energy, and materials science. In addition, students learned measurement

techniques that allowed them to establish design specifications and then determine if those specifica-

tions had been met in their solutions. Duke student leaders also taught troubleshooting skills so student

learners could identify, isolate, and address issues that could cause their design solution to malfunction

or fail. An outline of a representative flashlight curriculum is included in Supplementary Table 1.

Evolution of the Program

During the immersive summer experience, the Duke student leaders obtained feedback from

students and members of the community regarding the curriculum and flashlight design, which

was shared with the BME 290 class the following year. While the physics teacher at the WISER

secondary school represented his community in the inaugural class, Duke student leaders served

as representatives on behalf of the actual communities in subsequent years. They also mentored

the next Duke student leaders who were planning to travel internationally so that the community’s

feedback would be implemented the following year. This model provided opportunities for student

leadership and fostered communication and mentorship between older and younger undergraduate

students, which in turn has led to program sustainability within Duke.

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Data and Statistics

Duke student data were collected under Duke University Institutional Review Board approved

protocol number C0930. We recorded the number of students who enrolled in BME 290, the number

of students who implemented the educational curriculum in the community partner sites, and some

basic demographic information, including the proportion of male/female students and engineering/

non-engineering majors. International student data were collected under Duke University Institutional

Review Board approved protocol numbers: D0608 for WISER, D0561 for ­Tulipdale and Future Hope,

and E0191 for INSS. We have tracked the number of international students and the number of flash-

lights successfully built at the international schools that have participated in the flashlight curriculum
as well as information on successive generations taught within these communities.

To better understand how the Ignite program impacted the leaders and the learners, we also conducted

a series of interviews or focus groups with students from Duke, WISER, and INSS under the same IRB

protocols listed above. Specifically, semi-structured interviews were conducted in the Spring of 2019 with

10 students who took BME 290 in the Fall of 2018. These interviews were conducted in English, lasted about

30 minutes, and were recorded. The ten audio recordings were then transcribed, and thematic analysis

was used to organize and analyze the data. Key quotations emphasizing the themes are highlighted in

Table 1 in the results section. The interviewer worked from a list of questions (included as supplementary

content), but could alter and ask follow-up questions to gather more information as the participant spoke.

Semi-structured interviews were also conducted with 20 female students plus 4 alumni approxi-

mately 1 year after they participated in the WISER engineering club. The interviews were conducted

in English, lasted about 30 minutes, and were recorded. Interviews were not conducted by any of the

authors, but by a neutral third party. Ten audio recordings were then transcribed and thematic analysis

used to organize, code, and analyze the interviews (Guest, MacQueen, and Namey 2012). Two authors
reviewed the ten interviews to identify emergent themes and categories for coding. The remainder of

the data were analyzed through notes and key quotations transcribed from the recordings. The inter-

viewer worked from a list of questions related to the experiences and perceptions of the students but

could change the questions to gather additional information on any topic the participant mentioned.

A summary of the interview themes from WISER students and illustrative quotations are included

in Table 2 in the results section. Sample interview questions are included as supplementary content.

Additionally, two semi-structured focus groups were conducted with 18 female students who

participated in the flashlight curriculum at INSS approximately two days after the Ignite program

concluded. The focus groups were conducted in Spanish by two Duke students, lasted approximately

30 minutes, and were recorded. The data were analyzed through notes and key quotations tran-

scribed from the recordings. Illustrative quotations are included in the results section and sample

questions are included as supplementary content.

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RESULTS

Summary of the Cascading Model of the Ignite Program

Between 2014 and 2018, a total of 110 Duke students took BME 290, and 22 (20%) of those stu-

dents traveled internationally, collectively teaching 275 students in Kenya, India, and Guatemala.

Students in Kenya formed an engineering club and taught the flashlight curriculum to 52 of their

peers, which highlights the sustainability of the model. Duke students trained 15 other university

students, in both the United States and Guatemala, who have taught the flashlight curriculum to

an additional 150 students in Guatemala (Figure 2A). The international participants, most of whom
were girls or women (~93%), worked in teams of 3–4 to build 228 functional flashlights and 49 shared

Figure 2. (A) Dissemination of the flashlight curriculum from 2014–2018 with the total

number of participants categorized by site. (B) Summary of strengths, weaknesses, and

lessons learned at each international site.

