Over the past year and a bit, I have been facilitating a learning experience for both my undergraduate and graduate software systems engineering (SSE) students. The learning experience involves an in-depth, independent exploration of solutions in support of the United Nation’s (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The general questions I am exploring is can the now-and-future (software) engineer be inspired to contribute to positive local and global change? Can this be accomplished by immersing learners in a “safe-fall”, guided learning exploration on the engineering of computer technologies in support of the UN’s SDGs? My wife would tell me these are all run-on sentences, and for surely they are. My writing is a work-in-progress- HA! That all being said, I want to share with you brief 1-3 minute solution commercials on my students’ creations from the Fall 2021 (undergraduate class) and Spring 2021 (graduate class) where students explored exactly this. I, for one, have been inspired by the outcomes of my students’ explorations. I hope you are as well.
(Undergraduate SSEers. Alphabetical by project codename)
Mason’s “aeS” app. A game to teach children about ocean pollution
Roxanne’s “Cope” app. An iOS watch app supporting mental health
Rishabh’s “GreenScreen” app to support recycling efforts. This project will continue to be explored in the 2021-2022 SSE Capstone class in the Winter 2022
MJ’s “CURL” app to help learners learn
Abraham’s “Eatable” app to help tackle food waste and hunger
Aina’s “Find” app in support of aiding vulnerable people
Krupal’s “HealthHack” app to support people’s quest for healthy lives (Link leads to his commercial in GitHub)
Carter’s “In Our City” app to help local teachers support their educational efforts
Arika’s “No More Waste” app to help tackle food waste
Shane’s “RageQuit” app to help tackle video game addiction and toxicity. This project will continue to be explored in the 2021-2022 SSE Capstone class in the Winter 2022
Joe’s “SAS” app to help raise awareness of sexism and harassment and educate on their elimination
Jon’s “Shared” app to help homosexual men learn, via stories, how to navigate their world
Kaila’s “SolarShare” app to help citizen learn about solar energy
Spring 2021
(Graduate SSEers. Alphabetical by student first name)
Bipin’s “Say No To Hunger” app to help reduce food waste
Brandon’s “User-Friendly Jukebox” to support good health and well-being
Dhaval’s “ProjectPosidon” to help support water infrastructure efforts in Tanzania
Dhruval’s “Food For All” app to help tackle hunger in India and beyond
Helly’s “Covid-Support” app to help companies manage COVID exposures (Link leads to his commercial in GitHub).
Ho’s “Covid-19 Awareness” app to help citizens better understand Covid-19
Nidhi’s “Motive Green” app to help citizens understand their carbon footprint
Priya’s “WorryNot” app to help support mental health
Reema’s “MHCare” app to help support mental health
Sangeeta’s “Yield Prediction” app to help support agriculture efforts around the globe
Shreyans’s “Connecting Humanity” app in support of hunger and poverty relief
Tejal’s “Land Locator” app to help support small and large agricultural efforts
Trevor’s “VoiceCare” app to help support good health and well-being
I know there is a lot to unpack here. That said, all of these projects and student explorations give me hope! I also know that many students learned a lot about the UN SDGs and were/are inspired to go forth and be awesome – positively advancing society for us all!
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