Millions of people around the world still lack safe and reliable access to clean water, energy, food, hygiene, and basic infrastructure - conditions that cost lives, undermine health, and perpetuate poverty. Climate change and environmental hazards deepen these inequities, especially in communities with the fewest resources. Addressing these challenges requires engineers prepared to work where systems fail and consequences are real.
Global Engineering, sometimes referred to as humanitarian or sustainable engineering, equips engineers to confront the root causes of poverty and inequality. At the Mortenson Center in Global Engineering & Resilience at CU Boulder, this work goes beyond technical design to focus on evidence, systems and long-term impact.
For decades, engineering responses to global poverty have centered on products, projects, or infrastructure alone. Yet these approaches have not delivered lasting change. Products alone do not end poverty. Projects alone do not dismantle inequality.
The Mortenson Center prepares engineers to do more.
Choosing a global engineering education at CU Boulder means choosing to tackle complex, uncomfortable, and deeply human problems. Students are pushed beyond memorizing theories to confront the structural drivers of poverty and inequality. They learn to pair technical excellence with systems thinking, evidence, advocacy, and partnership with communities. This work demands integrity, empathy, and creativity and it delivers lasting impact.
Your support makes this possible. Philanthropic investment allows the Mortenson Center to train students in the field, expand partnerships, advance evidence- and impact-based research and ensure that the next generation of engineers is equipped to address the root causes of poverty, not just its symptoms.
By giving to the Mortenson Center, you are backing solutions that work, leaders who act, and a vision of engineering that meets the world’s most urgent needs.
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