Several groups of students and faculty in multiple programs tied to Duke Engineering are working to help those suffering from humanitarian crises.
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Engineering Aid for Refugees
In response to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, professors and students at Duke are applying their engineering expertise to provide support. David Hasan, professor of neurosurgery in the Duke University School of Medicine, has established several projects aimed at involving students in aid efforts.
Born to parents from the West Bank, Hasan was among the first to enter Gaza after the war began, volunteering to provide emergency healthcare for the wounded. “There was no access to food, minimal water, and few medications; we did a lot of surgeries without anesthetics,” Hasan recalled. “That was the motivation for me to come back and start my humanitarian efforts. Since then, I’ve been very active in helping the people in Gaza from outside but also trying to form bridges between the Palestinians and the Israelis.”
By creating opportunities through Duke Engineering’s signature first-year design course EGR 101 and Bass Connections, Hasan has engaged students in projects that can directly aid those affected by the war. These projects offer students an opportunity to make a positive impact.
Creating Electricity Through Play
EGR 101 is a fall semester class intended to introduce freshmen to the principles of design through a semester-long project. Pranav Mukund, a junior studying biomedical engineering, worked with Hasan to establish EGR 101 projects focused on creating toys for children in Gaza. These toys were designed not only for recreation but also to generate small amounts of electricity during play.
Students work in the Duke Design POD to create a toy car and spinning chair that generates electricity when played with.
“[We wanted to] find a way to combine recreation play but also fill the needs of the community at a time when power is scarce because there’s no available grid,” Pranav explained.
The first team, composed of freshmen Zack Bickley, Dhruv Garg, Ava Wietlisbach, and Rachel Yu, worked on a toy car that generates electricity as children play. “The car generates electricity by spinning a handle on top, which is connected to a DC motor,” explained Yu. This project also served as an important learning experience, allowing the freshmen to apply their engineering skills in a real-world context. “I really enjoyed connecting all the electrical components and seeing it work.”
The main engineering challenge in building these devices is knowing we are working with incredibly restricted materials. We don’t have the luxury of using every material we’d like, and the people [living in Gaza] don’t have the luxury of being able to go buy materials.
Sam TolbertMaster’s Student in the Nicholas School of the Environment
Another team, consisting of Rowan Lodato, Zulaa Mungunsukh, Jill Wang, and Elissa Zamrik, designed a spinning desk chair capable of generating enough power to charge a cell phone. Many students from both teams have chosen to continue working on their projects into the spring semester.
Providing Clean Water and Shelter
Bass Connections is a program that connects undergraduate students, graduate students, and professors through interdisciplinary projects that address societal challenges. Hasan, along with Nicholas School Professor Erika Weinthal and master student Sam Tolbert, lead a Bass Connections team focused on providing aid to Gaza.
“The project is a cooperation between Duke and a German NGO run by an Israeli woman and a Palestinian woman,” Tolbert explained. Clean Shelter, a nonprofit founded by Seba Abu-Daqa and Tom Kellner in response to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, has already built and financed over 1,000 toilets, showers, tents, and community spaces. The Duke team is currently working with Clean Shelter to develop a low-cost, easily manufacturable water filtration system and winterization techniques.
Bass Connections team members from left to right: Ayesha Ghazanfar, Anna Clauer, Shivani Lakshman, Em Ordonez, Samuel Tolbert, and Griffin Storm. Also Connor Biswell (not pictured).
Final presentation of the First-Year Design project that built an electricity-generating chair.
Since October 7, all five of Gaza’s wastewater treatment plants have shut down, causing a surge in toxic waste that poses significant health and environmental risks. As a result, one of the Bass team’s key goals is to develop affordable and simple filtration devices that people in Gaza can build themselves. After prototyping the devices, the team plans to “translate the directions into Arabic and send it to our partners in Gaza, along with the materials needed to build the devices,” according to Tolbert.
The water filtration system will be made from ceramic and chitosan, a biomaterial derived from crustacean shells. Chitosan is a cost-effective material with excellent antimicrobial properties, and, crucially, it can be transported into Gaza despite strict dual-use import regulations.
“The main engineering challenge in building these devices is knowing we are working with incredibly restricted materials,” Tolbert explained. “We don’t have the luxury of using every material we’d like, and the people [living in Gaza] don’t have the luxury of being able to go buy materials.”
The Bass Connections team also recently helped Clean Shelter secure fiscal sponsorship, allowing the NGO to receive tax-deductible donations and grants in the United States. The team is planning to collaborate with an undergraduate engineering class to winterize a tent in a “democratic way” that can be easily reproduced on the ground in Gaza. This project aims to support the 90% of Gaza’s population that has been displaced from their homes.
In the midst of the ongoing war, which has necessitated interdisciplinary teams to tackle complex challenges, Tolbert emphasizes the interplay between engineering, politics, and social impact.
“How people live, how people extract resources, how people are spaced in cities, how people are transported, how people access information, how people access medicine. All those engineering modes are tremendously political,” Tolbert said. “I would challenge every engineer to understand the politics of the engineering they’re doing.”
Claire Andreasen is a junior studying electrical and computer engineering and physics.
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