Using ICT and Energy Technologies for Improving Global Engineering Education

Information, communication, and energy technologies have the potential to improve engineering education worldwide. With the availability of low cost, open-source microcontrollers/microcomputers, such as the Arduino and Raspberry Pi platforms, and a wide variety of sensors and communication tools, a range of engineering applications and innovations may be developed at a low price. Furthermore, the cost of solar panels and LED lamps have also dropped dramatically in recent years and these also allow for improved energy support in regions that lack energy access or require autonomous monitoring/processing. Also, low-cost 3D printers are now widely available for making simple prototypes of hardware. Finally, low-cost educational software tools have also become available. Combining these technologies enables engineering education to be brought into traditionally inaccessible communities in the world. In this book chapter, examples of how ICT and energy technologies are being used to teach students engineering technologies in underserved communities will be described. Application areas to be described will include environmental monitoring, clean water systems, and remote learning

Migration driven by Electrification - The Impact of Electrification on Growth Dynamics of Rural Areas in Developing Countries

Despite the fact that there have been many electrification projects in developing countries, little research has been done on their impacts on migration patterns. Most countries experience considerable rural-urban migration with controversial effects on rural communities. This study investigates whether electrification contributes to sustainable rural development and, thus, slows down the rural exodus. The study reports on research findings from three case studies in rural Nicaragua, two with access to electricity and one without. It aims to provide insight into the scope and depth of impacts of electrification on rural livelihoods and the links between electricity provision and rural migration. Structured and semi-structured interviews as well as participatory rural appraisal techniques allowed for the gathering of qualitative and quantitative data. The Sustainable Livelihood Framework provided a conceptual framework to evaluate the impacts. It was found, that lighting provided positive impacts on the rural poor’s livelihood, but a higher one on the productive sector. All three case studies did not suffer from rural-urban migration, but have shown significant in-migration in the last years. However, the village without electricity supply attracted mostly farmers and day labourers from the nearby uplands, whereas the electrified communities attracted more businessmen and craftsmen. Thus, the study concludes that electrification is a key factor to incentivise skilled labour migration

Innovation and Entrepreneurship to Address the UN Sustainable Development Goals

The UN Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) were developed in 2015 to address many global development challenges. Some of these goals include bringing affordable and clean energy to all (UN SDG7), provide clean water and sanitation for all (UN SDG6), providing quality education from early childhood to adults (UN SDG4), and decent work and economic growth (UN SDG 8). Technology has been advancing and can be deployed to address these challenges through entrepreneurial ways. In this chapter we will describe how technology-enabled innovative and entrepreneurial solutions are being brought to address these goals. The specific research questions to be addressed are: What types of Innovation and Entrepreneurship models are most effective in addressing the UN Sustainable Development Goals? This book chapter reviews different innovations in technologies and business models in the energy sector, particularly off-grid renewable energy, health care, water and sanitation, agriculture, and education sectors. The common themes of innovations in business models and technologies will be drawn from these case study reviews to guide researchers in developing new entrepreneurial approaches to addressing the UN SDGs

Accelerating Change for Women and Girls: The Role of Women's Funds

In recent years, interest in philanthropy for and by women has intensified, accompanied by a growing acceptance of the idea that philanthropic investments in women and girls can accelerate positive change in communities. To understand this evolution in thinking and practice within philanthropy, the Foundation Center partnered with the Women's Funding Network, a global movement of women's funds, to chart the current landscape of philanthropy focused on women and girls and document the specific role played by women's funds

Disrupting discourses and (re)formulating identities : the politics of single motherhood in post-revolutionary Nicaragua

There is a clear relationship between motherhood and space in the sense that motherhood is constituted spatially, taking specific and shifting forms in different spaces and because gendered geographies are made, remade or contested in terms of how women practise motherhood and other social identities in particular spaces. The meanings of motherhood are subject to constant renegotiation when gender identity is lived and constructed in times of hardship, political change or upheaval. Over the last few decades, Nicaragua has experienced dictatorship, insurrection, revolution, Contra war, more than a decade of neoliberal structural adjustment policies and a number of disasters including Hurricane Mitch which hit Nicaragua in October 1998. The social and cultural context in which women mother is a complex one. Family life is unstable and fluid and Nicaragua has large numbers of single mothers. However, a number of institutional actors have attempted to undermine this complexity by trying to fix the meanings of motherhood, family, femininity, masculinity and sexuality in simplified and reified ways. These attempts contribute to the pervasiveness of dominant discourses of motherhood. In many ways, everyday practices of motherhood are at odds with dominant discourses and the goal of this thesis is to broaden understandings of the way motherhood intersects with other cultural processes in particular spaces and of how women negotiate competing facets of multiple identities. Based on qualitative research conducted in Matagalpa with a group of single mothers, this thesis explores a number of arenas in which women negotiate motherhood, including family breakdown, revolution and counterrevolution, structural adjustment and disaster, and demonstrates how everyday practices challenge dominant understandings. Given that individuals participate in a number of discursive practices simultaneously, the intersection of dominant discourses and everyday practices work to create specific geographies of mothering. This means for example that women might adopt more masculine subject positions in relation to work and family while engaging in maternal politics in the political sphere or that male violence towards women can be condemned and single motherhood adopted as a positive form of identity assertion while uneasiness is expressed about the absence of fathers in children’s lives. By contextualising the conditions in which women mother and focusing on how individual women feel about and reflect upon their lives, this study illustrates the multiple dimensions of motherhood which exist within Nicaraguan culture and the contradictions faced by women who mother in sites of intense cultural struggle. This study has important implications for the epistemological transformation that is taking place within feminist geography in particular and within human geography more broadly. Motherhood has the discursive power to shape and define gender identities, but it can also be used to unsettle or destabilise gender and sexuality in material and discursive space

Insights Into Global Engineering Education After the Birth of Industry 5.0

Insights Into Global Engineering Education After the Birth of Industry 5.0 presents a comprehensive overview of recent developments in the fields of engineering and technology. The book comprises single chapters authored by various researchers and edited by an expert active in the engineering education research area. It provides a thorough overview of the latest research efforts by international authors on engineering education and opens potential new research paths for further novel developments

Análisis de la incidencia del tratado de Otawwa en el proceso de desminado humanitario en Nicaragua, en el período de 1997 - 2007

Tesis (Licenciatura en Diplomacia y Relaciones Internacionales)--Universidad Americana, Managua, 2009La presente tesis se basa en un Análisis de la Incidencia del Tratado de Ottawa en el Proceso de Desminado Humanitario en Nicaragua, en el Periodo de 1997 – 2007. La mina antipersonal es todo artefacto diseñado para que explote por la presencia, la proximidad o el contacto con una persona, incapacitando o matando a más de una, y está diseñada para ser colocada debajo, sobre o cerca de la superficie, el tratado de Ottawa apoyó las propuestas que tenían como fin el prohibir el uso de minas antipersonales haciendo que Nicaragua diera un paso más hacia la paz y prosperidad humana