The University of Southampton
University of Southampton Institutional Repository

Rescued by design: enabling low-resource communities to reduce global drowning

Rescued by design: enabling low-resource communities to reduce global drowning
Rescued by design: enabling low-resource communities to reduce global drowning

In recent years Bournemouth University (BU) has witnessed a growth in undergraduate projects aimed at resolving problems in low-resource communities, with an emphasis on sustainability through the use of locally-available resources and production methods. BU academics have also been involved in helping the Royal National Lifeboat Institute (RNLI) to develop product solutions to help prevent global drowning, with an initial focus on the Bangladeshi context. Alongside the potential to enrich or even save lives in the target communities, such projects can offer considerable benefits to a range of domestic stakeholders: from the students and staff themselves to local businesses and non-government organisations (NGO’s). But they can also offer considerable challenges -educationally, ethically and practically – including issues with design validation, the reliability and availability of information, and the barriers of differing cultures and languages.How can educators support low-resource projects successfully? Can students truly gain sufficient understanding of all the relevant issues to design products for an unfamiliar culture, no matter how diverse? And why are low-resource communities looking to designers from the other side of the world to provide low-tech solutions to local problems? Bournemouth University’s low-resource projects have achieved varying degrees of success. By examining some of these - including the RNLI’s Bottle Buoy, which has recently gained international acclaim - the authors explore the complex issues relating to the use of such projects in an educational context, and present a proposal for future success using JUGAAD strategies and greater collaboration.
RNLI, Bangladesh, Bottle Buoy
206-211
Institute of Engineering Designers; The Design Society
Powell, John
d6deefd0-c2d9-4c1d-82be-a0477b67c0ab
Underwood, Gary
cd267507-0634-44ca-90af-680fcd31b721
Powell, John
d6deefd0-c2d9-4c1d-82be-a0477b67c0ab
Underwood, Gary
cd267507-0634-44ca-90af-680fcd31b721

Powell, John and Underwood, Gary (2017) Rescued by design: enabling low-resource communities to reduce global drowning. In Proceedings of the 19th International Conference on Engineering and Product Design Education, HiOA University, Oslo, Norway. Institute of Engineering Designers; The Design Society. pp. 206-211 .

Record type: Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)

Abstract


In recent years Bournemouth University (BU) has witnessed a growth in undergraduate projects aimed at resolving problems in low-resource communities, with an emphasis on sustainability through the use of locally-available resources and production methods. BU academics have also been involved in helping the Royal National Lifeboat Institute (RNLI) to develop product solutions to help prevent global drowning, with an initial focus on the Bangladeshi context. Alongside the potential to enrich or even save lives in the target communities, such projects can offer considerable benefits to a range of domestic stakeholders: from the students and staff themselves to local businesses and non-government organisations (NGO’s). But they can also offer considerable challenges -educationally, ethically and practically – including issues with design validation, the reliability and availability of information, and the barriers of differing cultures and languages.How can educators support low-resource projects successfully? Can students truly gain sufficient understanding of all the relevant issues to design products for an unfamiliar culture, no matter how diverse? And why are low-resource communities looking to designers from the other side of the world to provide low-tech solutions to local problems? Bournemouth University’s low-resource projects have achieved varying degrees of success. By examining some of these - including the RNLI’s Bottle Buoy, which has recently gained international acclaim - the authors explore the complex issues relating to the use of such projects in an educational context, and present a proposal for future success using JUGAAD strategies and greater collaboration.

This record has no associated files available for download.

More information

Published date: 8 September 2017
Venue - Dates: Proceedings of the 19th International Conference on Engineering and Product Design Education (E&PDE17), Building Community: Design Education for a Sustainable Future, Oslo, Norway, 7 & 8 September 2017: DS 88, Design Education for a Sustainable Future, Oslo, Norway, 2017-09-07 - 2017-09-08
Keywords: RNLI, Bangladesh, Bottle Buoy

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 455823
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/455823
PURE UUID: cf2dbb0e-7b76-4a95-8270-ebdeb31e79e1

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 05 Apr 2022 17:34
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 16:24

Export record

Contributors

Author: John Powell
Author: Gary Underwood

Download statistics

Downloads from ePrints over the past year. Other digital versions may also be available to download e.g. from the publisher's website.

View more statistics

Atom RSS 1.0 RSS 2.0

Contact ePrints Soton: eprints@soton.ac.uk

ePrints Soton supports OAI 2.0 with a base URL of http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/cgi/oai2

This repository has been built using EPrints software, developed at the University of Southampton, but available to everyone to use.

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue without changing your settings, we will assume that you are happy to receive cookies on the University of Southampton website.

×