Georgetown University students traveled to Senegal during spring break to collaborate on public interest technology projects with students at the Dakar American University of Science & Technology (DAUST), a five-year engineering-focused university in Somone, Senegal.
The trip was part of the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service’s (SFS) Centennial Labs (C-Labs), an experiential learning program that guides undergraduates to understand global challenges, often through international travel. The nine students who went to Senegal joined as part of “Senegal: Public Interest Technology,” a C-Lab that aims to help students utilize technology and policy to strengthen bridges between global communities and create technologies which respond to specific public needs.
Rajesh Veeraraghavan, an associate professor of science, technology and international affairs (STIA) who co-teaches the course, said the interdisciplinary nature of the curriculum reflects the diversity of its students’ academic backgrounds.
“DAUST students specialize in computer science and mechanical engineering, while Georgetown students, from the SFS and the College, bring critical and policy-related perspectives,” Veeraraghavan wrote to The Hoya.
In Senegal, students worked in teams to create five projects of their own design, including an information campaign to address climate change-exacerbated floods, a transportation application connecting delivery vehicles, an agriculture application linking plant breeders with agricultural scientists, a health application aimed at supporting low-income, rural patients and a language application facilitating translation between French, English and Wolof, a West African language spoken primarily in Senegal.
Manya Kodali (SFS ’25) said taking part in the course exposed her to new modes of thinking.
“I have never tried to build an app before, so the thinking process was completely new to me,” Kodali wrote to The Hoya.
Vaibhavi Mahajan (SFS ’26), a student in the course, said visiting local communities was valuable in shaping the design of her project mitigating floods.
“We traveled to Wakhinane Nimzatt in Dakar, a place that is heavily impacted by floods during the rainy season,” Mahajan wrote to The Hoya. “There, we had the opportunity to speak with a variety of people, including the chief, the water specialist and someone whose home was directly impacted by the flooding. Actually visiting the site and talking to community members completely changed the trajectory of our project.”
Mahajan added that collaborating with DAUST students allowed her to gain a deeper understanding of the project’s technical elements.
“Even though we had policy backgrounds and the DAUST students had engineering and computer science backgrounds, every step of the project the DAUST students made sure that we knew how they were getting the equations they were using or what exactly the code they were implementing meant,” Mahajan wrote.
Veeraraghavan said he hopes the projects will continue to develop and transition into products used in the real world.
“Our local partners showed a great deal of interest in these prototypes,” Veeraraghavan wrote. “We hope some of these projects will continue to evolve and potentially become social or commercial ventures.”
Mahajan said the trip helped foster closer bonds between her and her peers.
“On the second to last day we had a bonfire on the beach and grilled a ton of food on a barbecue,” Mahajan wrote. “It was one of my favorite memories because we were all just dancing and laughing and then we went inside the house and talked late into the night. It felt like we had all known each other for ages instead of a week.”
Kodali said she appreciated the hospitality that the DAUST students showed her.
“The Senegalese culture of giving, hospitality and openness was really amazing to experience,” Kodali wrote.
As part of the program’s student exchange component, DAUST students will also visit Georgetown next month.
Veeraraghavan said allowing students to immerse themselves in the culture of Senegal was just as crucial to the learning experience as the more technical aspects of the course.
“We laughed, worked, swam, ate, fasted and learned to work together in ways a traditional classroom setting rarely allows,” Veeraraghavan wrote. “We were all sad to leave Senegal, but we know that we are going to be hosting Senegal students the first week of April, when they come here and we become hosts.”
