Humanitarian Engineering: Design for Demining

Every year, thousands of civilians are affected by buried landmines, making humanitarian demining one of the most critical challenges in global development. This course introduces you to the rewarding field of humanitarian engineering, teaching you how to design practical, life-saving tools for landmine detection and removal. You will begin by learning core terminology, safety protocols, and the real-world constraints faced by demining teams. From there, you will explore the entire product development lifecycle—from initial need assessment and material selection to prototyping and field deployment. What you will learn: Understand the technical and environmental challenges of humanitarian demining; Analyze the design requirements for hand tools, protective gear, and safety equipment; Explore modern rapid prototyping, including open-source hardware and 3D printing for low-resource settings; Learn the principles of blast testing, impact physics, and safety standards; Apply human-centered design to ensure tools are culturally appropriate and easy to maintain locally. This text-based course guides you step-by-step through historical case studies, design frameworks, and engineering principles. It is designed for beginners, product designers, and aspiring humanitarian engineers, with no prior technical background required. Start learning how to design solutions that save lives today.