The EDC program is a four-week course offered for students worldwide. The course is taught in English by an international staff with extensive experience in sustainable community development.

 

Topics included in the course are: sustainability, appropriate technologies, holistic project design and implementation, stressing community participation and empowerment. During the course, students learn about the culture and language of their setting. They work in an interdisciplinary setting and experience hands-on activities in a real-world situation.

Students spend the most intense segment of the course in rural villages. They live with local residents, and work to understand the challenges ahead.  Each group of students and residents together chooses a concept that might be implemented to improve quality of life. In most cases, an engineering solution is proposed, taking into account cultural, social, economic and environmental considerations.

 

Information about the 2017 EDC program will be updated soon.

 

History: During the first round of EWB Technion projects, the need emerged for a formal educational process to train volunteers for work in the different partnerships.

The first course was held in 2010, in partnership with three Bedouin villages in Israel and was developed by Prof. Mark Talesnick from the Civil Engineering faculty at the Technion and Prof. Bernard Amadei from the University of Colorado in Boulder. The course has since been offered every summer.

Additional courses were held in Israel, Nepal (with Kathmandu University), China (with Shantou University) and Ethiopia (with Mekelle University).