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recharging stations. The key lessons learned from each implementation site and the strengths and

weaknesses of each program, as identified by the Duke student leaders who worked within each

community, are included in Figure 2B.

Initial Instruction Through BME 290

To learn the curriculum, Duke students worked in teams of 3-4 to build 32 functional flashlights.

Female students comprised 78% of the Duke students who enrolled in BME 290 and 95% of the

Duke student leaders. Interestingly, 35% of the students who took the course and 64% of the Duke

student leaders were non-engineers. Pictures from the flashlight curriculum implemented in BME
290 are included in Figures 3A and B. Figures 3C and D provide a summary of the Duke student

Figure 3. Duke student participants. (A) BME 290 students and (B) flashlight constructed

by BME 290 students for use by women walking at night in Kolkata, India. The flashlight was

designed to be easy to carry with a built-in alert system, which included a flashing red light and

whistle. Distribution of female and non-engineering students in (C) BME 290 and (D) amongst

the Duke student leaders who taught the flashlight curriculum internationally. Total numbers of

students are indicated below each year.

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composition. The core elements of BME 290, including lectures, debates, and labs, as well as their

evolution, are described in detail in supplementary content. Briefly, representative community

challenges for which students developed solutions included: 1) lack of a consistent light source for

cooking, schoolwork, and other family activities that occur after sundown; 2) inadequate lighting

for children commuting via bicycle at night; 3) unreliable dental light sources; and 4) immobile and

unstable surgical and clinical light.

The course was designed to equip students with the skills, knowledge, and mindset necessary

to better collaborate with community partners to address challenges through the human-centered

design process. To evaluate the impact of BME 290 on both addressing course learning objectives
and preparing students to become future social innovators, semi-structured interviews with 10 former

BME 290 students were conducted. Students shared very positive sentiments about the unique way

in which the course brought together an interdisciplinary team to prototype a tangible solution to a

real-world problem. Seventy percent (n = 7) of those students stated that the course allowed them

to develop the skills needed to collaborate with a community partner. Many of those students also

emphasized that no other course at Duke allowed them to directly work with a community partner.

Additionally, 90% (n = 9) of students discussed how they implemented the steps of human-centered

design throughout the course and noted the usefulness of this skill. A common sentiment, expressed

by 50% (n = 5) of students, was an overall increase in confidence gained throughout course. When

asked about potential connections that could be drawn with this course, 60% (n = 6) of students

noted that they could make connections to other Duke courses. Notably, 90% (n = 9) of students

noted a connection between this course and their future, in terms of their majors or career plans.

Table 1 displays these themes with representative quotations from each of these categories.

Five of the Duke students interviewed have become teachers of the curricula in both domestic

and international settings upon completing BME 290. During the interview, these students reflected

on how the course influenced their understanding of basic circuitry and allowed them to become

confident in their ability to share this knowledge with others. Three of these students (60%, n = 3)

mentioned how human-centered design helped facilitate a unique learning experience within the

communities where they were teaching.

Creating a Model of Peer-to-Peer Education in Kenya to Ensure Sustainability

In the first year of our program, we partnered with an NGO called WISER, which funds a second-

ary boarding school for girls in Muhuru Bay, Kenya. Several of the authors developed the first Ignite

curriculum in collaboration with a Kenyan WISER faculty member. The Duke student leaders spent

6 weeks working with 50 students at WISER (~40% of the student body) to train them on practical

skills in renewable energy, circuit design, and flashlight construction. The WISER students worked

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Table 1. Summary of themes, number of students out of 10 total students who

mentioned each theme, and representative quotations from semi-structured interviews

with students upon completion of BME 290.

