Humanitarian Engineering is the use of science and engineering to invent, create, design, develop, or improve technologies that promote the wellbeing of communities facing grand humanitarian challenges.
Humanitarian Engineering spans a broad range of disciplines and is ideal for students who are looking to explore all the professional and disciplinary facets of humanitarian challenges.
The Postgraduate Award, Certificate and Diploma are specially designed to support professional development for those already working in the field or interested in humanitarian engineering. Making time for work, family, and friends is important, so take advantage of our flexibility.
Each module runs over one week, meaning study can fit in around other commitments and is tailored to your personal interests or development requirements. You can select from as few as 2 modules, up to 8 modules, depending on the award you complete.
Postgraduate Award (30 credits)
Select any combination of core (excluding Research Project) and optional modules for 30 credits (2 modules).
Postgraduate Certificate (PGCert) (60 credits)
Take any combination of core modules (excluding Research Project) for 60 credits (4 modules) or any combination including a maximum of 30 credits of optional modules.
Postgraduate Diploma (PGDip) (120 credits)
Complete all core modules (excluding Research Project) for 90 credits, and any combination of optional modules for 30 credits (2 modules).
Core modules
Humanitarian Engineering: Ethics, Theory and Practices
This module is an introduction to humanitarian engineering viewed from ethical, cultural, and practical perspectives. It is designed to enable you to reflect upon the history and meaning of Humanitarianism and Humanitarian Engineering.
An Introduction to Global Health
The module aims to give you a comprehensive knowledge and critique of key global health issues. You will be introduced to the global burden of disease and the social determinants of health.
Water and Environmental Management
The main aim of this module is to present a global topic such as water in its so you can discover, research and experiment the great potentialities of an interdisciplinary approach to the matter.
One Humanity; Shared Responsibility
The international community is expecting that we come together and tackle global challenges from poverty to gender quality and climate change, and to create a better world for future generations. Now it is time to turn promises into action for this generation, and uphold people’s safety, dignity and the right to thrive.
The Agenda for Humanity outlines five core responsibilities in which we must take collective action. One of the core responsibilities is 'Leave no one behind'. It is our responsibility and commitment to transform the lives of those most at risk of being left behind. This means reaching everyone and empowering all women, men, girls and boys to be agents of positive transformation. It means reducing displacement, supporting refugees and migrants, ending gaps in education and fighting to eradicate sexual and gender-based violence and increasing disaster management.
Urban Resilience, Disasters and Data
This intensive module is aimed at introducing the topics of disaster risks and urban resilience with emphasis on the use of innovative digital technologies to gather and analyse urban data for improving disaster resilience. It approaches, theoretically and practically, the main issues involved in disaster resilience and the way in which social media, mobile technologies and the web 2.0 are related to our collective experience of disasters and crisis events.
By means of a practical project and potential fieldwork conducted in the city of Coventry, you will learn how to collect urban data using open-source mobile data collection software (OpenDataKit), process and analyse this data with Geographic Information Systems (QGIS) and produce interactive digital maps to visualise urban aspects related to disaster resilience.
Renewable Energy
This module aims to impart an advanced understanding of the principles of modern renewable energy technologies, including biofuels from a variety of sources, wind power, solar energy, geothermal, ocean and hydro power and ethical and practical considerations. The particular focus will be given to the limitations and restrictions in developing countries.
You will gain a diverse theoretical understanding of the future and current renewable technologies for power production, evaluate the fundamental principles underlying the energy production/conversion and interrogate the social and environmental impacts of renewable energy technologies.
Project
You will study projects individually or as a group depending on your choice, guidance provided by the module leader and discussions with potential project supervisor. The group projects aim to give you experience of working within a team, and parallels the way teams formed with people with different background to tackle challenging projects similar to project teams formed in real life situations. Individual projects will be more focussed on in-depth studies in line with your interests and in line with the supervisor’s expertise. Projects are proposed by academics, industry partners or students.
Optional modules
(One chosen from List A and one chosen from List B)
List A:
- Humanitarian Law (optional core)
- Sustainable Cities and Infrastructures for Emergencies
- Sustainable Operations and Humanitarian Supply Chains
- Mindful Project Management
- Industrial Ecology and Sustainable Engineering
List B:
- Design Thinking for Social Impact
- Challenges to Global Food Security
