Five Questions with Maddie Go and Andrew Tie
Senior Communications Specialists Maddie Go and Andrew Tie discuss how they’re helping to promote the Pratt School of Engineering within and outside of Duke.
In Service to Communities
Duke Engineering is strengthening local and global connections through community-engaged research, transformative learning and impactful STEM outreach. Our mission is to serve society by turning innovation into action and making a lasting difference in the communities we serve.
Community-Engaged Research
The search for solutions shouldn’t happen in a vacuum. Our faculty and students design with the end user in mind, integrating community input to build trust and create more effective, holistic results.
Center for Global Women’s Health Technologies
From Durham to South America to Central Africa, GWHT collaborates with women of all ages, developing affordable health solutions for field implementation and inspiring interest in the sciences.
Center for Water, Sanitation, Hygiene and Infectious Disease
Initially funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Duke University Center for WaSH-AID collaborates globally to co-design pilot demonstrations for treating blackwater, greywater, and stormwater, while also developing technologies to generate health data through wastewater.
Navigating the Amazon
Duke researchers have spent decades building trust with rural Amazon communities, gaining deep insights into how the region’s evolving economy impacts the health of its people and ecosystems.
PreMiEr Engineering Research Center
Our $26 million Precision Microbiome Engineering Research Center works with local communities to understand and engineer the microbiomes in our homes, workspaces and other built environments to improve human health.
Making an Impact
Nimmi Ramanujam
Growing up in Malaysia, Nimmi Ramanujam’s prospects were limited by her gender. After a series of cancer diagnoses in Texas, she realized technology could be personal and found deeper purpose in health care, blending it with her engineering background. These experiences inspired her to establish Duke’s Center for Global Women’s Health Technologies.
Lee Ferguson
Having built a research portfolio on using mass spectrometry to identify unknown environmental contaminants, Lee Ferguson was well-prepared when high levels of GenX were found in the Cape Fear River. Over the past several years, he has become a leading figure in the fight against PFAS contaminants in North Carolina and across the country.
Claudia Gunsch
Early in her career, Claudia Gunsch engineered microbes to tackle major environmental challenges. Now, as director of the PreMiEr Engineering Research Center, she applies that expertise to improve human health by designing built environments with complex microbiomes in mind.
Holly Leddy
Holly Leddy leads SMIF’s outreach, engaging over 1,800 K-12 students annually through visits to local schools and community centers. A highlight is the annual Girl Scouts STEM Day@Duke, which gathers over 140 girls and their families, supported by 100+ volunteers from 40 local STEM companies.
Community-Based Learning
What is Community-Based Learning?
It’s experiential learning in the community. Students actively learn through direct, hands-on experiences. They see the issues they study firsthand, while meaningfully contributing to the analysis and solution of real-world challenges.
When It Comes to Outreach, It’s in the Community
Find out what Duke and partners have discovered about how to build diverse experiences for local students interested in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
STEM Outreach Programming
Duke Engineering supports a wide range of programs that work with local partners to inspire the next generation of problem-solvers. Come and take a few peeks behind the proverbial curtain.
In the Schools
Modeled after Duke Engineering’s First-Year Design, Duke’s arm of Engineering for US All brings a hands-on design experience to students in Oxford, NC.
On the Duke Campus
In summer, we bring high schoolers to the Duke campus for an immersive experience centered on engineering design through active application.
In the World
Ignite helps middle and high school students illuminate—and solve—challenges in their home communities.
Learning Coding by Building PB&Js
Adam Davidson uses a classic sandwich to teach fourth graders coding fundamentals.
Middle School Hackathon
Outreach Design Education engaged students from Lowe’s Grove Middle School with the world of engineering and offered hands-on opportunities to tackle real world problems.
Inspiring Students Through Nanotechnology
At Duke’s SMIF lab, local students see electron microscopes up close, and go inside our nanotech cleanrooms.
Outreach Design Education
ODE (Outreach Design Education) emphasizes hands-on design over conceptual learning to build engineering identity and spark lasting interest in STEM among local youth. Its goal is to equip students with problem-solving tools and teach them the skills to turn ideas into tangible solutions. Students learn to identify problems, understand their causes, and apply this knowledge in the lab, where they build and test devices, transforming concepts into finished products.
Valence Robotics: A FIRST® Robotics Competition team
The mission of Valence Robotics is to uplift our diverse student community through opportunities to develop into motivated leaders of science, technology, engineering, art, and math. Created for and initiated by students, our team seeks to guide members to become well-rounded industry professionals.
News from Duke Engineering
Dive into the latest from Duke Engineering: where ambitious discovery fuels societal impact, and our students, faculty and staff continually push the boundaries of what’s possible in the world through insightful engineering.
Duke Engineering Hosts Riverside High School Engineering Program
Duke’s Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering brought more than 80 high school students to campus for a full day including tours, lunch and a lab.
Materials Morph for Easier Health Monitoring
Xiaoyue Ni is creating wearable technology that goes beyond just tracking your steps, for everything from pregnancy to sleep patterns
Upcoming Events
Join us for a dynamic lineup of upcoming events, where we delve into groundbreaking research, foster collaboration, and celebrate the spirit of innovation. Don’t miss out on these opportunities to connect and be inspired.
-
Mar 27
-
Mar 27
DQC Seminar Series: Peter Shor
Spring 2025 Upcoming Speakers 23 Jan: Lu Qi 6 Feb: Andrei Ruskuc 20 Feb: Noah Shutty 6 Mar: TBA 20 Mar: Kristi Beck 27 Mar: Peter Shor 3 Apr: Ed […]
12:00 pm Chesterfield Atrium, 701 W Main St
-
Mar 27
The Engineering Master’s Programs Student Advisory Board Weekly Event
Join the Engineering Master’s Programs Student Advisory Board for a relaxing time with table games and food every Thursday at the Teer Student Lounge from 2:30 PM to 4:30 PM.
2:30 pm
Explore More
Connect with Duke Engineering to become a part of our ongoing journey of innovation and discovery.
