News

The Engineering for Human Rights Initiative Provided Written Comments on Governor’s Council on Climate Change (GC3)’s Draft Reports

Posted on October 24, 2020 by Davis Chacon Hurtado

The Connecticut Governor’s Council for Climate Change (GC3) invited the Engineering for Human Rights Initiative to provide public comments on a set of draft reports that make recommendations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to adapt to climate change impacts in Connecticut. The reports cover seven key areas:

Equity and Environmental Justice,
Public Health and Safety,
Science and Technology,
Infrastructure and Land Use Adaptation,
Progress on Mitigation Strategies,
Financing Adaptation and Resilience, and
Working and Natural Lands.

The GC3 was established in 2015, and it was expanded by Governor Ned Lamont in 2019 (see Executive Order No. 3) with the goals of implementing greenhouse gas emissions reductions strategies, preparing and adapting our state for the impacts of climate change, and ensuring strategies are equitable and protect the most vulnerable communities. The comments can be seen below.

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Research on COVID-19: Collaboration at the Nexus of Engineering, Human Rights, and Interdisciplinary Scholarship

Posted on October 24, 2020July 21, 2023 by Davis Chacon Hurtado

Published: September 25, 2020 | By: Davis Chacon Hurtado

The ENG-HR initiative organized the event: “Research on COVID-19: Collaboration at the Nexus of Engineering, Human Rights, and Interdisciplinary Scholarship” on Thursday, September 24.

During this event, researchers and affiliates had the opportunity to meet faculty involved in innovative research and initiatives to understand and tackle the effects of the COVID -19 outbreak in our society. The list of the presentations is below. For additional information on the event or recorded presentations, please contact Davis Chacon-Hurtado at davis.chacon-hurtado@uconn.edu.

‘Applying Chemical Engineering to Address Critical Shortages in the COVID-19 Pandemic’ by Jeffrey McCutcheon
‘Pandemic Journaling Project’ by Sarah Willen
‘Mathematically Modeling COVID-19 Replication’ by Ranjan Srivastava
‘The Ethical and Human Rights Implications of Using Digital Contact Tracing Tools to Respond to the Covid-19 Pandemic’ by Audrey Chapman
‘COVID-19 pandemic in the flood season’ by Xinyi Shen and Manos Anagnostou
‘Vulnerability and the Limits of Choice – Homecare Workers’ Views on Risk and COVID-19′ by Kathy Libal
‘Safety Assessment of New England Roadways during the Covid-19 Pandemic’ by John Ivan
‘Community Planning and Resilience for a Climate-Changed World: Insights from Urban India’ by Prakash Kashwan

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Engineering for Human Rights

Posted on April 2, 2019 by Orlando E

Published: April 2, 2019 | By: Anna Zarra Aldrich ’20 (CLAS), Office of the Vice President for Research

What do an engineer and a humanitarian have in common?

This question is at the core of the University of Connecticut’s Engineering for Human Rights Initiative.

Engineering is often thought of exclusively as a technological endeavor, but it has many societal implications and applications. Engineering can help bring clean water to people in the remotest corners of the world or protect democratic elections and freedom of speech by securing online platforms, just to name a few examples.

UConn’s Engineering for Human Rights Initiative aims to bridge the gap between STEM students and the good their work can do for people. The program is a collaboration between several organizations within UConn, including the Human Rights Institute and the School of Engineering.

The aim of the initiative is to allow future engineers to think about the ethical implications of their work. “We teach students to manage risk, enhance access to technology, and develop remedies for potential harms generated by their work as engineers,” says Shareen Hertel, associate professor of political science and human rights. Hertel, an expert on labor rights in global supply chains, has helped spearhead the initiative, which draws social scientists like herself into collaborative teaching and research with engineers.

Global issues like climate change have a real human cost, especially in places like poorer island nations that are susceptible to increasingly violent extreme weather events and often lack the resources to rebuild after them. Additionally, changing seasons are making fresh food scarcer for those who rely on farming for their food and/or livelihood.

Class: Human Rights and the Supply Chain

Posted on October 12, 2018 by Orlando E

The work of the HRI’s own Shareen Hertel has been highlighted by UConn Today! Together with Professor Allison MacKay from Ohio State University, they have developed an interdisciplinary class, Assessment for Human Rights & Sustainability. In that class, students have investigated how companies assess their global supply chain to ensure that they promote positive social and economic development, while minimizing environmental impact.

Read the story and accompanying Podcast here!

All-Women Engineering Team Fights Cerebral Palsy

Posted on April 27, 2018 by Orlando E

A team of four Biomedical Engineering students from UConn are breaking new ground in the fight against Spastic Cerebral Palsy. They’re all women, which is unusual, but that’s not what makes them ground-breaking – rather, it’s how they’re trying to fight the disease that sets them apart. They’re building a new approach from the ground-up.

