A Summer of Engagement
September 19, 2007Student members of the Duke Engineers Without Borders (EWB) chapter took part in three projects over the past summer—all designed to improve the quality of life for people living in Uganda and Peru. Meanwhile, Engineering World Health (EWH), an organization founded by the Pratt School of Engineering's Robert Malkin, took more than 40 students to Tanzania and Central America to install or repair medical equipment in local clinics and hospitals.
"It gives me great pride that Pratt students are increasingly devoted to projects that serve humanity in a direct and tangible fashion," said Tod Laursen, professor and senior associate dean for education at the Pratt School. "The essence of engineering is using our knowledge of science and technology to benefit humanity by implementing practical solutions. These efforts show how Pratt students are using their creativity and ingenuity for such purposes, while learning from the people and cultures their efforts are serving."
Engineers Without Borders: From Uganda to Peru
In one EWB project, students worked with Central Buganda University to develop a rainwater-harvesting system in the Mpigi District of Uganda. The effort was a follow-up to the project from 2006 during which another team assessed the community health and water supply needs for the school and surrounding area. This year, a team returned to construct the 10,000-liter water tank that they spent last school year designing. The EWB team also handed out flip-flops and sandals they collected prior to the trip to children at a local orphanage. Listen to what Pratt senior Kerry Costello, a biomedical engineering major, had to say about her experience.
In a second Ugandan project, Duke EWB teamed up with the Duke Smart Home program to work with an indigenous non-governmental organization in Nokukonjeru, Uganda, known as the Rural Agency for Sustainable Development (RASD). The group equipped RASD's newly built resource center with solar panels and low-power computers loaded with a searchable database of information on sustainable development technologies. RASD will serve as a learning laboratory where community members can come and find out about innovative methods for improving their quality of life.
"The idea was to take an EWB project that had already been formalized and technology developed as part of the Smart Home program and implement it in a real world setting," said Tom Rose, director of the Duke Smart Home program. Listen to what Pratt senior Lee Pearson, a double major in civil and environmental engineering and biomedical engineering, had to say about his experience working with RASD in Uganda.
The third project was a joint effort of Duke EWB with the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (UNC) chapter in Ciudad de Dios, Peru. The Peruvian village is near an archeology site that anthropology Professor Brian Billman of UNC has been working in for the past 10 years, said David Schaad, an adjunct assistant professor and assistant chair of civil and environmental engineering and assistant and advisor for Duke EWB.
"In exchange for guarding his equipment, Billman pays the village $1,200 per year to build infrastructure," Schaad said. "First they built roads, and now they want to improve their insufficient and leaking water pipelines."
The Duke-UNC EWB team rose to the challenge, mapping out the existing water lines and installing a main shutoff valve that will enable better repair of the system and help minimize leaks. Listen to what Pearson had to say about his time in Peru.
Other participants in the international efforts described above included Zoe Englander (BME '08), Liza Crabtree (CEE '08), Phil Wolfe (MEMS '08), Matt Ball (BME '10), Patrick Ye (BME '10), Scott Steinberg (ECE '08), Maggie Hoff (CEE '10) and Associate Dean of Facilities Mike Gunter.
Engineering World Health: From Tanzania to Honduras
Austin Lin (BME, '09), a participant in the Duke-EWH Summer Institute repairs an X-ray machine. |
Student participants in the Duke-EWH summer program installed or repaired more than 400 pieces of medical equipment worth nearly $1.2 million, according to EWH founder and Professor Malkin. Seventeen worked in Tanzania and another 29 spent their time in Central America.
“The EWH Summer Institute has been my best summer experience," said Arun Iyer, a biomedical engineering major at the Pratt School. "It has been an unbelievable opportunity to experience two different cultures, learn Spanish, and contribute and observe a developing world health care system that desperately needs our help.”
Iyer spent his summer in Tegucigalpa, Honduras working at the Hospital Escuela, one of the largest hospitals in that country. Other students were placed in areas as remote as a rural town in Nicaragua and a small village on the slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro, Tanzania, Malkin said. In every case, the students started with four weeks of intense study and concluded with four weeks working in one of 23 partner hospitals, selected because they are some of the poorest in the world.