Students who
Theme mentioned theme Representative Quotation(s)
Develop the skills 70% (n = 7) “I always talk about how it is a real-life situation. We spoke to a doctor who
needed to collaborate actually does need this product and how this experience augmented my
with a community education and showed me how my education is useful in a real-world setting.”
partner
“I haven’t had a class here that actually results in a product that you
envisioned and was based in a true community representative story…I think
this class helps people to not lose motivation by providing an example of how
all of this knowledge can play out in a real-world setting.”
Implement the steps 90% (n = 9) “I was really excited about the class, especially knowing that at the end of
of human-centered the class I would have a working product that I never would’ve thought I
design would be able to build at the beginning of the class…So it’s not just giving
you a PowerPoint on this is how to do the hear, create, and deliver phases, but
allowing you to actually implement the phases.”
“I actually got to see from start to finish, a product of my vision created,
which is an amazing experience. You spend so much time in class listening
and to actually do something is really cool.”
Apply learned skills 50% (n = 5) “I learned a lot of lessons about the importance of collaboration with your peers
to other disciplines that you’re taking classes with and how that can help you succeed. I would say
that now I am very confident that I can excel in a science class at Duke.”
Connection between 60% (n = 6) “I wanted to do something again that was hands-on and used the knowledge I
this course and other gained in other classes. Many of my classes at Duke were more lecture-style
Duke courses and learning about things but never applying them. I am interested in actually
seeing how my knowledge can be applied and how I can get results to then
change something in the future.”
Connection between 90% (n = 9) “This made me feel that I could do engineering…and it gave me confidence that
course and future I could pursue a Masters in Design, which I have been thinking a lot about since
career taking this class, and I now feel confident that I have the ability to do that.”
“Engineering, as much as it is about building new innovative things, it also
can be used in making health care more effective. The crossover between
health and engineering also branches over into social justice and that’s
something that I didn’t think about before taking the class.”
“I also feel like it really helped me find an interdisciplinary major and area of
study. I was interested in computer science and global health and had always
seen them as very separate, but now I want to go into health tech and see how
computer science relates and can be combined.”

in design teams over a 6-week period. Most of these groups built several flashlights using recycled

materials, such as plastic water bottles and peanut butter jars, to address problems associated with

lack of lighting for a variety of different tasks including studying at night. The circuits themselves

were made from basic components that were easy to repair or replace. Many of the flashlights also

had hand cranks or squeezing mechanisms to allow them to be recharged without using electricity

from an electrical grid or generator. After the end of the instruction period, a WISER faculty ­member

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supported a subset of the initial learners as they (~23 students) formed the WISER engineering

club. To conserve supplies, these students disassembled the flashlights they had created and then

practiced their skills by reassembling them. The students also developed a system of peer-to-peer

mentorship in which experienced WISER students taught new club members or even nonclub

­members who were interested in the material.

In 2015, the Duke student leaders taught two new curricula to the WISER students who were

interested in more advanced topics. The goal was to teach WISER students: 1) how to construct an

efficient recharging mechanism, and 2) the human-centered design process to enable the students

to develop critical thinking skills that they could apply to more open-ended problems. Students
learned how to use mechanical energy to recharge their flashlights, which tied into their physics

curriculum. They also learned how to identify needs in their community and engage stakehold-

ers to develop solutions to these needs. Approximately 23 students participated, 19 of whom had

­participated in the previous curriculum.

Building on this momentum and under the leadership of a WISER teacher, the engineering club

has thrived since 2015. As students quickly mastered flashlights, a WISER faculty member helped

them apply their design skills to create a diverse set of projects for science competitions. Though

they had not participated in competitions previously, the WISER students quickly found success. In

2016, a group of students from the WISER engineering club reached the regional level in a national

science competition called the Kenya Science Congress. Their project was a sustainable energy

lamp designed for the fishermen in their community to attract fish at night. The inspiration for the

lamp came from the fact that the fishermen in their community typically use kerosene glass lamps

that would go out, break easily, and pollute the water. Fishermen had also complained about the

expense of kerosene so the lamp built by the WISER girls was rechargeable using a solar panel, hand

crank, and shake mechanism that transformed the movement of the waves into light. Pictures of the

flashlight project and a summary of the evolution of the WISER curricula are included in Figure 4.