“We’re creating a cerebral palsy hand rehabilitation device,” said UConn Senior Katie Bradley, “we have four motors that are going to be on our device. Each one of them is targeting the four muscles that we’re looking at.”

“We want to improve their quality of life, alleviate their pain,” said Senior Brittany Morgan.

Improving the Water Supply in a Drought-Stricken Village

Posted on February 16, 2018June 3, 2023 by Orlando E

Three UConn engineering students are working in partnership with a village in Ethiopia to help improve the water supply.

During winter break, the three students, who are all members of the UConn chapter of Engineers Without Borders, traveled to the village to begin surveying for a project to improve the community’s water infrastructure.

The village, called the Woreta Zuria Administrative Kebele, has an extensive dry season, lasting nine months of the year. The residents depend on agricultural production for their livelihood, and this year is particularly difficult for them, because of the drought that Ethiopia is experiencing.

“The community we’re working in is entirely relying on agriculture for sustenance,” says Kristin Burnham ’19 (ENG, CLAS), a double major in environmental engineering and molecular and cell biology.

Using Vibrational Therapy to Change the  Outlook for Cerebral Palsy

Posted on February 13, 2018 by Orlando E

In the United States, there are nearly 800,000 children and adults that exhibit one or more symptoms of Cerebral Palsy. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 10,000 new-born babies will develop Cerebral Palsy every year. One of the major symptoms for Cerebral Palsy patients is loss of motor function, taking away the ability to walk with ease, and creating difficulty in feeding. There have been several advancements in devices that aid individuals with Cerebral Palsy, but not enough devices that rehabilitate the patient. Four biomedical engineering students are looking to tackle that issue with their innovative Senior Design project.

Katherine Bradley, Morgan DaSilva, Brianna Perry, and Brittany Morgan, the four students involved in the project, are working on a brace, which would go on the hand and arm of a Cerebral Palsy patient, and would use vibration therapy to treat and strengthen the muscles in those parts of the body. The project is being sponsored by the Biomedical Engineering department, and the group is being advised by Professor Krystyna Gielo-Perczak.

Securing Water Resources in Ethiopia

Posted on September 15, 2015 by Orlando E

A $4.3 million grant from the National Science Foundation will allow University of Connecticut researchers to collaborate with colleagues around the world in order to help local governments and communities in Ethiopia’s Blue Nile river basin better manage their agricultural and water resources.

The funds, released today, come from NSF’s Partnerships in International Research and Education or PIRE program.

“This grant will position the University of Connecticut as a global leader in the multidisciplinary field of water and food security,” says Provost Mun Choi. “We particularly value the quality of scientific and cultural exchanges that are made possible through the PIRE program for students, faculty, and researchers from UConn, Ethiopia, and other international universities.”

Up Close — Impulsive Ingenuity: Arash Zaghi

Posted on March 16, 2015 by Orlando E

By Mary Lord

Just 34, Arash Zaghi can point to a string of achievements. After graduating at the top of Iran’s prestigious Sharif University of Technology, he worked as a project engineer in Tehran while earning a master’s in earthquake engineering. Arriving in the United States, he whipped through a Ph.D. in civil engineering from the University of Nevada, Reno in just three years. There, he developed a seismic-design method for a novel connection detail that was incorporated in the new San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.

Joining the University of Connecticut in 2011, Zaghi soon won back-to-back awards for teaching excellence. He also established a research lab to study the design of multihazard-resilient infrastructure, launched a start-up, and filed for a patent for an ingenious bridge-column system. His latest endeavor, however, veers sharply away from roads and girders. It’s based on a discovery about himself.

Three years ago, Zaghi was diagnosed with attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder. Now, backed by a two-year, $150,000 Research in Engineering Education grant from the National Science Foundation, he is studying the creative thinking and risk-taking potential of engineering students with and without ADHD and identifying obstacles to success. “This project has the potential to improve education for all students and transform the way we teach engineering,” says Zaghi. He argues that risk-taking, impulsivity, procrastination, and focus problems – common traits in the 4 to 7 percent of the population who have ADHD – often coexist with significant talents. Properly steered, these talents can spark the “revolutionary change” needed to solve such “broad, complex problems” as cybersecurity or global climate change, he says.

UConn Professor Works to Engineer ADHD Success

Posted on March 12, 2015 by Orlando E

Engineering is a growth industry with well-paying jobs. But many college students with ADHD soon drop out of engineering programs. Or they don’t apply to begin with, says Arash Zaghi, an assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Connecticut.

Zaghi believes that students with ADHD can be great engineers—with the proper training. And he’s launching a study in the hopes of proving it.

People with ADHD can be some of the most creative engineering students, according to Zaghi. But many programs don’t appreciate the different ways people with ADHD learn. Nor do they reward the innovative thinking of these students.

Most programs focus on using standard methods for solving problems, he explains. For a student with ADHD, that can be very frustrating.