EWB events this summer
[June 2008]EWB-NYC Presents: Jamaica Green Festival
The New York City professional chapter of EWB is organizing a festival in Jamaica, VT on Thursday, June 26th through Sunday, June 29th. The festival will focus on health, sustainability, and clean water. Check out the blog with the most up-yo-date info here!
A ride-share spreadsheet has also been started and can be found here.
EWB-NEU Reception and Silent Auction
On Friday, August 8th from 6-9PM, the Northeastern University Chapter of Engineers Without Borders will be hosting a reception and silent auction. The event will be open to all and special recognition will be given to past donors. More details will be coming shortly.
2008 IEEE Humanitarian Workshop
IEEE's young professional entity (GOLD), EWB-USA, and the Center for Information technology Research in the Interest of Society (CITRIS) will be hosting a workshop at Boston University on Saturday, August 23th. EWB-NEU is scheduled to give a presentation about our work with the people of Los Planes. For more information about this workshop click here.
EWB-NEU returns from another successful trip to Honduras!
[May 2008]
A team of eight students, with the guidance of three professional mentors spent just over 2 weeks in Honduras at the end of the spring term. This was the largest group the chapter has sent so far and was the first trip for five of the students and two of the professional mentors on the travel team.
The team was happy to find most of the families in Los Planes had installed taps by each of their houses. In addition, ACTS had recently performed an educational outreach program focusing on personal hygiene. As part of this program ACTS gave toothbrushes and soap to each family, which were generously donated by the Colgate-Palmolive Company. SHI had also recently worked with the people of Los Planes to plant vegetable gardens. Families were growing cabbage, carrots, onions, beans, and cilantro right in their yard. With better nutrition and improved hygiene the quality of life for the people of Los Planes has drastically improved in recent months. The members of EWB-NEU are proud to be a part of this effort.
With the construction of the water distribution project complete in Los Planes, EWB-NEU will begin to focus on another village in the area. El Chaguite is a village of just over 300 people living in 60 homes. They currently have a water system that is in disrepair. The main conduction line is too small for the size of the community and the service lines are leaking throughout the community. Many of the houses only receive water at certain times during the day because of the poor condition of the water system.
Members of EWB spoke with the members of El Chaguite's water board about their problems. The team also collected a great deal of technical data about the condition of the existing system and the surrounding terrain. At then end of the trip EWB spoke with the community about the group's future plans to assist the village.
Also while on this trip, EWB-NEU spent a few days in the village of Carrizalito performing an initial assessment. This village is located on top of a mountain and can only be accessed by hiking in. The village does not have a water distribution system and many of the villagers collect their drinking water from a spring box located slightly below the village, about 15 minutes away. The data collected in this village should be sufficient to begin considering different design options.
Students will be working throughout the summer and fall assessing different design options for improving the situations in El Chaguite and Carrizalito. Due to the remoteness and complexity of the problems in Carrizalito, EWB-NEU will be focusing on designing the system in El Chaguite first to allow for more time to consider design options and plan logistics in Carrizalito.
If you are interested in getting involved with the EWB-NEU chapter please feel free to contact us! If you would like to see many more photos from our trips check out our smugmug gallery!
Take the EWB2 Survey
[March 2008]EWB2: Engineers Without Borders, A World of Educational Benefits
We would like to invite you to take part in a research project. The purpose of this research is to identify and determine the benefits of Engineers Without Borders within engineering education. This information will be used to understand how the idea of Engineers Without Borders can be better incorporated in engineering curriculum.
Click Here to take the EWB2 survey!
EWB-NEU Members Receive Undergraduate Research Grants!
[March 2008]Carlos Committee
The Carlos Committee recently received a grant to buy materials, prototype, test, and build a device to help a person mount a horse without the use of their legs. This device will be prototyped at a horse farm in Connecticut and further tested by Carlos in Honduras. The community development group ACTS originally introduced EWB-NEU to Carlos in 2005. Carlos contracted polio at a young age and no longer has the use of his legs. ACTS bought Carlos a horse -- named Copito -- so he could be more productive in his village, but he still needs the help of others to get on and off Copito.