To evaluate the impact of the WISER engineering club program, semi-structured interviews with

24 current and former WISER engineering club members were conducted. Students shared overwhelmingly

positive impressions of the curricula taught by the Duke student leaders and of the science competition

activities pursued independently. Eighty-three percent (n = 20) described how the club had helped or

had the potential to help the WISER community or a broader regional, national, or even global commu-

nity. Students most commonly reported that the flashlights had helped them to study or perform chores

during power outages at WISER, and the majority of students also spoke of the club’s potential ability

to create innovations to improve the surrounding community. Seventy-five percent (n = 18) of students

stated that they had used skills or knowledge from the engineering club outside of club time, such as at

home to build flashlights and repair broken electronics. Fifty percent (n = 12) of students said that they

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Figure 4. WISER. (A) WISER learners and Duke student leaders and (B) flashlight constructed

by WISER students for the Kenya Science Congress. (C) The curriculum, number of students who

participated in the Ignite program and WISER engineering club, and number of flashlights built

from 2014–2017.

had taught others something from the club, 21% (n = 5) of whom taught friends or family outside of

WISER. The original flashlight curriculum was designed in conjunction with the WISER faculty member

to follow the physics curriculum and serve as a laboratory exercise to enhance learning. Eighty seven

percent (n = 21) of participants reported that they recognized there was a connection between classes

and the engineering club, and 29% (n = 7) stated that the club helped them and other students learn

physics. Finally, 67% (n = 16) of participants discussed how the club connected to future possible careers

or occupations related to engineering. Table 2 contains a summary and representative quotations from

each of these categories.

We believe that the sustained success and evolution of this program is largely attributable to the

presence of a strong local leader who champions the club year-round and provides new opportunities.

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Table 2. Summary of themes, number of students out of 24 total students who

mentioned each theme, and representative quotations from semi-structured interviews

with current and former WISER engineering club members.

Students who
Theme mentioned theme Representative Quotation
Club’s past or 83% (n = 20) “...when we were in Form 4, ...the electricity were never there. But you
future ability to see that didn’t stop us from learning. We used our skills that we acquired
help the community from the engineering club. We made lights all around the class and
everyone could get access to that light and just continue their studies.”
“I feel happy and interested to like produce the flashlights and help maybe
the people around cause in our community in Muhuru Bay... they use the
kerosene, which will be expensive... to some people who cannot afford
it...I will be helping them like producing the flashlights and they’ll be
distributed in some houses.”
Use of knowledge 75% (n = 18) “Yeah like when we stay at home, we use the candles or the small lamps...
outside of club with the knowledge of engineering, I went home and now just bought
context bulbs and wires and connected the house...”
Teaching others 50% (n = 12) “I’ve taught my brother, my elder brother actually... I went and shared
about engineering the idea of making the torch with him at home and we figured out how to
club ideas and skills make some basic torches from even repairing those that are broken...”
Connection 88% (n = 21) “I went to engineering since at first I had problems with connections
between club and in physics...building of torches, it has helped me so now I don’t have a
classes at WISER problem with connecting circuits in the lab. Thus, it has enhanced my
practical ability in physics.”
Connection 67% (n = 16) “Yeah there is a very big connection. Like in engineering club there is
between club and a lot of innovation and inventions...So at the time when we do the work
future career practically I feel like okay I’m already there as I’ve already achieved my
career in, in an indirect way.”

WISER’s engineering club continues to use the original flashlight modules to train new members, but

the experienced students work on more complex projects under the guidance of a WISER faculty mem-

ber who continues to create close connections between the projects in the engineering club and his

advanced physics class. The students in the advanced physics class participate in the engineering club,

which can help them experiment with and master difficult concepts related to electricity and magnetism.

