Design for Humanity Challenge encourages students to approach problems with person-first mindset
Published: Feb 13, 2025 1:30 PM
By Caitlyn Griffin
The Office of Career Development and Corporate Relations (CDCR) hosted the Design for Humanity Engineering Challenge on Feb. 6 as a part of the Samuel Ginn College of Engineering's third annual Engineer Together Day.
Jessica Bowers, manager of career development content and strategy, opened this event echoing the words displayed on the walls of Brown-Kopel's grand hall: "I belong. You belong. Together, we engineer solutions for a diverse world."
Bowers defined the two primary objectives of the challenge: to practice problem-solving with a human-centered mindset and connect principles from the classroom to real-life applications. She then provided the students with examples of engineering failures where the user’s persona was neglected, such as air bags built to male specifications.
"You're developing engineers who will design solutions to address a wide range of global challenges," Bowers said. "Everything you're engineering — whether directly or indirectly — ultimately serves a greater purpose: to help people. And because people have diverse needs, it's important that we remain mindful of them. At the heart of what we're discussing today is the idea of engineering solutions for a diverse world, with a human-centered approach."
Each session was presented with a problem and had 20-25 minutes to discuss solutions with their table. For instance, the first session received the prompt of providing a solution for giving advance notice via communication channels to rural communities that don't have reliable access to cellular or broadband internet services after a natural disaster.
In addition, they answered a series of questions such as:
- What are some possible solutions?
- Do some of these approaches work well for some and not others?
- How competent do users need to be with technology to use your identified approach?
- How sustainable is this approach for the long term?
- • How might you adapt these approaches to address user needs and design constraints?
This challenge is designed to encourage students to tie the concepts learned in the classroom to professional applications while prompting them to build connections with their peers, faculty and company representatives.
"It's about introducing them to the concept and offering them the opportunity to focus on understanding the persona of the user without getting caught up in the technical requirements and specifications they encounter in the classroom," Bowers said. "They're then given the chance to engage with company representatives, faculty and staff in the context of the work they're doing."
Company representatives from AT&T, Amazon Web Services, Chick-fil-A, Goodwyn Mills Cawood and International Paper were in attendance for this year’s challenge. In the past, the scenarios were developed by Auburn Engineering faculty and staff, but this challenge was designed by Goodwyn Mills Cawood.
Beyond the real-world application this event provides, Jeff LaMondia, the Elton and Lois Huff Professor in civil and environmental engineering and the faculty facilitator, loves this challenge because of the community it creates within all the engineering disciplines as well as with students from the College of Architecture, Design and Construction.
"I believe the college does an excellent job of fostering real-world connections to what we do, but we're increasingly facing more complex problems that engineering, as a whole, must address," LaMondia said. "To tackle these challenges, you need teams that aren't limited to a single discipline."
Bowers and LaMondia admitted to the students the restrictive nature of the challenge but acknowledged the importance of humanizing the problems instead of just focusing on the technical aspect.
"We're not just learning to solve problems with math but also to bring ideas together in supportive, universal and inclusive ways," LaMondia said. "Many of the challenges we face in the real world require cross-collaboration across different fields. I often use the word 'humanity' because it captures the essence of the human touch — something we truly embrace here."
The Office of Career Development and Corporate Relations (CDCR) hosted the Design for Humanity Engineering Challenge on Feb. 6 as a part of the Samuel Ginn College of Engineering's third annual Engineer Together Day.
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