Engineering Exchanges: Community-Based Engineering in London, UK

This chapter presents the Engineering Exchange at University College London (UCL), through the lens of knowledge democracy, as an initiative to enable engineering researchers and students to work directly in service of local communities who otherwise would not have access to engineering expertise. The chapter begins with a reflection on the role of engineering in supporting knowledge democracy. It then describes the origins and structure of the Engineering Exchange, which operated from 2014 to 2019. Three modes of working with communities evolved through the programme—community as client, contributor, and collaborator. Examples of community-based projects involving engineering students in this research-led programme provide a link between service learning and inquiry-led learning in engineering education. The chapter concludes with reflections on the implications of an expanded conception of the role of engineers within knowledge democracy for engineering education, whilst considering the connection between justice, engineering, health, and sustainability.