The Cockrell School’s Certificate in Humanitarian Engineering provides undergraduate students with a multidisciplinary program that allows them to focus their learning around communities that need their help the most — from low-income populations to people with special needs. Students who pursue the certificate commit themselves to building better, safer, stronger communities by developing innovative solutions that improve lives.
Administered through the Walker Department of Mechanical Engineering, the program combines technical and non-technical coursework with project-based initiatives and includes course options in the colleges and schools of Liberal Arts, Communication, Natural Sciences, Engineering and more.
The certificate consists of 18 hours. Students must receive a grade of at least a C- in each course applied toward the certificate and have a cumulative grade point average of at least 3.0 in the courses presented to fulfill the certificate. Students must contact the Humanitarian Engineering Certificate Committee in the Department of Mechanical Engineering to apply for the certificate in the semester in which they are completing the requirements and graduating. For the Certificate to be on the transcript, the student must graduate under the 18-20 catalogue or later.
Apply online for the certificate
Cockrell students can submit an application through the Minor/Certificate System , which will be reviewed by the undergraduate academic advisor This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
The course requirements for the certificate are:
1. Three credit hours of approved introductory courses
Examples of previously approved courses include:
- UGS 302 - Development of Moral Action
- UGS 302 - Global Indigenous Cultures
- UGS 302 - How to Change the World
- UGS 302 - Humanitarian Aid Worker Story
- UGS 302 - Language and Culture in Amazonia
- UGS 302 - Marketing for Social Profit
- UGS 302 - New World/Old World encounters
- UGS 302 - Social Entrepreneurship
- UGS 302 - Social Inequality/Educ Lat Amer
- UGS 302 - Usability and user-centered design
- UGS 302 - Globalization and Social Media
- UGS 303 - Cultural Issues in Dealing with Latin America
- UGS 303 - Diff Dialog: Visualizing Cuba
- UGS 303 - Philanthropy: Power of Giving
- UGS 303 - Diff Dialog: Cultural Identities/differences
- UGS 303 - Emerging markets
- UGS 303 - Global Inequalities & Health
- UGS 303 - Lat Amer Envir Hist/Sustainbl
- UGS 303 - Middle East Today
- UGS 303 - Our Global Backyard
- UGS 303 - Sustaining a Planet
- UGS 303 - Race in the Age of Obama (no longer approved as of Spring 2021)
- UGS 303 - Dying Languages: What World Linguistic Diversity Means for Us
- UGS 303 - Bollywood, India and After
- UGS 303 - Geoscience: Sustainability/Society
- UGS 303 - Gender Identity, Sexual Orientation, Human Rights: Law, Lit. and Culture
- UGS 303 - The Scientific Imagination
- SOC 302 - Introduction to the Study of Society
- SOC 307K - Fertility and Reproduction
- SOC 308K - Social Change and the Future
- SOC 308N - Compar Relig/Politics/Culture
- SOC 309C - Creating a Sustainable Society
- SOC 319 - Intro to Social Demography
- GRG 305 - This Human World: Intro to Geography
- GRG 319 - Geography of Latin America
- ANT 302 - Cultural Anthropology
- ANT 307 - Culture and Communication
- ARC 308 - Architecture and Society
- CTI 302 - Classics of Social and Political Thought
- SS 302C - Theories and Methods of Reproductive Health
- SS 302D - Hon Social Sci: Psychology
- TC 302 - Water, Ethics, Law and Policy
2. Four credit hours Engineering Physics and Lab: PHY 303L and PHY103N
3. Four credit hours humanitarian engineering project — choose one of the following
- Projects with Underserved Communities sequence:
- ES277L Project Development with Underserved Communities
- ES277L Project Design with Underserved Communities
- Humanitarian Product Development sequence:
- ES227 Humanitarian Product Design
- ES277 Humanitarian Product Prototyping
If you are unable to complete options (a) or (b), please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for other options.
