*3.4.2 Improving productivity of small and medium sized enterprises in rural parts of Europe*

An interesting approach to teaching 3D printing to remote communities is the Fab Bus mobile STEM education platform developed in Aachen, Germany [34]. This mobile education unit is deployed in a converted double decker bus as shown in **Figure 13**. Eight seats on the upper deck of the bus house 3D printers for students and a teacher's seat. There are also computers at each station with 3D CAD software

**Figure 11.** *Soil moisture sensor and Arduino reader with LCD display [33].*

### *Using ICT and Energy Technologies for Improving Global Engineering Education DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.100097*

**Figure 12.** *Assessment results for pre-PIDS and post-PIDS designs [33].*

**Figure 13.** *Mobile 3D printing educational unit (Fab Bus) [34].*

tools. The upper deck can be used as a classroom to teach students how to design and print 3D models. A layout of the upper deck is shown in **Figure 14**. The lower deck houses a showroom with industry-grade machines and various professionally made parts, including metal parts. Short courses are taught in this mobile classroom to high school and university students as well as to small and medium sized businesses.

**Figure 14.** *Upper deck layout of the Fab Bus [34].*

This innovative teaching platform has toured three countries – Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands and has been well received in all three countries.

### **4. Conclusions**

In his best-selling book, "The World is Flat", journalist Tom Friedman observed that a youth with access to a computer and the Internet can contribute to economic development from anywhere in the world [35]. Fifteen years since the first edition of that book, this statement is even more true. Industry 4.0 brought us massively interconnected devices which led to the accumulation of large amounts of data (so-called "big data") that required artificial intelligence and machine learning to interpret. Industry 5.0 is bringing humans back into the equation to work with machines and is the motivation of this next phase of the industrial revolution. The ubiquity of low-cost ICT and energy technologies as well as low-cost manufacturing technologies, offers an opportunity to bring a more diverse youth, including those from low resource settings, to be educated in engineering product development and to thereby contribute to local economic development.

The technology trends in low-cost ICT technologies, including ubiquitous access to mobile phones, low-cost energy access via solar panels, and open-source software and hardware systems have been reviewed in this chapter. A few application sector examples, built around the UN SDG frameworks, including quality education, clean water and sanitation, good health and wellbeing, and decent work and economic growth have been explored. These technological developments are driving a revolution in global engineering education bringing in historically neglected youth into the worldwide community of engineers. This creates the potential for unique and potentially transformative solutions to global challenges to be invented by students from low resource settings given their unique perspectives on the world.

#### **Acknowledgements**

The author gratefully acknowledges the contributions of his students to the educational outreach programs in the various countries (primarily in Nicaragua, Ecuador and Guatemala) in which he has worked. In particular, he would like to thank Javier Urquizo, Viviana Villavicencio, Nathaly Sanchez, Diego Villacreses, John Beyer, Scarleth Vasconcelos, and Melvin Mendoza. Furthermore, he is very grateful to his colleagues from UNICEF including Chris Fabian, Dr. Rafael Amador and Rinko Kinoshita. He is also grateful to Mr. Edward Tohom of Catholic Relief Services. Finally, he would like to thank professors at various universities with whom he has partnered including Professors Ruth McDermott-Levy, Dr. Betty Keech and Dr. Betty Mariani of Villanova University's, M. Louise Fitzpatrick College of Nursing, Prof. Jim Klingler of the Villanova School of Business and Prof. Maria Virginia Moncada, retired from UNI, Prof. Kevin Lopez of BICU, Profs. Carlos Leal and Amanda Rodriguez, both formerly of UCA, Drs. Cecilia Paredes, Cesar Martin, and Angel Ramirez as well as Prof. Jimmy Cordova of ESPOL and Prof. Elfego Ovalle of Landivar University in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala. He is also grateful to Villanova University, Venture Well and Halloran Philanthropies for financially supporting his work.

### **Acknowledgement of funding support**

This work received funding from Villanova University's Falvey Memorial Library Scholarship Open Access Reserve (SOAR) Fund.

*Using ICT and Energy Technologies for Improving Global Engineering Education DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.100097*
