Engineering for International Development Centre
About

Engineering for International Development Centre focuses on engineering solutions for human development and wellbeing. The centre researches locally acceptable water-sanitation-energy solutions to address Sustainable Development Goals.
UCL’s Engineering for International Development Centre was founded by Prof. Priti Parikh to address gaps in infrastructure provision in resource-challenged settings in low-middle income countries. EFID brings together a team of doctoral students, postdocs, academics and cross sectoral organisations to address global challenges in water, sanitation and energy provision. This is achieved by combining technical innovation with societal needs through mixed method research. EFID is pioneering work on evidencing links between infrastructure and the Sustainable Development Goals. Prof. Parikh aspires to inspire future engineers to tackle global challenges such as urbanisation, climate change, poverty alleviation and gender inclusion through engineering. To that end she founded CEGE's Engineering for International Development MSc, the Engineering Faculty student Hub and the BSCC EFID research centre.
People
- Leadership
- Prof. Priti Parikh, EfID Centre Founder and Director
- Dr Margarita Garfias Royo, Deputy Director
- Associate Members
- Research Fellows
- Lucila Carbonela: With extensive experience working as an architect, Lucila has recently completed her doctorate on urban housing reconstruction after disaster from a gender and diversity standpoint. Her interests lie in urban development planning, with a focus on intersectionality around housing policy and planning.
As research associate for ToolSanDurban, Lucila has conducted an extensive evidence review focusing on Durban-centric sources to identify over 140 linkages between sanitation and the SDGs in the local context.
- Kerry Bobbins: Over the last 9 years, Kerry has worked on developing knowledge on sustainable urban infrastructure at the academia-policy interface. She has worked closely with a range of government, private sector and civil society stakeholders in South Africa and the United Kingdom to produce academically relevant policy outputs on water, sanitation and energy. Kerry’s academic interests lie in the situated aspects of urban sustainability transitions, where she has previously utilised a practice theory approach for exploring how concepts such as green infrastructure and nature-based solutions have been used by a range of urban actors in planned and unplanned ways. Kerry is a Research Fellow on the Cross-sectoral benefits of action in sanitation project, where she works closely with the core research team and wider partner network to co-develop policy outputs.
- Margarita Garfias Royo: Margarita recently completed her PhD on Gender and Built Environment, looking the link between urban infrastructure and Violence Against Women in public. She has a high level of cross-cultural understanding achieved through international experiences, and has experience conducting mixed-methods research across the world. Margarita is a Research Fellow on two projects:
- Integrated and Inclusive Infrastructure Framework (3IF), a Royal Academy of Engineering funded project conducted in partnership with Kuonkuey Design Initiative (KDI) to enable participatory, sustainable and inclusive infrastructure planning and upgrading, while achieving a range of Sustainable Development Goals and African Agenda 2063 Goals.
- WASH Resilient Recovery, a UKRI-ESRC-funded project focused on communities impacted by the 2018 tsunami affecting Central Sulawesi, Indonesia.
- Imad Ahmed: Imad is pursuing a Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in International Development focusing on resilient infrastructure in resource-constrained settings. He is focusing on two new research projects:
- WASH Resilient Recovery, a UKRI-ESRC-funded project focused on communities impacted by the 2018 tsunami affecting Central Sulawesi, Indonesia.
- TEG cookstove user perceptions, a UCL-IIT Delhi Strategic Partner Funds project. The energy access project is being conducted in partnership with UCL’s Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health (GOSH) and with IIT Delhi’s Centre for Rural Development Technology.
- Lucila Carbonela: With extensive experience working as an architect, Lucila has recently completed her doctorate on urban housing reconstruction after disaster from a gender and diversity standpoint. Her interests lie in urban development planning, with a focus on intersectionality around housing policy and planning.
- Research Assistants
Jonathan Barnsley: Jonnie is a current MSc candidate in climate change at UCL with an interest in climate modelling, integrated assessment modelling and carbon footprinting. He graduated from UCL with a BSc in mathematics and holds a second MSc from Cambridge University in mathematical physics. Parallel to his current MSc, he is also assisting with the creation of a carbon footprinting tool for travel between the UK and COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh.
Loan Diep: Loan is an urban researcher on green infrastructure, water and sanitation, and environmental justice in cities. Her PhD focuses on the urban politics of green infrastructure in contexts of favelas in São Paulo. She graduated from a BSc in Environmental Geography and an MSc in Environment and Sustainable Development at UCL. She also worked as a consultant for various organisations including UNEP and IIED, and as a project officer for Water and Sanitation for the Urban Poor. Parallel to her PhD, she is currently conducting different research projects with WaterAid and with KDI on developing policy tools that articulate the links between sanitation and the SDGs, with IIED on humanitarian aid for WASH services in Jordan, and with UNICEF on climate change impacts on children.
Jhénelle Williams: Jhénelle is an early career Jamaican Scientist with experience in ocean science and nuclear applications. She received her BSc in Ocean Engineering from Florida Institute of Technology and worked as a Scientific Officer at the International Centre for Environmental & Nuclear Sciences (ICENS) prior to enrolling at the UCL in the MSc Climate Change Programme in 2021. Her experience has been in utilizing nuclear techniques like instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) to study Jamaica’s coastal and atmospheric environment to support Jamaica's efforts in achieving the outlined targets under the Sustainable Development Goals. Ms. Williams is currently completing her dissertation that investigates climate signals from stable isotopes in precipitation. Coupled with her studies, she is currently working with Prof. Priti Parikh in the collation of a comprehensive research paper that assesses climate change impacts and solutions in developing regions like Sub-Saharan Africa.
