Popular Science compiled a list of 30 groundbreaking programs in science, engineering, and technology offered at schools around the country.
Some are extreme: such as Northern Kentucky University's class on cave-dwelling bacteria or Missouri University of Science and Technology's course on controlled explosions. Others are practical, like Colorado State University's lab dedicated to building more efficient engines. Some sound fun: like Cornell University's minor in video game design or MIT's freshman elective on designing a toy for kids. Others seem insane: like prototyping housing for the moon at the University of Houston or Michigan's College of Creative Studies transportation design program.
A few programs seemed of particular interest to GOOD readers.
Stanford's Entrepreneurial Design for Extreme Affordability program focuses on teaching its students how to design elegant, inexpensive solutions to help people in developing countries. Two of its successful projects are cheap—solar LEDs to replace kerosene lamps and low-cost baby incubators for low birth weight babies.
In the same vein, Colorado School of Mines offers a minor in humanitarian engineering, which is described in the video below. As does Penn State. Its program in humanitarian engineering and social entrepreneurship recently helped people in Kenya generate power using biodiesel made from native crops.
If GOOD made a list of these sorts of programs, what others would you suggest we include? Surely PopSci didn't catch them all.