Liberal Arts Voices

Read the perspectives of our current students

Humanitarian Engineering and Social Entrepreneurship (HESE) Program Seeking Spring 2015 Participants

by

The Humanitarian Engineering and Social Entrepreneurship (HESE) Program brings together passionate students and faculty from various disciplines across campus to develop innovative and practical technology-based solutions to address compelling global development challenges. For Spring 2015, engagement is via a three-credit effort open to upper-division and graduate students from ALL majors. Lower division students might be able to participate with instructor approval.
Here’s a two minute video capturing the essence of HESE…and here’s a 21-minute TV program.
Students need to sign up for two Engineering Design courses:
– EDSGN 452 (2 credits: Projects in Humanitarian Engineering)
– EDSGN 453 (1 credit: Design for Developing Communities)
Pre-requisite: Fifth semester standing.
(Lower division students with significant community engagement or international travel experience are encouraged to contact the program)
The EDSGN 452 class has three sections:
  1. Section 1: Essential Design (Mozambique, Sierra Leone): Ventures include Low-cost Greenhouses, Mango Waste Briquetting systems, Mobile Payment Systems, etc. (All Majors Welcome)
  2. Section 2: Mashavu Telemedicine System (Kenya, Mozambique): Work continues on various aspects of scaling up the Mashavu pre-primary healthcare system in collaboration with the CYEC, Kenyan and Mozambican Ministry of Health and UNICEF. (All Majors Welcome)
  3. Section 3: Mashavu Biomedical Devices (Kenya, Mozambique): Design and prototyping of low-cost biomedical devices like inkjet-printed test strips for detecting UTIs and Diabetes, 3D-printed prosthetics, etc. (Engineering, Sciences, Design preferred)
This is a rigorous and intense integrated learning, research and entrepreneurial engagement experience that requires strong commitment. Multidisciplinary student teams  will work on various aspects of research, design, testing and implementation of these ventures in the Spring 2015 semester with (proposed) travel to Kenya and Mozambique for three weeks in May/June. Travel is optional and contingent on successful completion of spring classes, necessary approvals and participation in a half-credit course (EDSGN 454) in the Maymester.
These courses, in concert with classes in Social Entrepreneurship and HESE Reflection and Research Dissemination, count towards the 12.5-credit Certificate in Engineering and Community Engagement, and form the Social Entrepreneurship cluster in the Intercollegiate Minor in Entrepreneurship and Innovation. These courses count as some form of elective for most departments.

Sierra Leone: Of Markets and Women

by

By: Phoebe Canagarajah

Driving through Makeni, Sierra Leone

Driving through Makeni, Sierra Leone

The pungent smell of fish in the hazy sun, combined with the unique scents of those crowding around you, overtake your senses. You swivel your head around to find the rest of your group, trying to avoid looking at the stacks of fish swarmed by flies or the arranged piles of chicken feet. You watch your footing as you gingerly maneuver around low-rimmed baskets of onions and cassava leaves as your white sneakers become tinted by the red clay underfoot. Welcome to market, the hub of daily Sierra Leonean life! Looking past the hectic and overpowering scene before you, you see the beauty and serenity of the country—it’s large palm trees and green mountains, their vibrancy both breathtaking and surprising. You didn’t expect Africa to be like this.

As a Liberal Arts student, I had the honor to live and work around the city of Makeni in Sierra Leone for over two weeks this past June as part of Penn State’s HESE program. Most of my time was spent visiting markets and talking to households (generally head female figures), conducting research on general nutrition.

The Humanitarian Engineering and Social Entrepreneurship program at Penn State—commonly shortened to HESE—is a program for students from all disciplines interested in development to gain knowledge and hands-on experience. Last spring semester, my peers and I learned about social entrepreneurship and worked on research projects to be carried out over the summer field experience. Our research was closely tied to the venture we’re trying to develop, GRO Greenhouses. Sierra Leone has the highest rainfall in Africa, yet most of its population is malnourished. Taking advantage of the natural resources in effort to solve a need, GRO is committed to sustainably providing affordable greenhouses to responsible shareholders in order to provide communities with better seasonal nutrition. To this end, my research partner and I conducted a baseline study on common foods the general population ate to discover why malnourishment was an issue and to specify foods that would be needed and profitable to grow in greenhouses. This semester, we are writing a paper using this data in effort to get published and add to the body of literature about Sierra Leone.

Being able to qualitatively research households and build relationships was a rewarding, albeit demanding, experience. While initially exhausting, visiting homes and observing families’ lifestyles and experiences carried their own sense of adventure. My time in Sierra Leone would not have been as rich had I been unable to so immerse myself in Sierra Leonean daily life. I came away from Sierra Leone with an understanding of the lifestyle, a respect for the people and an enjoyment of their culture.

