The combustion of solid fuels in residential cookstoves is a global health and climate issue, and expanded use of improved cookstoves could have significant benefits locally and globally. Evaluating impacts of improved cookstove programs requires more accurately measuring stove use patterns....

Over the past decade, nighttime lights have become a widely used proxy for measuring economic activity. This paper examines the potential for high frequency nighttime lights data to provide 'near real-time' tracking of the economic impacts of the COVID-19 crisis in Morocco. At the national...

The world is facing an increasingly dire plastic waste crisis that affects people in developing countries disproportionately more than those in industrialized nations. To compare the environmental effects of end of life disposal and recycling options for plastic/sand roof tiles in Uganda, we use...

We developed a techno-economic model to simulate the performance of residential solar-battery systems as a means of reducing the reliance on backup generators in grid connected households in Lagos, Nigeria. We compared the economic and environmental performance of solar-battery systems to the...

Solar mini-grids are a key element in strategies to achieve universal access to modern energy by 2030. In many settings mini-grids offer a combination of affordability, reliability, and capacity for productive use of power, moreso than most solar home systems and some central grids. Yet the...

Two-wheel tractors (2WTs) are widely used by resource-poor farmers to prepare land in the Eastern Indo-Gangetic Plains (EIGP). This paper demonstrates that improved tillage blade design can enhance maize crop establishment under strip tillage, which falls under the rubric of conservation...

Accessing clean water is a persistent and life-threatening challenge for millions of people in the world. Each hour, 400 children under the age of five die because of the lack of clean water. To help people get access to clean ground water, mechanical hand pumps are often used. Among the most...

Social impact indicators provide one effective way to measure the social impacts of products in developing countries and ensure that engineering design is producing positive impacts on individuals. Remote data collection devices enable the use of sensors to collect user data required to...

Conjoint experiments (CEs) provide designers with insights into consumer preferences and are one of several user-based design approaches aimed at meeting users’ needs. Traditional CEs require participants to evaluate products based on two-dimensional (2D) visual representations or written...

University engineering programs across the USA engage in service learning projects. These projects involve student teams designing and implementing products or solutions for communities in need, often in developing nations. There has been much research done relating to pedagogy and the impact of...