What began as a series of reconnaissance trips following Haiti’s 2010 earthquake has evolved into Engineering2Empower (E2E), a bold effort to help Haitians themselves build safe, culturally appropriate, and affordable housing.

 

Frustrated by the lack of careful and thoughtful consideration of post-quake housing “solutions,” Notre Dame structural engineering professors Tracy Kijewski-Correa and Alexandros Taflanidis and graduate student Dustin Mix founded E2E with “LISTEN, INNOVATE and EMPOWER” as their guiding principle.

 

They listened as Haitians told them what they needed in housing, then designed an innovative housing system resilient against both hurricanes and earthquakes. They coupled it with a business model—incubated in Notre Dame’s Engineering, Science & Technology Entrepreneurship Excellence Masters (ESTEEM) Program—to empower local production, retail sales, and construction of the homes in Haiti. The wider community-led innovation framework received seed funding from the Kellogg Institute for International Studies.

 

With a full-scale prototyping facility—the E2E Expo—on Notre Dame’s campus and a permanent base of operation in Léogâne, Haiti, E2E is committed to facilitating access to safe and affordable urban housing by empowering local entrepreneurs.

 

 

Learn more: e2e.nd.edu