The Gonville & Caius College at the University of Cambridge posted an article about former International Scholar Hannah Gillespie '20, now a Marshall Scholar pursuing an MPhil in Engineering for Sustainable Development there.
"Some see engineering as a method of solving problems – I like to think of it as a framework for designing better solutions. This puts the human person at the centre of the design process,” she said in the article, citing her work in Haiti as a Kellogg International Scholar as foundational to her approach and her love of the combination of technology and people-first engineering.
As a Kellogg International Scholar, Gillespie assisted Kellogg faculty fellows Tracy Kijewski-Correa, professor of engineering and global affairs and William J. Pulte Director of the Pulte Institute for Global Development, and Alexandros Taflanidis, professor of civil and environmental engineering and earth sciences, on a National Science Foundation-funded project in Haiti in the wake of Hurricane Matthew. In the Cambridge article, she described the time she spent working with community members in Léogâne to redesign a biosand filter for water purification as a sustainable alternative to unfixable wells created by outside developers after the 2010 hurricane.
"The experience was transformational," Gillespie explained in the article. "It got me into this question of how we engineer in a sustainable way.”
After graduation, Gillespie worked for three years in the aerospace industry in Seattle before earning a Marshall Scholarship, which funds United States citizens for postgraduate study in the United Kingdom. Up to 50 scholars from the United States are chosen each year. She completed a Masters in Computing at Imperial College London last year in her first year as a Marshall Scholar.
Read more about Gillespie and her approach to engineering in the full article here.