Adapting the Program for Non-Student Female Learners in India

In 2015, we started a new partnership with two schools in Kolkata, India, Tulipdale Public School

and Future Hope, which serve many children without reliable access to electricity. While the flashlight

curriculum was appropriate for the adolescent students at Future Hope, it was too advanced for the

elementary level students at Tulipdale. However, there was significant community interest in the flash-

light curriculum from the mothers of these students. Thus, in 2016 and 2017, the Duke student leaders

adapted and taught the engineering program to the Tulipdale mothers. Many of the mothers spoke

little or no English, but the Duke student leaders were able to illustrate concepts through hands-on

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learning and demonstrations. In 2017, several mothers from the previous year returned to participate

in the curriculum for a second time. The returning mothers quickly became natural leaders in the

classroom and felt empowered to help their peers during challenging tasks. One of the Duke student

leaders said “the [Tulipdale] mothers [in Kolkata] gained a technical skill, but above that, they were

empowered. In a strictly female setting, the mothers could complete a STEM project by themselves and

exercise creativity in casing and decorating their circuit.” Additionally, during the exhibition following

the culmination of the summer program in 2017, multiple mothers expressed their eagerness to begin

selling their flashlights in the community. At the local community fair, where their flashlights were on

display, more than 30 families offered to purchase their flashlights, indicating that this program has
the potential to turn into a micro-financing initiative. Pictures from and a summary of the flashlight

curriculum data implemented at Tulipdale and Future Hope is included in Figure 5.

Figure 5. Tulipdale and Future Hope. (A) Parent program participants and (B) a flashlight

constructed by a Future Hope student. (C) The curriculum, number of students who

participated in the Ignite program, and number of flashlights built from 2015–2017.

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Duke Student-Initiated Program to Scale the Ignite Program in Guatemala

In contrast to the DukeEngage model to identify community partners, the expansion of the program

into Guatemala was driven by a student-led group called Desarrolla, a club that aims to connect the Duke

community with Latin America. In 2017, a Duke student from Guatemala and a team of peers initiated a

partnership with us to implement the flashlight curriculum at INSS, which is a Catholic boarding school

for girls ages 14-20 in San Andrés Semetabaj, Sololá, Guatemala. This school students from a wide range

of socio-economic backgrounds. Some students are from the city and have regular access to electric-

ity, but a majority of students are from rural communities with limited or no access to electricity in their

homes and communities. The goal of the curriculum implemented at INSS was to educate students about
STEM-related fields and careers to empower them to pursue higher education and careers in STEM. To

achieve this goal, the Duke student leaders taught the students at INSS how to identify needs within their

own communities through self-evaluation and then design a flashlight prototype to address those needs

(see Table S1). While students at INSS were not initially enthusiastic about circuit construction or solving

for variables using Ohm’s law, once self-evaluation and activities centered on career development were

introduced, students became enthusiastic about constructing flashlights. One student said, “I believe

us girls are just as interested in science, math, and engineering as the boys... I just wish schools offered

us more [STEM] classes. I think we just need to take courses like [this], then we can demonstrate that

women are just as capable as men in STEM fields in Guatemala.” This curriculum is now being scaled

across ­Guatemala by a foundation in Guatemala City called FUNDEGUA. Specifically, FUNDEGUA ar-

ranged for Duke student leaders to teach the flashlight curriculum to students from Universidad del Valle

de Guatemala (in person) and University of Michigan (through a series of online webinars), who have

disseminated the curriculum to 150 local Guatemalan high school students to date, reflecting its scalabil-

ity. Pictures from and summary of the flashlight curriculum implemented at INSS is included in Figure 6.

DISCUSSION

There are a number of unique features that distinguish Ignite from other problem-based,

­community-need-oriented engineering curricula. Perhaps the most notable is its adaptability across

multiple contexts without substantial infrastructure. Another distinguishing feature is that the human-

centered design framework encourages interdisciplinary university students, who study concepts at the

intersection of technology and global health, to directly engage in social innovation. This methodology

allows participants to approach each Ignite program site as uniquely different, allowing for more site-

specific curricula to be developed. The student leaders come to recognize that those within a community

are best equipped to address the issues they experience because they understand the context of their

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Figure 6. INSS. (A) Program participants and Duke student leader and (B) flashlight

constructed by INSS students. (C) The curriculum, number of students who participated in

the Ignite program, and number of flashlights built in 2017–2018.

culture, beliefs, and geopolitical position and how those factors impact the design of an intervention

or technological solution. A third distinguishing feature pertains to learners. Ignite is built upon the

­assumption that while students have access to an unprecedented amount of information online, critical

thinking and problem skills are not best learned from videos, but instead require sustained mentorship.

