Three Lyle engineering students take an afternoon nap inside a yurt built for the Engineering and Humanity Week Living Village. (TAYLOR HENRY/The Daily Campus)
There’s been an earthquake. Your town has been devastated and you are forced to evacuate. You don’t know how long it will be before you can return. It could be weeks or months. You are without shelter, food or water. What do you do?
Many SMU students faced a similar scenario this week as they volunteered to sleep overnight in temporary shelters used by those displaced by war or disaster.
The Hunt Institute hosted the Engineering and Humanity Week to bring awareness about real-life situations like this.
“We have more internally displaced people on the planet than we have ever had,” Stephanie Hunt said. “I think it’s important to share this knowledge with students, they’re the next generation that is going to go out there and deal with the issue.”
The slogan for the week, “Change the conversation to action,” gives SMU engineering students an opportunity to use the knowledge they learn in the classroom to help improve the lives of others around the world.
The physical centerpiece for the week, the Living Village showcased various temporary shelters designed to house people living in extreme poverty or displaced by war or natural disaster.
“The purpose of living in the village is to gain a better understanding of the problems that more than half of the world are faced with, see some solutions that have been developed and find how we can use our skills to create a better world,” SMU junior engineering major Corbin Swagerty said.
Students who stayed overnight in these shelters slept there with the goal of assessing the living conditions in mind. Each student wrote a blog about his or her personal experience in the village and offered ways to improve the structures or design other innovative ways to meet basic needs.
The week-long event exceeded Dean of Lyle School of Engineering Geoffrey Orsak’s expectations. Orsak hopes to make E and H week an annual event.
“With the level of enthusiasm we received, I can’t imagine not continuing E and H week. But I hope we can remember that we don’t have to wait for a special week to have an impact. We can make change every day,” Orsak said.
Apart from the village, E and H week also featured various panels and lectures about how to engage engineers and gather innovative minds to improve living situations around the world.
“This week there has been significantly more discussion about how we as engineers can use our gifts to serve those in need,” Swagerty said.
Swagerty and a team of engineering students created a swing set that generates power to radio, light and a USB port for electricity.
“There is so much pain in the world but there’s also a lot of ways to help and to give hope and love,” SMU sophomore Travis Miller said. “The whole goal is to use the education we’ve been given to help other out and show them that life would be something more than what they have.”
