Engineering in Context: Co-designing Construction, Demolition, and Textile Waste Recycling with Medellín's Recyclers

This study evaluates a semester-long co-design process utilized by a class of engineering students from Colorado School of Mines and community partners in Medellin, Colombia. Facilitated by the nonprofit Diversa, the collaboration aimed to address construction and demolition (C&D), and textile waste challenges identified by organizations Motocarsi, GeoNatural, and ASEMAR. Student teams used Creative Capacity Building and Rapid Assessment Procedure community engagement frameworks to develop prototypes, engaging virtually with community partners and conducting an in-person experimentation field trip. Using co-design methodology, we analyze how student perceptions changed through different forms of engagement with community partners. Results indicate that students' mindsets, relationships with community partners, and engagement with design criteria shifted due to the field trip, which emphasizes the importance of contextual understanding and iterative design.

• Publication year

  2025

• Venue

  IEEE Global Humanitarian Technology Conference

• Publication date

  2025-10-22

• Fields of study

  Not labeled

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1109/GHTC66843.2025.11266349
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

• Rapid Assessment Procedure as a Tool for Front-End Stakeholder Needs Analysis in Engineering Projects

  2023cited by this paper
• Service-Learning Remotely: Lessons from Delivery in Humanitarian Engineering During the COVID-19 Pandemic

  2022cited by this paper
• Waste Pickers at the Heart of the Circular Economy: A Perspective of Inclusive Recycling from the Global South

  2020cited by this paper
• Revisiting appropriate technology with changing socio-technical landscape in emerging countries

  2019cited by this paper
• The Efficiency of Informality: Quantifying Greenhouse Gas Reductions from Informal Recycling in Bogotá, Colombia

  2016cited by this paper
• Engineering and Sustainable Community Development

  2010cited by this paper
• The White Man's Burden: Why the West's Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good

  2007cited by this paper
• Frontiers of Justice: Disability, Nationality, Species Membership

  2006cited by this paper
• Toward an interactional approach to sustainable community development

  1999cited by this paper

• No citing papers are available for this paper.