Continually generating new student leaders decreases the need for continued support from institutions

in the U.S., which has the potential to make the program more sustainable. The premise of the Ignite

program is that any STEM content can be internalized through a design-thinking framework. Further, the

SDGs create personal relevance to the communities in which these curricula are taught. Critical-thinking,

problem-solving, and personal relevance are ­essential to creating cognitive maturity (Veenman 2011).

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An added benefit of the Ignite program is that it empowers women and girls in international com-

munities to engage in STEM-related activities. Gender inequalities remain prevalent across cultures

and countries (GlobalGiving 2018). Countries with higher levels of gender equality also have less

poverty, more economic growth, and a higher standard of living; thus, SDG #5 is to “achieve gender

equality and empower all women and girls” (GlobalGiving 2018). Our international partnerships with

WISER, the mothers at Tulipdale, and INSS specifically target girls at the secondary school level and

women in adulthood. Additionally, the majority of Duke undergraduate participants in the Ignite

program have been females from both engineering and non-engineering majors. Research indicates

that the study of science is more meaningful to women if connections are made to other fields (Hill,
Corbett, and St. Rose 2010). Additionally, research supports the notion that when young females

have female mentors in STEM, it significantly improves their scores and college-level retention in

engineering disciplines (Dennehy and Dasgupta 2017).

The ways in which the Ignite curriculum has evolved between partner sites aligns with the principles

of liberatory design/inclusive design models in which participants enter a community with the mentality

of designing “with” and not “for.” This approach promotes trust as community members guide how the

Ignite model should be adapted to maximize the impact on their local community. Ignite is unique com-

pared to other STEM programs related to the SDGs because it supports a paradigm shift in engineering

and design education: learners are empowered to use their unique voices to contribute meaningfully to

the classroom environment (Bennett and Rosnerr 2019; Newell and Gregor 2000).

Furthermore, when students who have participated as Ignite learners have the opportunity to

become the next set of Ignite leaders within their communities, they benefit bi-directionally, as

teaching these concepts reinforces their leadership skills and cultivates a mentality of shared com-

munity and commitment to social good. Peer-to-peer mentoring reinforces students’ knowledge

and skills, builds leadership and communication skills, and empower students to persevere in STEM

coursework (Herrera et al. 2008; Bleske et al. 2016; Snyder et al. 2016).

The Ignite program is readily scalable as few resources are needed to implement the program.

For example, to execute the initial phase of this program, the engineering supplies for INSS totaled

approximately $540 ($6.83 per student taught). The total cost to support Duke personnel traveling

to Guatemala was approximately $2,500 ($38.47 per student taught), which included flights, lodg-

ing, and food. However, as the efficacy of the leader-learner model improves, personnel costs will

be significantly reduced because older students in the school will have the skills needed to teach

their younger peers, thus eliminating travel expenses.

There were several challenges or limitations associated with the initial implementation of the

­Ignite program. First, it was difficult to procure flashlight materials locally; thus, Duke student leaders

addressed this challenge in two ways: 1) for the first year of the program in each country, flashlight

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materials were purchased during the semester while in the U.S., so Duke student leaders could begin

teaching the curriculum immediately upon arrival at each international site, and 2) Duke student leaders

worked with the community partners during the summer to identify local stores from which additional

materials could be purchased for subsequent years. Another limitation associated with the Ignite pro-

gram was that young students, particularly elementary level students at Tulipdale who were less than

11 years old, had difficulty with fine motor skills required for flashlight assembly. Thus, the flashlight

curriculum at Tulipdale was adapted to teach the mothers of the Tulipdale students, many of whom

indicated significant interest in the program. Lastly, while implementing the Ignite program at INSS,

Duke student leaders realized that local students needed additional math skills to design flashlight
circuits. Therefore, Duke student leaders adapted their curriculum to cover basic algebra and fractions

so that INSS students could use Ohm’s law to compute the resistor values needed for their flashlights.

