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With limited time and resources available to carry out Engineering for Global Development (EGD) projects, it can be difficult to know where those resources should be allocated to have greater potential for meaningful impact. It is easy to assume that projects should occur in a particular location based on personal experience or where other development projects are taking place. This can be a consideration, but it may not lead to the greatest social impact. Where to work on a project and what problem to work on are key questions in the early stages of product development in the context of EGD. To aid in this process, this article presents a method for assessing global needs to ensure thoughtful use of limited EGD resources. We introduce a method for identifying locations where there is human need, gaps in technological achievement, and what the work environment is in a country. Results of the method are compared to what countries receive the most foreign aid dollars per capita. Measures were calculated using the principal component analysis on data from development agencies. These results can help practitioners in selecting where to undertake development projects with an eye toward targeting locations that may yield high levels of social impact.
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Identifying High-Potential Work Areas in Engineering for Global Development: Linking Industry Sectors to the Human Development Index
Abstract Those working in Engineering for Global Development seek to improve the conditions in developing countries. A common metric for understanding the development state of a given country is the Human Development Index (HDI), which focuses on three dimensions: health, education, and income. An engineer’s expertise does not always align with any of those dimensions directly, while they still hope to perform impactful work for human development. To discover other areas of expertise that are highly associated with the HDI, correlations and variable selection were performed between all World Development Indicators and the HDI. The resultant associations are presented according to industry sector for a straightforward connection to engineering expertise. The associated areas of expertise can be used during opportunity development as surrogates for focusing on the HDI dimensions themselves. The data analysis shows that work related to “Trade, Transportation, and Utilities,” such as electricity distribution, and exports or imports, “Natural Resources and Mining,” such as energy resources, agriculture, or access to clean water, and “Manufacturing,” in general, are most commonly associated with improvements in the HDI in developing countries. Also, because the associations were discovered at country-level, they direct where geographically particular areas of expertise have been historically associated with improving HDI.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1761505
- PAR ID:
- 10308726
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Journal of Mechanical Design
- Volume:
- 143
- Issue:
- 6
- ISSN:
- 1050-0472
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1115/1.4048746
