Supporting Global Responsibility: Olivia Wilburn’s Collaboration with EWB-Australia

This summer, PhD student, Olivia Wilburn, spent three months living and working in Australia and Cambodia through a Practicum Program supported by the Mortenson Center in Global Engineering & Resilience. The Practicum Program, which supports students pursuing international practicums focused on global development and engineering, allowed Olivia to combine her background in design science with research, fieldwork, and cross-cultural learning in an immersive experience. 

Guided by her advisor, Dr. Grace Burleson, Olivia collaborated with Engineers Without Borders Australia (EWB-Australia). In Australia, she joined the EWB-Australia office to help prepare for the organization’s Humanitarian Design Summit—an immersive, hands-on learning program for students. Her responsibilities included developing detailed itineraries, preparing workshop materials, and assisting with logistics to ensure a smooth experience for participants. The program was developed over a decade ago, with iterations to its outcomes and program flow throughout the years. Being part of the staff allowed Olivia to see the decision-making process behind the program's logistics and understand the approach EWB-Australia uses to create its design programs. Outside the office, Olivia took time to explore the country, from its coastline to its unique wildlife, making the experience both professionally rewarding and personally memorable. 

Olivia facilitated a workshop on interview skills to EWB-Australia students in Cambodia.

The practicum’s second phase took Olivia to Cambodia, where she served as a facilitator for the Humanitarian Design Summit. The program brought together 31 undergraduate students from universities across Australia to live and learn within a rural Cambodian community. Participants attended Khmer language lessons, engaged in design thinking and communication workshops, and collaborated with local residents to identify community needs and co-create potential solutions. To gain the skills needed to address community needs, the students participated in the previously mentioned workshops, and trainings on each step of the design process. Olivia facilitated several of these workshops, helping to teach the design process to students who were not yet familiar with it. Alongside her facilitation role, Olivia conducted ethnographic research examining how students’ perspectives on global engineering, humanitarian work, and cultural responsibility evolved during the summit. This allowed her to be an active participant as both a facilitator and a researcher, evaluating students’ perspectives and the program design that influences them.