Peru: Engineering, Infrastructure & Sustainable Development
Lima • Sacred Valley • Cusco | 10-Day Faculty-Led Program
An Immersive Exploration of Engineering & Sustainable Development in Peru
Designed for students in engineering, sustainability, environmental studies, urban planning, and related fields, this immersive program explores how people in Peru have engineered solutions for challenging landscapes for centuries.
Traveling from coastal Lima into the Andes, students examine transportation, water, agriculture, infrastructure, and the built environment through both contemporary and historical perspectives. From rapidly growing cities to Incan engineering in the Sacred Valley and Machu Picchu, students consider how engineering can respond to geography, climate, community needs, and sustainable development.
What Students Explore
INFRASTRUCTURE & URBAN SYSTEMS | Examine transportation, water, housing, and public infrastructure in rapidly growing urban environments.
WATER & RESOURCE MANAGEMENT | Explore how communities manage limited water resources across Peru's dramatically different environments.
ENGINEERING & ADAPTATION | Investigate how engineering solutions respond to earthquakes, mountains, climate, altitude, and other environmental constraints.
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT | Consider how infrastructure projects can balance economic development, environmental sustainability, and community needs.
INDIGENOUS ENGINEERING | Examine Incan and Andean approaches to agriculture, water, transportation, construction, and landscape management.
10-Day Itinerary
A Program, Built to Be Customized
This itinerary is designed to show what a Peru Engineering, Infrastructure & Sustainable Development program could look like. Specific technical visits, community engagements, guest speakers, and workshops will vary based on your program dates, group size, academic goals, and local availability.
We’ll work with your faculty and study abroad team to adapt the program to your course objectives and students. Activities listed below are examples and subject to availability and confirmation.
Day 1 | Arrival & Introduction to Peru
Arrive in Lima and begin exploring the relationship between people, infrastructure, and environment.
Meet your EdOdyssey Program Leader and travel to your accommodations. Participate in an orientation introducing Peru's geography, development, and engineering challenges before gathering for a welcome dinner.
Sample Experiences:
Arrival orientation • Introduction to Peru • Program framing • Welcome dinner
Day 2 | Engineering a Growing City
Explore the city with a focus on transportation, housing, public space, water, and the infrastructure required to support a metropolitan population. Meet with an engineer, planner, academic, or local organization to examine how Lima is responding to continued urban growth.
Sample Experiences:
Urban infrastructure • Transportation systems • City planning • Professional or university engagement • Lima field study
Day 3 | Water, Environment & Urban Sustainability
Investigate how geography and climate affect Lima's water supply and consider the infrastructure required to deliver water and sanitation across communities.
Students examine connections between engineering decisions, resource management, environmental sustainability, and equitable access.
Sample Experiences:
Water systems • Environmental engineering • Resource management • Sustainability • Technical or community engagement
Day 4 | Lima to the Andes
Fly to Cusco and continue into the Sacred Valley. As students acclimatize, examine how altitude, mountains, rivers, and limited transportation corridors influence infrastructure and development.
Sample Experiences:
Flight to Cusco • Sacred Valley • Mountain infrastructure • Geography & development • Andean orientation
Day 5 | Indigenous Engineering & The Andean Landscape
Explore archaeological and agricultural sites in the Sacred Valley to examine terraces, irrigation systems, stonework, and landscape management.
Students consider how Indigenous knowledge and careful observation of the environment produced sophisticated systems that remain visible today.
Sample Experiences:
Agricultural terraces • Irrigation • Incan engineering • Stonework • Sacred Valley field study
Day 6 | Agriculture, Water & Sustainable Communities
Engage with a local community, agricultural initiative, or sustainability project to learn how people continue adapting traditional practices and contemporary technologies to Andean conditions.
Consider how development projects can respond to local priorities while protecting environmental and cultural resources.
Sample Experiences:
Sustainable agriculture • Water management • Community engagement • Appropriate technology • Andean food systems
Day 7 | Machu Picchu: Engineering in Extreme Terrain
Travel to Machu Picchu and examine how Incan builders worked with steep terrain, rainfall, seismic activity, and limited space through sophisticated stonework, terraces, drainage, and urban planning.
Students consider what contemporary engineers can learn from infrastructure designed in close relationship with its environment.
Sample Experiences:
Machu Picchu • Structural engineering • Drainage systems • Terracing • Landscape design
Day 8 | Cusco: Building Across Centuries
Return to Cusco and investigate the city's built environment, including Incan stone foundations, colonial construction, streets, public spaces, and contemporary urban development.
Meet with a local professional, academic, or organization to discuss current infrastructure or sustainability challenges facing the region.
Sample Experiences:
Cusco field study • Built environment • Seismic design • Urban development • Professional engagement
Day 9 | Engineering for Sustainable Development
Students participate in a collaborative design challenge focused on a real-world issue such as water, transportation, agriculture, infrastructure, or climate resilience.
Conclude with student presentations, facilitated reflection, and a farewell dinner.
Sample Experiences:
Engineering design challenge • Sustainable development • Collaborative problem-solving • Program reflection • Farewell dinner
Day 10 | Departure
Depart Cusco with a deeper understanding of how engineering, environment, culture, and community intersect in Peru.
Sample Experiences:
Breakfast • Program reflection • Departure
Make this program your own
Start Here. Then Shape Around Your Course.
This itinerary is a starting point. Depending on your goals, we can place greater emphasis on areas such as:
Civil Engineering
Transportation • Structures • Infrastructure • Urban systems
Environmental Engineering
Water • Sanitation • Resource Management • Sustainability
Sustainable Development
Infrastructure • Communities • Equity • Environmental Impact
Agricultural Engineering
Irrigation • Terraces • Food Systems • Land Management
Urban Planning
Growth • Transportation • Housing • Public Space
Resilient Design
Seismic Conditions • Climate • Geography • Infrastructure Resilience
Indigenous Engineering
Incan systems • Traditional Knowledge• Landscape Adaptation
We can also adjust the program length, locations, site visits, cultural activities, reflection, community engagement, accommodations, meals, and level of EdOdyssey Program Leader support.
Could this work for your students?
Use this program as your starting point or tell us what you’d change. We’ll work with you to align the itinerary with your course objectives, students, preferred dates, group size, and budget.
Have a different academic focus in mind?