Liberal Arts Voices: Episode 42 “The HESE Program”

by

Episode 42 of the Liberal Arts Voices podcast features Khanjan Mehta, director of the Humanitarian Engineering and Social Entrepreneurship (HESE) program at Penn State.  Susan Knell, director of the Liberal Arts Career Enrichment Network, also joins co-hosts Dean Long and John Dolan for this episode.

Dr. Mehta talks about the mission of HESE, which is to bring together students and faculty from a variety of disciplines to develop, design, and implement humanitarian projects in the developing world.  The group discusses recent HESE projects that focus on the development of technology-based solutions to problems facing developing countries. HESE teams transform these solutions into sustainable and scalable ventures that enable positive social change.  Projects have taken HESE teams of students and faculty to Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and many other parts of the world. 

Dr. Mehta also talks about the opportunities of the HESE program for Liberal Arts students, who bring a valuable perspective and skill set to the HESE teams.  For more information about the program and its course offerings, please visit the HESE website. 

To learn more about HESE’s mission, view WPSU’s “Global Penn State: Kenya” video to hear students and faculty talk about their entrepreneurial ventures in Kenya:

Listen to this podcast episode to learn about HESE:
Liberal Arts Voices: Episode 42: “The HESE Program”
Please note that the “clicking” noise heard at the beginning of the podcast ends approximately 30 seconds into the recording.

We encourage all of our listeners to write to us with comments, questions, or suggestions at laus@la.psu.edu. We may even respond to these comments on the next episode of Liberal Arts Voices.

Integrated Learning, Research and Entrepreneurship Opportunity in East Africa, India, Nicaragua and the United States

by

Do you want to travel and explore life in developing communities?
…and apply your knowledge to empower marginalized people?
…and engage in research endeavors that lead to publications?

The Humanitarian Engineering and Social Entrepreneurship (HESE) Program provides several transformational integrated learning, research and entrepreneurship opportunities. HESE brings together passionate students and faculty from various disciplines to develop innovative and practical technology-based solutions to address compelling global challenges. Paterno Fellows can participate in seven sets of real-world ventures that range from low-cost greenhouses and ceramic filters to telemedicine systems, cellphone apps and innovative science education programs. Students will be working on various aspects of research, design, field-testing and implementation of these ventures in the Spring 2012 semester with travel to Kenya, Tanzania, Nicaragua, India or the US for three weeks in the Summer (Travel is optional).

Interested students are required to take both EDSGN 452 and EDSGN 497 during the spring semester.  Students can receive regular (or honors) three credits for EDSGN 497 (EDSGN 497H) and have the option of traveling to project sites in the Summer and participating in a follow-up honors course on reflection and research dissemination in the Fall semester. Credits count towards a certificate in Engineering and Community Engagement and the minor in Sustainability Leadership.

These courses are open to undergraduate and graduate students from all majors and all semester standings. Only 35% of participating students are engineers and every single college is represented…Enter the intersection!

Read a blog post from Amy Copley (BS, International Politics & Applied French, 2012) discussing her experiences working on HESE ventures:

I’ve been working as a part of the HESE Affordable Greenhouse Venture team for several months now, and I couldn’t be more excited about our progress and the future of our venture!

The greenhouse venture focuses on providing a low-cost greenhouse technology to small-scale commercial and subsistence farmers because it can help them increase their agricultural productivity by up to 50%. While the initial greenhouse team designed and field tested the greenhouse in rural Kenya and Tanzania, my teammates and I are currently creating an operable business model that will ensure the sustainability and scalability of our venture.

During my time working on this venture, I’ve engaged in developing and presenting several different types of business pitches, designing our venture website, and preparing application materials for submission to national and international grant opportunities. As an international politics major with a passion for food security, taking this class has been particularly meaningful to me because I feel like my teammates and I are working towards achieving real-life social, economic, and environmental goals that will someday impact the future global food security landscape. Although learning the technical intricacies of developing a sustainable business plan has been challenging at times, our in-class discussions, group interactions, and team meetings with Prof. Mehta have made us all well-versed in the concepts and practices that lead to successful social enterprises.

The most exciting part of this experience is knowing that soon we’ll be traveling halfway across the globe to implement the business plans that we’re developing in class. No other course at Penn State has given me the chance to apply the knowledge I’ve acquired in class to such a real-world opportunity. I’ve found that the HESE classes really teach you to become a skilled public speaker, a knowledgeable business person who understands and can explain engineering concepts, and a successful social entrepreneur, because when you’re traveling and working abroad you will assume these roles and responsibilities as you’re developing relationships with local partners, pitching your venture to potential investors, and working on the ground to get your venture up and running. I highly recommend the class to anyone interested in taking part in a multidisciplinary, cross-cultural initiative that makes a difference in the lives of people all over the world.

For more information, please visit www.hese.psu.edu

Watch HESE teams in action in Kenya on the Global Penn State TV Program:

Skip to toolbar