Education | Humanitarian Engineering

We are working on developing a new master's programme in Humanitarian Engineering. Humanitarian Engineering is a joint initiative of the three faculties Engineering Technology (ET), Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC) and Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences (BMS).

It is a unique cooperation between three faculties to truly have an interdisciplinary master for students that are going to work in an interdisciplinary field. The projects in the curriculum are going to be challenge based - to closely mimic real-life situations students are going to be working in and to equip them with the necessary tools to be a good Humanitarian Engineer.

The programme will focus on three main domains that represent its backbone:

Humanitarian Aid Engineering
Humanitarian Aid Engineering is all about immediate responses in times of need. You can think of, for example, quick solutions for water supply, communication connections, first de-mining actions, or flexible and modular facilities. At UT we focus on developing engineering innovations to serve humanity, especially in the direction of more vulnerable and underserved communities.
Resilience Engineering
Resilience Engineering is about long-term planning and capacity building. You can think of, for example, maintenance planning, education facilities, robust infrastructures, but also context and cultural awareness and co-creation. At UT we focus on a synergetic and common effort to increase the well-being and the global sustainable growth by significantly decreasing disaster risk.
Responsible and Sustainable Entrepreneurship
Responsible and Sustainable Entrepreneurship is about the implementation and value creation from technology in a local and volatile context. You can think of, for example, job creation and small-scale economy planning.

The first students are to start their studies in September 2025. The Master in Humanitarian Engineering will be an English-taught, two-year Master programme (120EC). With this programme, we combine engineering with social science for tackling urgent problems in the context of lack of resource and underserved communities.

What will you learn?

We believe that both social and technical solutions are needed to tackle complex humanitarian challenges, poverty alleviation being one of the main ones. In Humanitarian Engineering you learn to be a good engineer, who is aware of the local context, stakeholders and resources. You are trained to have an eye for the needs of underserved and marginalized communities and to find and adapt technical solutions to suit their needs.

Take for example the development of a water filtration system. If it is designed here in the Netherlands, where we have high water quality, it may not meet the local challenges in a refugee camp. You are trained to find out the needs of the refugees, and adapt the filtration system in order to meet those needs.

You are trained to combine knowledge from several academic disciplines and function in a range of cultural and political systems. Together with your fellow students, you will engage in projects based on social problems in areas as diverse as water and sanitation, healthcare, infrastructure and institutional design.

Want to start with Humanitarian Engineering already?

Are you interested in Humanitarian Engineering and can't wait to start the Master's programme in September 2025? You can get started on this topic already with other courses!

BACHELOR COURSES

MASTER COURSES

STUDENT ASSIGNMENTS

Please contact one of our group members to find out more about possible Bachelor's or Master's assignments in the field of Humanitarian Engineering.