The Engineering 4 Health Challenge - an interdisciplinary and intercultural initiative to foster student engagement in B.C. and improve health care for children in under-serviced communities
Price, M.; Weber-Jahnke, J.H.
Studies in Health Technology and Informatics 143: 68-72
2009
ISSN/ISBN: 0926-9630 PMID: 19380917 Document Number: 629248
This paper describes the Engineering 4 Health (E4H) Challenge, an interdisciplinary and intercultural initiative that, on the one hand, seeks to improve health education of children in under-serviced communities and, on the other, seeks to attract students in British Columbia to professions in engineering and health. The E4H Challenge engages high school and university students in BC to cooperatively design and develop health information and communication technology (ICT) to educate children living in under-serviced communities. The E4H Challenge works with the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) program to integrate applications for health awareness into the school programs of communities in developing countries. Although applications developed by the E4H Challenge use the low-cost, innovative XO laptop (the "$100 laptop" developed by the OLPC foundation) the software can also be used with other inexpensive hardware.