Cultural and Education Committee
The Cultural and Education Committee applied for a grant to look at the culture of the people of rural Honduras. Their grant has paid for video equipment that will be used on EWB-NEU's next trip to begin a dialog between our cultures.
Ethan LaRochelle
Ethan received a grant to study the possible educational benefits of organizations like EWB. The aim of the research is to see how EWB could be used as a model for a curriculum based on sustainable international development.
EWB-NEU General Meeting Schedule
[January 2008]Check out our Google calendar for the latest information on how you can get involved!
Los Planes has Clean Running Water!
[January 2008]
EWB-NEU returned from another trip to Honduras after continuing working with the villagers of Los Planes. The team continued implementation of the design from the previous trip in April. This trip involved constructing a second suspension bridge, replacing exposed PVC pipes with galvanized iron, troubleshooting the system, and disinfecting the line.
The second part of Phase 1 of the design is now complete and the village of Los Planes has clean running water! Construction of Phase 2, which involves building a distribution system that will supply taps to each house, is now ready to begin. This resource will also attract another non-profit group, Sustainable Harvest International, to begin work with the village in order provide better farming techniques and ways to better nutrition.
This trip also involved the assessment of a new village for future projects. There are still several villages in the area that do not have adequate water and are suffering because of it. Three villages were visited as possible candidates for our next project. General information of the water systems was collected as to what exists currently and what needs to be done. We hope to continue work in the area and improve the quality of life of villagers in Honduras with future projects.
Holidays in Honduras!
[November 2007]Since EWB-NEU last went to Los Planes, Honduras, another international non-profit organization, GOAL, heard about the situation in Los Planes and surrounding communities and decided to help. GOAL has been working to complete the construction of the project in Los Planes since EWB-NEU returned from the area. Construction of both phases of our proposed design is near complete, and Los Planes will have a working water system very soon!
EWB-NEU will be returning to the area in December 2007 to work with GOAL in completing construction of the system. The Northeastern team will be finishing the construction of a suspension bridge they were not able to complete on the last trip.This trip will also be used to gather data in a nearby village. After returning from the trip, EWB-NEU will work through the spring semester designing a solution for the problems they encountered. With continued enthusiasm, hard work and support from our sponsors we hope to return to the area again in the late spring!
ACTS reports on progress of Los Planes project
[July 2007]
The community development non-profit organization, Americans Caring Teaching and Sharing (ACTS) recently visited the people of Los Planes. ACTS sent a small team of doctors and medical students to stay at their facility in El Rosario for a week in late July. During this time the team spent a day in Los Planes checking the health of the villagers. Dr. Dean Seibert believes many of the ailments the medical team encountered would be avoidable if the villagers had access to clean water.
ACTS was also able to squeeze in some time to check the progress of construction of the water distribution system. At the right there is a picture of some of the doctors and their guides standing by the community tap the mason built for this Los Planes. This tap will serve as the main water source until EWB-NEU is able to implement phase 2 of the design, which will involve building a distribution system in the village so houses will be able to have their own taps.
The doctors returned with letters from their guide and the mason describing the details of their progress.There is still much to be done but ACTS was happy to report spirits were high in the village.
EWB-NEU returns from Los Planes
[May 2007]The EWB-NEU team recently returned from Honduras after working with the villagers of Los Planes for two weeks.
During this time the team made great progress in completing Phase 1 of their design. This included acquiring materials (9000 ft of pipe, 9400 lbs of cement, and over 12 cubic yards of sand and gravel), constructing several small pressure break tanks, and beginning the construction of two suspension bridges that will carry a pipeline over a ravine.
Even after completing all this work, there is still more to be done. Phase 1 is not totally complete and we are in the process of designing Phase 2. This will include constructing a 3000 gallon reservoir tank and distribution system in the village.
To read more about this project please refer to the final report (PDF).
If you would like to learn more or get involved please donít hesitate to contact us or show up at a meeting. We will be holding fairly regular meetings throughout the summer on Monday and Tuesday nights.
Weíre also looking to begin some research projects starting in the fall or spring. There are plenty of ways to get involved and make a difference!
