YIP–Your Ideas to Practice: Shaping the next generation of humanitarian engineers

• Water is necessary for human life and access to it is essential.
• Conflicts over water continue to impede social development.
• Professor Dr Ulrike Gayh and Professor Dr Irma Livier De Regil Sánchez at SRH University Heidelberg in Germany believe that cooperation can often come about through innovative technologies.
• YIP, an initiative spearheaded by Gayh and De Regil, helps young students put their water technology ideas into practice.
• It is encouraging the next generation of humanitarian engineers.

While technologies have evolved throughout human history and arguably helped propel us forward, one constant has held us back: our compulsion to compete for resources instead of cooperating in their sustainable management. There are very few resources as necessary as water; it’s no coincidence that we look for signs of water first when searching for extraterrestrial life.

Here on Earth, technological advances have ironically helped fuel a climate crisis that risks escalating inter- and intra-state water conflicts. Such conflicts have historically impacted the socioeconomic development of societies and nations. Beyond cross-state wars over water sources, disputes over water resources can arise within a society, such as between industries and agriculture, urban and rural populations, or different ethnic groups.

Compounded by inadequate constitutional frameworks for water policy and management, these issues can foster corruption and clientelism. Finding technical solutions to help bridge these many divides requires inventive, highly cooperative thinking. A group of engineers with a shared passion for water technology solutions have laid the foundations for a novel method to overcome these issues.

Democratia-Aqua-Technica

In 2019, Dr Ulrike Gayh, Professor of Environment and Process Engineering at SRH University Heidelberg in Germany and Dr Maja Turk-Sekulić, a Professor of Environmental Engineering at the University of Novi Sad in Serbia, founded the interdisciplinary network Democratia-Aqua-Technica. The focus of the network was to link similar research facilities worldwide to transform local and regional water conflicts into pathways to peace and democracy through innovative science and technology approaches.

During the lateral growth in Democratia-Aqua-Technica, Gayh and De Regil saw an opportunity to expand its reach deeper – by getting younger students involved.

Since its founding, Democratia-Aqua-Technica has expanded to include research facilities in Slovenia, Hungary, Romania, and Turkey. Funded by the Deutschen Akademischen Austauschdienst, the German Academic Exchange Service, researchers, postgraduate students, and graduates have visited each other’s facilities and projects focused on technology solutions that could address water conflicts. They have also experimented with imaginative approaches such as hackathons.

During this lateral growth in Democratia-Aqua-Technica, Gayh and her colleague, Professor Dr Irma Livier De Regil Sánchez, Head of the Scientific Research Office at UNIVA Guadalajara campus, Mexico, saw an opportunity to expand its reach deeper – by getting younger students involved. They knew that student-driven solutions in humanitarian engineering make sense on various levels.

A sense of urgency

Youth are often the drivers of change. They are enthusiastic adopters of new technology and unencumbered by the deep-seated mindsets that can be divisive and paralyse innovation. They are also the most vocal on dire ecological issues, which they have primarily inherited. So, they have a sense of urgency.

For this reason, Gayh and De Regil initiated a project called ‘YIP–Your Ideas to Practice’. Financed by the Baden-Württemberg Stiftung, a foundation which has been supporting international exchange since 2001, YIP encourages young students to engage in research and development efforts championed by Democratia-Aqua-Technica, including technologies for freshwater production, wastewater disposal, water treatment, and pollution reduction.

In YIP students, Gayh and her fellow researchers are sowing the seeds of technical innovation to encourage global cooperation and reduce water conflicts.

Knowing that young students can grow exponentially when they exchange ideas beyond their immediate horizons, the team sought facilities outside Europe for YIP and connected with Mexico’s Universidad del Valle de Atemajac (UNIVA) and Ghana’s Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST). Over the last couple of years, the three universities have given young engineering students the opportunity to develop original ideas around sustainable water treatment technology. Importantly, they have learned valuable lessons about water conflicts and received a taste of research life.

Conflicts and cooperation

Under the YIP banner, students at SRH University Heidelberg, UNIVA, and KNUST have understood the global dimension of water conflicts and, at the same time, been exposed to the local and regional nuances behind such conflicts. Their challenge is to imagine technologies that could be used globally but respect those nuances.

YIP students work in international teams to develop a complete cycle of a practical project, thereby gaining experience in intercultural project management under practical conditions. For example, the students had to consider innovative and sustainable technical solutions to treat polluted river water in Ghana that could reduce local conflicts over access to and use of the water, especially for agriculture.

This emphasis on practical learning and global presentation opportunities for students is a significant aspect of YIP. Participants are encouraged to work collaboratively, engage in practical laboratory work, and develop skills in humanitarian engineering. This approach not only enhances their technical expertise but also fosters social awareness, interdisciplinarity, and interculturality. By integrating technological solutions appropriate to the needs and context of various communities, YIP aims to equip young researchers with the tools necessary to prevent future conflicts over water resources.

The next generation of engineers

YIP is an exciting initiative. It is also ambitious. Water is essential for human life, and the urge to ensure access to it and fight over it, if necessary, whatever the cost, is a fundamental characteristic of human nature. It has shaped societies for centuries, but it has also harmed them and threatened the sustainability of water as a valuable resource. Technology has the power to help, but when water is politicised, current technical solutions for equitable distribution can take a back seat to political agendas.

Therefore, we need new technical solutions. Young people are more confident in innovation and have the energy to drive it. In YIP students, Gayh and her fellow researchers are sowing the seeds of technical innovation to encourage global cooperation and reduce water conflicts by allowing the next generation of engineers to put their ideas into practice.