Advancing the Success of Engineering Service Projects from the Classroom to the Field

Increased value in sustainable development and education has expanded humanitarian engineering efforts by universities and student groups. However, the long-term impacts of many service projects remain mostly unknown and the metrics for evaluating project success are often limited to one stakeholder perspective. While many researchers are focused on improving our understanding of a project's outcomes, the simultaneous analysis of completed projects and design of new projects is also needed to improve the success of humanitarian engineering efforts. To this end, we examine the goals, approaches, and outcomes of five university-led service projects in developing communities and formulate a comprehensive analysis for evaluating success and identifying lessons learned. The following projects had the overarching goal of improving the quality of life for the members of developing communities: (i) drinking water accessibility and hygiene in Belize, 2008; (ii) renewable cooking fuel from biogas digesters in Nicaragua, 2009; (iii) solar-powered internet access in Mexico, 2010; (iv) engineering education and college retention support in Liberia, 2011; and (v) drinking water business plan and infrastructure in Ghana, 2012. In addition, we will describe a process to evaluate success for each main stakeholder role (clients, funding partners, teachers, and students) and to identify tradeoffs between the different roles and their success definitions. With this review and analysis, we show that (1) the definition of community involvement is strongly correlated with success for all stakeholder roles and (2) retrospective analysis from all stakeholders can facilitate advancing the sustainability and success of humanitarian engineering efforts.