Dean Joseph Hughes along with College of Engineering students and staff attended the PeaceTech Summit 2016 in Washington, D.C. The agenda of the Summit focused on exploring the new breed of social entrepreneurship that is harnessing the power of technology, media and data in violent conflict zones.
The global ubiquity of low-cost, easy-to-access technology is changing the way information and capital flow. This new norm has unleashed social entrepreneurs who collaborate to design, develop, and deploy new and existing technology tools for peacebuilding. PeaceTech Lab, established in 2014 by the United States Institute of Peace (USIP), facilitates this effort by bringing together management professionals, the tech sector, academia and government officials for this purpose.
During the Summit, Mechanical Engineering and Mechanics associate professor, James Tangorra, led a breakout session entitled “Engineering Conflict Solutions at Scale.” The following day, Dean Hughes addressed PeaceTech Lab’s Board of Directors.
Additional College of Engineering personnel in attendance were Kapil Dandekar, Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies; Sara Strickland, Director of Research Development; Sherry Levin, Associate Director Graduate Studies and Research; Colby Hepner, International Student Advisor, COE Undergraduate Advising Center; and two Ph.D. students from Environmental Engineering, Noura Abualfaraj and Kaitie Sniffin.
Drexel became PeaceTech Lab’s first academic partner in July 2105. In the fall term, two highly-successful College of Engineering Special Topics undergraduate courses were offered in conflict management for engineers. Future plans include the development of an online master’s degree and certificate programs in peacebuilding to address the global demands for humanitarian engineering.