Drexel partners to graduate "peace engineers"
A new program at Drexel will teach the art of conflict management to engineers with the goal of preparing them to work in countries prone to conflict.
A new program at Drexel University will teach the art of conflict management to engineers with the goal of preparing them to work in countries prone to conflict.
It's peace-building, one brick at a time, under Drexel's new partnership with the U.S. Institute of Peace's non-profit arm, PeaceTech Lab.
Drexel is the lab's first academic partner in the effort to create "humanitarian engineers" who are focused on supporting peace - socially, economically, educationally and now technically.
The program will begin with an online class in the fall in conflict management that emphasizes skills in conflict analysis, negotiation and mediation using case studies from some of the world's most dangerous countries.
On-campus classes will begin in the spring - all created and partially taught by academics from PeaceTech labs. Students eventually will go to the lab on the National Mall in Washington D.C. for co-op experiences.
"Technology has a critical role to play in the peacebuilding process," Sheldon Himelfarb, president and CEO of the Peace Tech Lab, said in a statement. "The Lab's mission is to design technology tools that can help drive positive change in places like Kenya, Columbia, Afghanistan, Sudan and Nepal. To do this, the field of peacebuilding needs more technology talent, and this is where we see the tremendous value that Drexel's students and faculty can lend."
Joseph Hughes, dean of the college of engineering at Drexel, said the program offers engineering students a chance to "broaden their perspective" on how to use their skills. The new programs offers a different way for engineering students to use their education.
"Peace technology engineering doesn't necessarily involve radical new technology or engineering principles, but for many of us it's a new application of our expertise and it challenges all of us to be cognizant of the origin of this field: to help improve quality of life through thoughtful innovation," Hughes said in a statement.
