Engineers Without Borders
Engineers Without Borders- USA, UMCP is a student-run non-profit humanitarian organization is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to sustainable development through engineering assistance and training internationally responsible engineering students. The organization partners with communities all over the world to design and implement engineering solutions. Since its start in 2004, the University of Maryland Chapter has traveled on 24 trips over six years, completing 11 projects in Brazil, Burkina Faso, Ecuador, Thailand, Peru and right next door in Edmonston, MD. The hundreds of student members have influenced over 6,000 community members with over 100 students having traveled thus far.
In June 2009, four UMD student teams traveled to different areas to provide engineering assistance. In Addis Alem, Ethiopia, students set the foundation of a community center built from sustainable construction material that will provide a safe area for the youth to gather. At the same time students were busy working in Peru to provide the community of Compone with clean drinking water. Students of the Burkina Faso Health team also were in country to assess the electrical and sanitation needs of four health centers that serve the Dissin community. Meanwhile, back in America a project team worked to install a bioretention facility in nearby Edmonston to filter runoff from a parking lot that leads into the Anacostia Watershed. Three implementations and one assessment are planned for this coming winter, 2010.
In the spring of 2009, 24 students from the University’s chapter of Engineers Without Borders turned their attention from environmental issues in developing countries to sustainable solutions in the campus’s own backyard. Turning classroom knowledge into civic action, the students created and implemented a bioretention system to help the nearby community of Edmonston, MD, cope with storm water flooding along the Anacostia River.
Normally, rainwater runoff from parking lots, roofs, and other impervious surfaces runs into the Anacostia, carrying pollutants into the river and redistributing them over the ground when flooding occurs. To reroute and filter this polluted water, the students designed a bioretention system to channel runoff into basins filled with soil and water-tolerant plants. These natural elements slowly soak up the water, filter out pollutants, and direct remaining water more gradually into the Anacostia, alleviating both contamination and flooding.
During the five months of planning, the student team, led by undergraduates Kristen Markham and Ethan Schaler, and faculty member Kevin Calabro, worked with community partners, including the Anacostia Watershed Restoration Partnership, the Anacostia Watershed Society, the Prince George’s County Department of Environmental Resources, and the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission. The bioretention system is now under the oversight of the town of Edmonston.
Through the A. James Clark School of Engineering’s student group Engineers Without Borders (EWB), the University’s commitment to sustainability extends beyond the campus and the region to global projects in developing nations. Founded in 2004 and led by faculty advisor Dr. David Lovell, the UM chapter of this national organization sends groups of students overseas to help communities meet common engineering problems with sustainable solutions. Students and faculty work with local groups over several years, to assess needs and options, and to implement multi-phase projects.
The enormously popular EWB program has recently engaged communities in three countries: Dissin, Bukina Faso: Since 2007, EWB teams have helped this small West African village with water pumps, new forms of fuel, solar battery chargers for private homes, and water filtration and solar electricity in the hospital.
Campone, Peru: Since 2008, an EWB team has worked with the farming community near Cuzco, in the Andes, to introduce chlorine sanitation to the water supply system. Addis Alem, Ethiopia: Since 2009, EWB has worked with this small city near the Ethiopian capital to build a much needed Community Youth Center using locally available building materials, natural lighting, and ventilation.
For more information about Engineers Without Borders, visit the UM chapter's website.