Lastly, the iterative nature of the Ignite model in its first years of implementation made it challenging

to apply consistent and robust evaluation and monitoring metrics, as the program was modified on the

ground at each project site. Thus, qualitative and quantitative assessment of the longer-term impact

of the program is outside of the scope of this study. Rather, this work provides: 1) a description of the

initial implementation and iterative process of development of the Ignite program at several locations,

and 2) a qualitative assessment of the short-term impact at Duke, WISER, and INSS. However, the

Ignite model has now been standardized into an adaptable model with appropriate metrics including

interviews and surveys, which are currently being implemented with Duke and INSS students and also

in 16 new project sites in the US, Guatemala, and Peru, which will be the subject of future work.

The Ignite program initially leveraged the human-centered design framework to teach STEM

skills and promote critical thinking and problem solving for students in low-resource communities.

We believe this curriculum can potentially impact 3 of the SDGs – renewable energy, quality edu-

cation, and gender equality. Ultimately, human-centered design provides a framework to engage

communities in practical problem solving and may be sustained within the communities through a

leader-learner model and peer-to-peer mentorship.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We acknowledge financial support from the Pratt School of Engineering at Duke University, Duke

Global Health Institute, DukeEngage, Duke Research in Practice Program (RIPP), Duke ­Undergraduate

Research Support Office, Duke Undergraduate Center for International and Global Studies, and

the Center for Latin America and Caribbean Studies. We would also like to acknowledge Kennedy

Mikula, Kendall Covington, and Mikayla Wickman for their valuable input during the development

and implementation of the initial international flashlight curriculum at WISER.

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AUTHORS

Jenna Mueller is an Assistant Professor at the University of Maryland who

is interested in the intersection of biomedical engineering and global health.

Prior to joining the University of Maryland, she worked with the Center for

Global Women’s Health Technologies (GWHT) at Duke University to develop

accessible biomedical devices to improve the management of cervical

cancer in low and middle-income countries. Dr. Mueller also co-directed a

summer educational program, called DukeEngage Kolkata, through which

undergraduate students provide hands-on engineering education to under-

served youth in Kolkata, India. She received a B.S. degree in bioengineering

with a minor in global health technologies from Rice University and com-

pleted both an M.S. and Ph.D. in biomedical engineering with a Doctoral Certificate in Global Health at

Duke University. For correspondence: Jenna L. Mueller, 3102 A. James Clark Hall, 8278 Paint Branch Drive,

University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742-3234, Phone: 301-405-8268, E-mail: mueller7@umd.edu

Mary Elizabeth Dotson received dual degrees in the Literature Pro-

gram in Cultural Studies and International Comparative Studies from

Duke University. As an undergraduate student, she became a fellow with

the Center for Global Women’s Health Technologies (GWHT) and worked

on the Ignite program in Sololá, Guatemala. She now manages the Ignite

program and aids in the management of international clinical implemen-

tation programs at GWHT. In addition, she curated the lab’s (In)visible

Organ exhibit. Her works focuses on the social, political and behavioral

dimensions of device development and implementation in the field. Her

research at Duke University focuses on health behavior science regard-

ing the implementation of two low-cost screening tools for cervical cancer – the Pocket Colposcope

and the Callascope. She has helped to identify and address the social, cultural, and economic barriers

associated with screening in low-resource settings.

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Jennifer Dietzel received a B.S. in Biology from Duke University in

2018. During her time at Duke, she became involved with engineering

outreach and education during a DukeEngage program to Kolkata,

India, where she taught rural girls and women how to design and cre-

ate their own flashlights. In collaboration with the Center for Global

Women’s Health Technologies at Duke, she began implementing this

innovative, design-centered engineering education to students un-

derrepresented in STEM in Durham, NC and New York, NY. Following

her graduation, she completed a postbaccalaureate program with the

Center to continue these education outreach efforts. She is currently

pursuing a medical degree at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health

and is eager to continue engaging local students in STEM education.

Jenna Peters received a B.S. in Neuroscience from Duke University

in 2016. She worked as a Global Women’s Health Technology Fellow at

the Center for Global Women’s Health Technology at Duke University

until 2018. She now works at a non-profit based in Oxford, England.

