Dr Aaron Opdyke was one of only two recipients nationally awarded a Citation for Outstanding Early Career Contributions to Engineering Education by the Australasian Association for Engineering Education. The award recognises his contributions to professionalising humanitarian engineering education and “for development of engineering curricula, resources or services that reflect a command of the field”.
The citation reflects Dr Opdyke’s role in building the University of Sydney’s humanitarian engineering program – the first of its kind in Australia – which trains engineers to work with marginalised and low-income communities across international development, disaster response and recovery, work with Indigenous communities, and conflict and stabilisation. In any given year, around 40 students are enrolled in the formal humanitarian engineering major, with upwards of 200 students taking classes in the program annually.