EC.S06 | Spring 2007 | Undergraduate

Design for Demining

Course Description

Humanitarian Demining is the process of detecting, removing and disposing of landmines. Millions of landmines are buried in more than 80 countries resulting in more than 10,000 civilian victims every year. MIT Design for Demining is a design course that spans the entire product design and development process from …
Humanitarian Demining is the process of detecting, removing and disposing of landmines. Millions of landmines are buried in more than 80 countries resulting in more than 10,000 civilian victims every year. MIT Design for Demining is a design course that spans the entire product design and development process from identification of needs and idea generation to prototyping and blast testing to manufacture and deployment. Technical, business and customer aspects are addressed. Students learn about demining while they design, develop and deliver devices to aid the demining community. Past students have invented or improved hand tools, protective gear, safety equipment, educational graphics and teaching materials. Some tools designed in previous years are in use worldwide in the thousands. Course work is informed by a class field trip to a U.S. Army base for demining training and guest expert speakers.
Learning Resource Types
Image Gallery
Projects
Design Assignments with Examples
Written Assignments with Examples
Demonstration Videos
Two photos of people kneeling on the ground and digging with demining tools.
MIT student testing a trenching tool during the development process (left), Deminer in Sri Lanka field testing a pre-production version (right). (Left: Photo by Andrew Heafitz. Right: Photo courtesy of Andy Smith. Used with permission.)