What is Development Engineering?

At exactly 7:59 am on a cold Wednesday morning of January 18th, 2017, a landmark email from my academic advisor graced my inbox. 

Robert,

Congratulations!  The Associate Dean has approved your proposed  Planned Program major with a theme in “African Development Engineering” which will result in earning a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Oklahoma. 

Having spent most of my time during that winter carefully crafting my degree plan at my kitchen table, with the peace of mind one gets when they have an entire 4-bedroom apartment for themselves, that was by far the greatest email I’ve ever woken up to! The spring semester would begin the next Monday and I have never looked forward to the start of a school semester more excited! I would be officially enrolled in my first semester of African Development Engineering.

After three semesters in the Chemical Engineering department, that was perhaps the greatest turn in my academic journey thus far. Infact, it’s one of the major turning points in my life at this point. Every day, I go to my classes knowing I chose to be in each of those classes and that I want to be there. I am reminded how lucky I am every single day I spend at the University of Oklahoma knowing I have full control over my academic discourse. It’s simply not a privilege most of my college peers have and that realization is truly humbling!

Three semesters and one year of practical experience in Uganda have gone by, and only a semester and a half stand between me and earning that Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Oklahoma that my academic advisor mentioned in the “historic email”. During the course of my study, I have had questions after questions each time I mention African Development Engineering as my field of study. For many, it’s always the first time they’re hearing about the field of Development Engineering let alone the focus on Africa I’ve chosen. 

In the next few paragraphs, I’ll attempt to answer the trillion-dollar-question: what is Development Engineering?

By design, Development Engineering is a multidisciplinary field that provides a harmonious link between engineering and social sciences such as economics, public health, and gender studies and places them alongside business and entrepreneurship for societal benefit. 

Also known as “engineering for change” or “engineering for impact” Development Engineering combines the principles of engineering with economics, entrepreneurship, design, business, and policy to create technological interventions in accordance with the needs and wants of individuals living in complex often low-resource settings.

Traditionally, engineering training has typically taken a deeply technical focus with less emphasis placed on communication and contextual understanding. While engineering predominantly emanated as an applied science, Development Engineering seeks to take it one step further by widening the scope of engineering applications to address real-world poverty-driven challenges. The field pivots on the deep understanding that creating sustainable systems around technological solutions require much more than just traditional engineering prowess. It demands knowledge of aspects like people and their behaviors and culture (ethnography) and local economics and business to understand financial viability.

Our world today is one filled with complex challenges with no vivid solutions that require a new way of problem-solving that is holistic in approach and human-centered by design. The people who need life-changing solutions must be engaged in every necessary step of the innovation process in order to ensure that resources are spent on solving the right problems. 

With the Gates Foundation reporting that the world is nowhere near on track to meet the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, and that millions of children still face a lifetime of inequality because of factors such as where they are born, their gender and their race, Development Engineering, with its holistic and inclusive approach is one of our best shots at getting back on the right track.

African Development Engineering.

When I first dubbed my field of study African Development Engineering, I had no clue of the existence of such a field of research and study. 

As a proud son of Africa, who acknowledges that my hard work has often been rewarded by life-changing opportunities that many a time my peers that share the same contextual upbringing do not have access to, I consider it my primary professional obligation to commit fully to the African cause. But, what is the African cause? 

To me, the African cause is the commitment to achieve an integrated, prosperous and peaceful Africa, driven by its own citizens and representing a dynamic force in the international arena. It is making my contributions now towards the building of an African future I want for my children and their children's children. This is, in fact, what I would call my "African Dream".

It was therefore only natural for me to pursue this new pathway of African Development Engineering as a way of rededicating myself to the enduring Pan African vision of “an integrated, prosperous and peaceful Africa, driven by its own citizens and representing a dynamic force in the international arena. 

Fully believing that African challenges demand for African solutions by Africans for Africans, my hope is that this new field will gain the much-needed traction, especially in our African Universities as we embark on building education systems that best equip our young generation to tackle the challenges of the present and prepare and empower them to address the unforeseen difficulties in the future.