"Ansanm: A Cross-Cultural, Interdisciplinary Approach to Learning Human-Centered Design"

In order to improve student proficiency in engineering professional skills, societal awareness, and global competencies the Harding University engineering department has initiated a longterm partnership with a primary school in northern Haiti called -Ansanm (a Haitian Creole word meaning -together).Through this partnership, the department has provided a crosscultural, service-learning context for students to learn the principles of human-centered design (HCD).The HCD paradigm seems to have merit in improving engineering students' professional skill set and societal awareness.As the nature of this program is human-centered, the Ansanm partnership intentionally includes Harding's professional counseling department in order to provide rich insight into the assessment of human needs.This assessment is then fed back into the engineering design process exercised by engineering students engaging in the partnership.Additionally, care is taken to ensure a sustainable relationship with the Haitian partners by adhering to development principles supported by engineering education and development literature.Through this partnership, students at Harding are able to employ and learn the design process of HCD, integrating societal awareness into technical decisions.