Ben Barnes and Patrick Walsh, students of engineering, UI

In May 2004, the first international trip was taken by the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign (UIUC) Chapter of Engineers Without Borders (EWB), a student group dedicated to partnering with disadvantaged communities to improve their quality of life through sustainable engineering projects. With this mission in mind, five students from UI traveled to India to assess the available resources in rural Orissa for electricity production. They returned with stacks of notes and concluded that “due to the abundant oil-seed resource, a vegetable oil powered generator is the most feasible solution for the village of Badakamandara.” For the students in Urbana-Champaign and the villagers in Badakamandara, an odyssey was beginning.

In addition to its engineering component, the project became a study in effective dialogue with partner non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Up to the May 2005 implementation trip, a primary challenge was accurate communication through a larger Indian NGO to Gana Chetana in Badakamandara, a local NGO without access to telephone or electricity. “The difficulties we had communicating with our partner NGOs before we arrived in India only seemed to magnify once we were in the country,” remarks Stephanie Bogle, project leader. For example, the team expected to find the generating station site already prepared, but when Gana Chetana pointed them to the available land, they were horrified to see a rice paddy field that floods regularly. Overcoming challenges like these taught the students valuable lessons about real-world engineering in a foreign land.

This first project left a dozen students with truly inspiring experiences. Maren Somers summarizes well: “There were multitudes of challenges to be faced . . . due to infrastructure and other developmental deficiencies, language barriers, cultural differences, and health risks, but overcoming or becoming accustomed to all of these challenges was not frustrating, but rather interesting, exciting, and often fulfilling.”

The students left Badakamandara having helped the villagers install a diesel generator converted to run on vegetable oil, a solar dryer and huller for the oil-seeds, agricultural processing equipment to turn the electricity into income and a building to house it all. EWB-UIUC continues to monitor the project.

In addition to the Orissa project, EWB-UIUC has also been involved in non-traveling projects. The Maharashtra circuit design project has worked with an NGO in western India to design efficient and economical circuitry for its renewable energy projects there.

New and Recent Projects
With the India projects well underway and with many new members interested, EWB-illinois looked to their national chapter for another project. The stories and presentations of returning members of the Orissa team created high demand for another international project, so EWB-UIUC applied for and was assigned the Enugu water supply project in Adu Achi, Nigeria in fall 2005. Despite easier communication the project’s site assessment was delayed several times due to violence in the country. When it finally took place in August 2006, the trip was an amazing success.

Team leader and Orissa veteran Maren Somers points out that “the key to community-based projects is . . . ensuring that the community is and feels intimately involved. We are very fortunate that Adu Achi is such an organized and motivated community. That is definitely the central factor in assisting people to find a sustainable balance with their available resources.”
With site data and good community relationships, the Enugu team is now working hard on a sustainable water supply design and is seriously considering a deep bore well.

While the Enugu project was waiting for safe conditions in spring 2006, the Usalama sanitation project developed and gave EWB-UIUC its first opportunity to work with professional partners, something it hopes to continue into the future. The New York professional EWB chapter is implementing a water project with Usalama village in Kenya and asked EWB-UIUC to partner with it to help with latrine design and construction and sanitation education.

With EWB-NY already having a firm relationship with Usalama and because the community already accepted latrine use, EWB-UIUC decided to go straight to implementation in May 2006, focusing the majority of their efforts on teaching the community about hand washing and germs while also helping to design and construct five ventilated latrines. “

Traveling to Usalama was a great way to combine engineering knowledge from the University with opportunities to apply it and help people directly,” reflects team leader Paulius Elvikis.

Sustainability of the Organization
Talking to any of the students who have worked on an EWB projects, one cannot escape statements like, “It was great to participate in a volunteer project that helped out impoverished people, while simultaneously gaining engineering experience,” as suggested by Orissa team member Brian Haman. Also present, however, is the age-old “drop in the bucket” description that Sean Poust provides. “There are thousands of villages without electricity or spice grinding equipment in India, and there are many, many developing countries,” he says.

EWB-UIUC believes that the learning experience had by its members is essential to create responsible engineers, but many members also ask: “How could our projects multiply in our absence and thereby be truly sustainable efforts?”

The Maharashtra circuit design project answers this question by offering reproducible circuits suitable for multiple locations. This method of project design, however, requires a problem that can be solved through email and an in-country partner with access to good communication.

Patrick Walsh, an Orissa team member, was motivated by his experience in India to go in an entirely new direction. Billions of people light their homes with inefficient, unhealthy kerosene lamps, which present a great opportunity for implementing the use of low cost solar LED lanterns. “Our goal is to demonstrate the viability of this opportunity to large investors by designing and putting into service simple, rugged, low-cost solar LED lanterns,” Walsh explains.

EWB Continues Into the Future
Today, EWB-UIUC is eagerly beginning the semester with new recruits and continuing to fulfill its mission. The students who work on these projects always come out feeling both a foot taller and a good bit humbler. They have seen and overcome a side of engineering challenges that most of their peers will not encounter.

Students have also seen how much more there is to learn. Maren Somers “recognized the need to develop [her] skills in many areas (technical engineering, as well as management, health and cultural knowledge) in order to be able to assess problems and potential problems within a community and to provide immediate creative solutions.” UI can hardly complain that EWB gives its students challenges like that.