Meet the E4D Doctoral Fellows 2021
We are happy to introduce you to the three newest E4D Doctoral Fellows Sergio Reyes Arriagada from Chile, Frank Odhiambo from Kenya and Prabhat Joshi from Nepal. Their doctoral projects range from inclusive education to solutions for the effects of natural disasters.
Meet Sergio Reyes Arriagada
Sergio is a Structural Engineer and holds an M.Sc. from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. He worked at the CIGIDEN research center conducting research on earthquake risk analysis of geographically distributed networks. His research interest focuses on the development and analysis of low-cost seismic protection systems, seismic protection of low-mass structures, and modeling the non-linear behaviour of materials and structures.
Doctoral Project: Seismic isolation system based on rolling rubber spheres
The project aims to develop an affordable, practical, and effective seismic protection system for developing countries to be widely used in low-rise and low-cost building structures. Implementing such a system will help reduce casualties, building damage, and economic losses in the event of a major earthquake disaster, especially in low-income earthquake prone countries.
Supervisor: Prof. Michalis Vassiliou
Meet Frank Odhiambo
Frank has experience running randomised evaluations and developing important relationships with government partners for policy change in Africa. He has recently worked with Innovations for Poverty Action as a Research and Policy Manager, and with Concern Worldwide and Sanergy among other development organisations. He has an MA from the University of Nairobi.
Doctoral Project: Can technology improve education and mental well-being of children with disabilities? Developing and analysing the impact of a speech-enabled mobile application in Kenya.
The project addresses an important question related to inclusive education - it evaluates whether learner content when delivered through a speech-enabled mobile app can be an effective tool to improve educational outcomes and mental well-being for learners with disabilities in low-income countries. It is implemented in Western Kenya and looks mainly at outcomes such as adoption rates, effects on math and science test scores, transition to secondary school and mental wellbeing.
Supervisor: Prof. Isabel Günther
Meet Prabhat Joshi
Prabhat has a background in Environmental Engineering. He holds a Bachelor’s degree (2015) from Kathmandu University, Nepal, and a Master’s degree (2020) from ETH Zürich, Switzerland. He also has two years of work experience in Nepal and Thailand in a wide range of topics: city sanitation planning, initial environmental examination of sand-gravel extraction from rivers, anaerobic digestion of food waste. He is interested in bringing decentralised, low-tech solutions into the mainstream of urban water management of low-income countries.
Doctoral Project: Exploring the potential of nature-based solutions in mitigating pluvial floods in Nepalese cities
The project seeks to explore the potential of nature-based solutions -- engineered interventions such as bioretention cells, rain gardens and permeable pavements that replicate the pre-development hydrologic regime of a catchment – in mitigating pluvial floods in Nepal, under an ensemble of urbanisation and climate change scenarios. These interventions can help manage stormwater by infiltrating, filtering, storing, evaporating, and detaining runoff close to its source, thereby minimising the stormwater runoff from reaching the sewer networks while also providing additional benefits such as improved amenity, improved water quality, and the non-potable use of collected stormwater.
Supervisor: Prof. Max Maurer
Learn more about the E4D Doctoral Scholarships which promote doctoral projects that address innovative solutions which directly benefit underprivileged people in lower-income countries. Applications are currently open until 30 April 2021.