4. One credit hour seminar course: ME179M Humanitarian Engineering Seminar
5. Three credit hours of approved liberal arts and communication courses
Upper-division coursework is required. "Open;reserved” courses are not available to non-majors. Examples of previously approved courses include:
- ADV 324 - Communicating Sustainability
- ADV 378 - Geohealth, Equity, and Climate Change
- AFR 372D/HIS 350L Medicine in African History
- AFR 374E/HIS 346L Modern Latin America
- ALD 322 - Individual Differences
- ANS 361.29/ANT 324L/RS 373M Biomedicine, Ethics, & Cul
- ANS 361/ANT 324L.4 - Development and Its Critics
- ANS 372.26 - Topic 26: Global Markets and Local Cultures
- ANT 322M/AMS 321 – Native Peoples of the Southwest
- ANT 324L.24/AFR 372G.3 - Archaeol of African Thought
- ANT 324L.37/AFR 374E.2 - Pol of Race/Violnc Brazil
- ANT 324L.57/GRG 356 - Archaeol of Climate Change
- ANT 324L.17 - Nature, Society & Adaptation
- ANT 324L - Culture and Health
- ANT 324L – Anthropology of Infrastructure
- ANT 324L - Decolonial Intersectionality
- ANT 325C – Cultures of Sustainability
- ARC 342C – Mexican Architecture and Urbanism: from Pre-Columbian to Contemporary
- ARH 324L - Diaspora Visions
- ARH 345L/AFR 374F.13 - Diaspora Visions
- CMS340K - Communication and Social Change
- CTI 323 - Might and Right among Nations
- GOV 328L - Into to Lat Amer Gov & Pol
- GOV 337M.8 - Intnatl Politics Latin Amer
- GOV 347K - Government and Politics of South Asia
- GOV 365 - Human Rights/World Politics
- GRG 323K/LAS 330.3 - South America: Nature, Society, and Sustainability
- GRG 344K - Global Food, Farming, and Hunger GC
- GRG 356T/HIS 363K - Mapping Latin America
- GRG 356T - Landuse/Landcover Change Pract
- GRG 356T - Intl Development in Africa
- GRG 356T - Human Health and Environment
- GRG 357 - Medical Geography
- GRG 334L - Vulnerability to Natural Hazards
- GRG 336 - Contemporary Cultural Geography
- GRG 340D - Political Ecology
- GRG 342C - Sustainable Development
- PHL 325C - Environmental Ethics and Philosophy
- PHL 325M - Medicine, Ethics, and Society
- HIS 347J - Puerto Rico in Crisis
- HIS 363K/LAS366 - Politics of Food in Latin Amer
- HIS 363K.2/LAS366.28 - Argentina:Poplsm/Insurrctn
- HIS 364G.6/AFR374C.6/WGS - Apartheid: South Afr Hist
- HIS 366N - Global History of Disease
- IN 395A - Leading Across Cultures: Internship Seminar
- LAS 336.3/HIS 346L - Modern Latin America
- RHE 328 - Technical Communication and Social Justice
- RS 360C - African Religious Culture/Creativity
- SOC 321K/SOC 323S/URB 352.7 - Building the Sustainable City
- SOC 369K - Population and Society
- SOC 321G - Global Health Issues/Systems
- SOC 321Q - Social Inequality
- SOC 322U - United States Immigration
- SOC 429S - SA Contemporary Issues Health
- SPN 377C - Globalization, Film, and Media in Latin America
- TC 358 - Law & Ethics of Climate Change
6. Three credit hours from the following list of engineering courses
- ARC 327R - Sustainable Architecture Design
- ARE 323K - Project Management and Economics
- ARE 346N - Building Environmental Systems
- ASE 374K - Space Systems Engr Design
- BME 320 - Intl Perspts on BME Design
- BME 344 - Biomechanics
- BME 342 - Biomechanics of Human Movement
- BME 358 - Medical Decision Making
- BME 339 - Biochemical Engineering
- BME 352 - Advanced Engineering Biomaterials
- CE 341 - Introduction to Environmental Protection*
- CE 342 - Water and Waste Water Treatment*
- CE 369R - Indoor Air Quality
- CE 377K - Designing Sustainable Nanomaterials*
- CE 374K - Hydrology*
- CE 364 - Design of Wastewater and Water Treatment*
- CHE 338 – Fundamentals of BioEngineering
- CHE 339 - Introduction to Biochemical Engineering
- CHE 339T - Cell and Tissue Engineering
- CHE 341 - Design for the Environment
- CHE 342 - Chemical Engineering Economics and Business Analysis
- CHE 357 - Technology and the Impact on the Environment
- CHE 379 - Dynamics in Ecology and the Environment
- EE 374K - Biomedical Electronic Instrument Design
- EE 374L - Applications of Biomedical Engineering
- EE 362R - Renewable Energy and Power Systems
- EE 362S - Development of a Solar-Powered Vehicle
- EE 339S - Solar Energy Conversion Devices
- EE 445L - Embedded Systems Design Lab
- EE 460J - Data Science Lab
- EE 461 - Software Engineering Lab
- EE 461P - Data Science Principles
- ME 337G - Nuclear Safety and Security
- ME 363M - Energy, Technology and Policy
- ME 374T - Introduction to Renewable Energy Engineering and Sustainability
- ME 337F - Nuclear Environmental Protection
- ME 354M - Biomechanics of Human Movement
- ME 379 - Issues in Humanitarian Engineering (Maymester)
- ME 379M - Development of a Solar-Powered Vehicle
- ME 379M - Enhancing Sustainability through Tribology
- ME 379M - Medical Device Design and Manufacture
- ME 379M - Nanotechnology for Sustainable Energy
- ME 379M - Renewable Energy Technology
- ME 379M - Strategies in the Global Climate Agenda
- ME 379M - Technology Needs of Refugee Communities (Greece Maymester)
*Approval of instructor required for non-CE majors
Additional courses may be substituted for those listed upon approval by the advisor for Humanitarian Engineering.
This page was last updated on September 8, 2023.
For more information on the certificate, please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
