An approach to integrating ICTD projects into an undergraduate curriculum

Applying information and communication technologies to development (ICTD) is emerging as an interesting and motivating research area in computer science and engineering. It spans application areas from healthcare to transportation, and requires the use of computing skills from networking to user interface design. Addressing problems of developing regions and under-served communities lets students explore a different part of the ICT design space, leading to new implementation and research questions. ICTD is also an area that has the potential to excite students about the CSE field more generally, with its emphasis on enabling social benefits with technology, and is rich in possibilities for interesting student projects. In this paper we report on two offerings of a course at the University of Washington that introduce students to the field by way of 1) reading papers from literature in the area to gain exposure to this very different design mindset and 2) doing practical projects that engage students in engineering problems under unique design constraints. Our hope is that CSE educators may find our experiences useful in identifying an approach to integrating the field of ICTD into their curricula.