Engineering for social benefit

How do we help people help themselves? Putting social benefit at the heart of engineering and computer science, we discuss how to understand context, prioritise community needs, actively consult and take local direction. From providing training and education, to ensuring we build and tap into local expertise and capacity. Our guests explain the better path we can take: a holistic view that covers the whole lifecycle of an intervention. Guests Jeremy Smith, lecturer and engineer at the ANU Research School of Electrical, Energy and Materials Engineering, introduces us to the principles of engineering for social benefit, where building a brighter collective future is a social process. He says we need to ask ourselves “is this the right thing to be doing?” Cameron Tonkinwise is a Professor of Design Studies at the University of Technology Sydney and Director of the Design Innovation Research Centre. He explains the era of difference we now live in, where people are exerting their right to their own culture and individuality. He outlines how engineering practices can learn from this, and become adaptive and appropriate to individual circumstances. Peter Renehan, Chairman of the Centre for Appropriate Technology, discusses the need to move away from a ‘drop-off-and-dump’ approach to interacting with Indigenous communities, and instead work with locals to “provide services to people that actually matter”. Andre Grant, from the Centre for Appropriate Technology, outlines the importance of context in making technology appropriate and community-led, and the possibility for “reverse cultural approriation” of useful ideas and machinery. Peter Worthy, a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Queensland Co-innovation Lab, works in social robotics. He demonstrates how getting those who will interact with a technology on board right from the beginning of the design process, radically transforms the outcome. Sam Perkins, Head of Education, Research and Technology Development at Engineers Without Borders Australia, reminds us to prioritise the needs of the people we are working for, and to think about how our own upbringings shape our perspective. Further reading The Florence project – working with community to provide better care for those living with dementia Utopia project – improving the built environment on Country Engineers Australia code of ethics Music credits Our theme music, Anders by Blue Dot Sessions, is licensed under an attribution non-commercial licence.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.