Gabriela Asturias, a Guatemalan native, received her B.S. in

­Neuroscience from Duke University in 2017. She co-founded and leads

FUNDEGUA since 2015, an organization that fosters a rigorous, ethical,

and forward-thinking research ecosystem to promote sustainable and

impactful development work. She also co-founded and serves as COO of

mental health U.S. company, MiResource, since 2016. She is currently at

Stanford University School of Medicine pursuing her MD, while still form-

ing part of the board of FUNDEGUA and acting as COO of MiResource.

Her aim is to help build the public health infrastructure in Guatemala and

dedicate her life to catalyzing evidence-based development initiatives

throughout Latin America.

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Amelia Cheatham received a B.A. in Cultural Anthropology from Duke

University in 2018. During her time at Duke, she became involved with

engineering outreach and education during a DukeEngage program to

Kolkata, India, where she taught rural girls and women how to design

and create their own flashlights. After interning in the Africa Program

at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington,

D.C., she now writes about Latin America for the Council on Foreign

Relations in New York City.

Marlee Krieger, M.S., is the Executive Director of the Center for Global

Women’s Health Technologies (GWHT). Since GWHT was founded in

2013, Marlee has led logistically complex international clinical trials of a

cervical cancer screening technology called the Pocket colposcope in

over 7 countries and also created an inter-disciplinary course through

the Bass Connections Program to evaluate the pathway to adoption

and distribution of the Pocket colposcope in Peru. Now she is using a

similar framework to evaluate the potential for the Pocket colposcope

to reduce loss to follow up of women who need referral care in the U.S.

Marlee’s understanding of both the international and local ecosystems

makes her uniquely suited to lead the GWHT center’s efforts to achieve global and local impact in

women’s health. She is also the Director of DukeEngage Orange County, California. This cultural

immersion program aims to empower young women through STEM education.

Baishakhi Taylor is an assistant professor of Gender, Sexuality, and

Feminist Studies at Middlebury College in Vermont. Her current research

focuses on gender reassignment surgery and gendered expressions in

India and issues of women’s leadership in higher education. Baishakhi

also serves as the Vice President of Student Affairs and Dean of Stu-

dents at Middlebury College. Prior to joining Middlebury College, she

served as the associate dean in the College of Arts & Sciences at Duke

University and a research scholar in Duke’s Program in Education.

Baishakhi hold a Ph.D. in Sociology from University of Kentucky and

a Master’s degree in Women’s Studies from University of Northern

Iowa. She completed her undergraduate degree in Comparative Literature in Jadavpur University

in Kolkata, India.

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Sherryl Broverman received a BA in Biology from Cornell University

in 1984. She received her PhD in Molecular, Developmental and Cellular

Biology from Indiana University in 1990. Her postdoctoral work was

at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center from 1990-1992. She

was a visiting professor at Stony Brook University, where she became

director of Introductory Biology Program and led curriculum reform. In

1999 she moved to Duke University, where she is a leader in curriculum

development, developing projects in low resource settings, and girls’

STEM education in rural Kenya. Dr. Broverman holds appointments in

Biology and the Duke Global Health Institute.

Nimmi Ramanujam directs the center for Global Women’s Health

Technologies at Duke where she empowers trainees at Duke and beyond

to create impactful solutions to improve the lives of women and girls

globally. She develops and leverages technology to have the most wide

reaching impact in women’s health, specifically to reduce mortality in

women’s cancers and to ignite a virtuous cycle of female innovators. She

has more than 20 patents to-date and over 150 publications for screen-

ing, diagnostic, and surgical applications. As the founding director of

the Center for Global Women’s Health Technologies at Duke, she has

developed a consortium of over 50+ partners including international

academic institutions and hospitals, non-governmental organizations, ministries of health, and com-

mercial partners; this consortium is working to ensure that the technologies developed at the center
are adopted by cancer control programs in geographically and economically diverse healthcare

settings. Additionally, she has created three social innovations programs: WISH to impact cervical

cancer prevention in low resource settings, IGNITE to scale social innovation education to students

globally and the Calla Campaign to bridge inequities in sexual and reproductive health inequities

through story-telling and art.

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