Project Diem

Developing Intermediate Educational Material

"The best aid to give is intellectual aid, a gift of useful knowlege."(Schumacher, 1973)

The project was initially proposed by Paul Byars (Edinburgh University Phd research student), following work done in Sierra Leone, Liberia and South Africa. Through research it was found that there are many innovative 'intermediate technologies'. These are designed with special consideration to the environmental, ethical, cultural, social and economical aspects of the community it is intended for. Along with this research there is a strong suggestion that there is a fault, whereby some 'intermediate technologies' do not integrate well with communities.

There exists a link between an intermediate technology and the community intended for, this is the 'intermediate education'. This is the technical and scientific teachings behind an intermediate technology, which enables a community to understand and more fundamentally accept a beneficial technology.

Project Outline

The aim is to facilitate development by encouraging scientific and technical growth in the worlds poorest countries.

Our objective is to develop and produce a comprehensive science and technology education manual that will enhance the standards of science teaching by focusing on “experimental learning”.

We also hope to create an added incentive for parents to send their children to school in those areas where school attendance is low. The material should offer practical explanations of technology that is presented to a community (for example the workings of wells and pumps). This will compliment the intervention that is being made and provide a way of engineers actively supporting the education of a community.

Intermediate Education Material

This material will move away from conventional didactic teaching methods. It will use developing world engineering solutions, such as biosand filters or wells as a basis for the material.

Material will be collected using an online media-wiki website which has already been built in our Edinburgh Engineers Without Borders website (http://www.ewb-uk.org).

Similar to websites such as ‘wikipedia’ or ‘appropedia’, this is an online data base which can be modified by teachers, aid workers, engineers, professors around the world. Through this gradual evolution material can be shaped into a worthwhile teaching aid, incorporating the ethical and practical needs of the end user.

We currently have designed a workshop on 'Biosand filtration' as well as three other workshops being developed. Furthermore research into new workshop ideas such as 'Solar energy' are also being uploaded onto the 'wiki' for future development.

For details on existing view workshops or to create your own, register and login to the wiki. Or contact us at "projectdiem@gmail.com".

Project Team

Project Manager: Jonathan Choksey, MEng Mechanical Engineering, University of Edinburgh

Project Assistant Manager: Ruan Roux, MEng Mechanical Engineering, University of Edinburgh

Workshop Development Team:

Katriona Knox, PG Renewable Energies, Edinburgh University

Brittany Wright, PG Renewable Energies, Edinburgh University

Alison Fulford, University of Edinburgh

Chris Emmot, MSci Physics, University of Edinburgh

Elin Crook, Edinburgh University

Jack Barrie, Edinburgh University

Nadia Issa, Edinburgh University

Richard Hunter, Edinburgh University

Rozzy Pedder, Edinburgh University

Sam Melling, Edinburgh University

Tom Inman, MEng Mechanical Engineering, Edinburgh University

Yassen Abbas, Edinburgh University

Project Supervisors:

Dr Blanca Antizar-Ladislao, Environmental Engineering, University of Edinburgh

Paul Byars, Phd Research Student, University of Edinburgh

Dr Martin Crapper, Lecturer in Environmental Engineering, University of Edinburgh

Thank you for your time.

Further Information

To find out more about Project Diem, current events and developments email: "projectdiem@gmail.com"

For more infomation about EWB-UK which EWB-Edinburgh is a branch of please visit

http://www.ewb-uk.org.