- Current PhD
Tash Perros
- Primary supervisor: Prof. Priti Parikh
- Secondary supervisor: Dr Julia Tomei
- Research interests: I am interested in how innovative technology and business models can create a more equal world. My current research is part of the EFID BBOXX collaboration and uses mixed methods to investigate how pay-as-you-go LPG can improve access to clean cooking in Sub-Saharan Africa
- Working thesis title: Smart Cooking Solutions for All
Vasco Megulhao
- Primary supervisor: Prof. Priti Parikh
- Secondary supervisor: Dr. Licia Capra
- Research interests: Sustainable Energy; Energy Access; Applied Machine Learning; Data Science. My research seeks to leverage the ever-increasing data assets that are being collected under the Pay As You Go (PAYGo) model to increase our understanding of Solar Home System (SHS) adopters.
- Working thesis title: Rwandan & Kenyan Solar Home System User Behavioural Patterns – a Data-driven Approach
Penelop Yaguma
- Primary supervisor: Professor Yacob Mulugetta
- Secondary supervisor: Prof. Priti Parikh
- View profile
- Visting researchers
Nana Deng
- Primary Supervior: Dr Jing Meng
- Research interests: Residential electricity demand response; energy poverty; residential energy consumption behaviour. My research focuses on the factors such as economic incentives, policies and technologies, influence household energy consumption patterns and carbon emissions in China.
- Working thesis: Inequitable and Heterogeneous Impacts on Household Adaptation From Poverty Eradication.
- Collaborators
BBOXX
Vitol Foundation
Water Aid
Kounkuey Design Initative
International Institute for Environment and Development
eThekwini Municipality
IIT CRDT- Alumni
Content placeholder
Publications
- Prof. Parikh's publications
RPS Widget Placeholderhttps://research-reports.ucl.ac.uk/RPSDATA.SVC/pubs/PPARI97?orderby=year
In the media
Prof. Priti Parikh did stand-up comedy on sanitation issues
- Videos
- ToolSanDurban: Engaging internationally beyond the lockdown
- SULabaNtu: Havelock informal settlement documentary
- The case for equitable spaces
- Engineers Without Borders UK Change Maker: Priti Parikh
- ISNTD Water 2017 interview: Prof. Priti Parikh, Nov 2017.
- Engineering Show Off: Priti Parikh is saving the world with poo. March 2017.
- UCL Lunch Hour Lecture: Imagine a world with no slums. Prof. Priti Parikh, Nov 2016.
- International Society for Neglected Tropical Diseases (ISNTD) Water 2015 interview: Prof. Priti Parikh, Sept 2015.
- News and links
- Prof. Priti Parikh co-leading an interdisciplinary team from UCL to release a carbon footprint calculator
- Prof. Priti Parikh elected to the Institution of Civil Engineer's Council
- Prof. Priti Parikh wins Sustainability Research Award
- The case for equitable spaces
- Prof. Priti Parikh awarded funding through UCL Grand challenges
- EPICentre Receives UKRI Funding for International Collaboration to Foster Resilient Recovery
- Prof. Priti Parikh joins the Happold Foundation, Dec 2019.
- Jeroen Ensink Memorial Prize 2019 awarded to CEGE PhD student and supervisors
- CEGE Senior Lecturer awarded Royal Academy of Engineering Senior Research Fellowship, March 2019.
- CEGE’s Prof. Priti Parikh leading engineering aspect of innovative rural child nutrition project, Feb 2019.
- CEGE alumna’s fundraiser to spark company success, Feb 2019.
- Media and Blogs
- Introducing: our 2020 Media Fellows
- The missing piece
- ISULabaNtu Dissemination Event in Durban (Day 1)
- ISULabaNtu Dissemination Event in Havelock (Day 2)
- World Engineering Day: Interview with Dr. Priti Parikh
- Media Fellow Q&A #2: Headlines and deadlines
- Creating environmental prosperity - now is the time to act
- Stretchy bands generate electricity from body heat to power gadgets
- Soil safely filters 38 million tonnes of waste each year
- Male lyrebirds imitate a flock of birds to scare females into mating
- Google uses fibre-optic cable to detect earthquakes
- Over one sixth of all food produced ends up being thrown in the bin
- Algorithm reveals contents of fragile letters sealed for 300 year
Teaching and Student Experience
EfID Centre members contribute to the following programmes:
EfID Centre Director Prof. Parikh founded Engineering for International Development MSc in 2014, and was the programme director for five years.
The UCL EfID hub, also founded by Prof. Parikh, facilitates opportunities for all UCL Built Environment undergraduates from across the Faculty to work on global international development projects, honing their skills and putting their engineering knowledge to good use.
As UCL's branch of Engineers without Borders UK, the UCL Engineers without Borders student society offers its members the opportunity to network, upskill and participate in overseas projects. EfID Centre members has strong connections and extensive collaborations with the charity and student society.