Enhancing International Humanitarian Design Projects: a Contextual Needs Assessment Case Study of Remote Power for Faith-Based Organizations

About Enhancing International Humanitarian Design Projects: a Contextual Needs Assessment Case Study of Remote Power for Faith-Based Organizations

Abstract

Although the global market allocates relatively few resources to the most needy on our planet, Christians have a special concern for the disadvantaged. Since many charitable opportunities are in environments unfamiliar or “frontier” to engineers in industrialized nations, a special opportunity-challenge awaits those determined to serve these needs. International humanitarian organizations are routinely confronted with needs in environments not commonly encountered by main-stream engineering practice. One example is the micro-power project at HCJB World Radio, with active interest from Steve Saint‟s organization, Indigenous People‟s Technology and Education Center (I-TEC). One portion of the micro-power project seeks to generate electricity from rivers in remote areas “beyond roads,” without requiring dams or other civil works. In collaboration with the HCJB micro-power project, a student team designed, prototyped, and tested a zero-head hydroelectric system ultimately intended to provide 2kW-hr/day of electric power. The team applied a recently published design method created specifically for frontier-design projects, a project beyond the experience and expertise of the designers. The team applied the steps of the “Contextual Needs Assessment” method while conducting customer interviews. The results of the contextual needs assessment were profoundly important for correct need definition and design decisions. A parallel ASEE paper14 covers general-interest aspects of the project such as project partners and goals, an overview of the new design method, project results, and how the new method specifically impacted design decisions. This CEEC paper briefly references these general interest aspects, and adds to the case study a discussion of several additional factors which played a major role in the case study outcomes. Some of these topics are especially appropriate for discussion in the context of Christian faith and practice: servant priorities for a “successful” project, humbly engaging reality through prototyping and failure, and faithfully documenting failures as well as successes.