Engineers for Social Impact

During my semester at NYU Abu Dhabi I had the chance to take a specialized course, Engineers for Social Impact. In this course, a group of multidisciplinary engineering students (around 15 of us) studied and devised solutions for the biggest slum in Asia, a neighborhood called Dharavi located in Mumbai, India. Dharavi is considered one of the most “productive slums” with an area of just over 2.39 square kilometers and more than 1,000,000 residents. Our team made a trip to visit Dharavi, where we were able to meet local residents and talk to them about what changes they want to see within their communities. Along with being a great experience that allowed me to make connections with amazing people and get closer to my own culture, this experience also taught me the kinds of factors that one needs to be aware of when trying to engineer a solution for another community/population. This course showed me a new aspect of engineering: social engineering. It was a clear example of a situation where the engineers had to actually take the time to learn about the people they were working for and devise solutions that are maybe simple but more effective than advanced technical solutions. Engineers for Social Impact gave me insight into what it means to create solutions for a foreign community and the barriers that can come along with this challenge.