Blueprints: the EWB-UC Blog

Incorporating Culture

2012-02-08T19:29:00.004-05:00

Culture is a huge part of EWB and recently it has been a little underrepresented. As a way to better incorporate culture we have started a new tradition: monthly cultural meetings! These meetings will help our chapter grow and learn more about the people who we seek to help with our projects.

The first cultural meeting since 2010 occurred this past Thursday, and EWB-UC was exposed to a new topic: African music and instruments. We learned about the characteristics of the music and how it has influenced music today, as well as different types of instruments like the kalimba, talking drum, and kora. To see the whole presentation check out this link: http://prezi.com/d5vwopen3tjh/edit/?auth_key=p4c5ix1&follow=rn5jxpkdw4lb

Thanks to Andrew Nottingham and Blake Baldwin for their time and effort coordinating these meetings, and a special thanks to Dr. John Kalubi from UC African Studies for his time and expertise.

Zooming Towards Sustainability

2012-01-19T19:38:00.001-05:00

This past Saturday was a frigid one but EWB-UC isn't afraid of a little cold. The group arrived to the zoo bundled and ready to go. The day began at the education center, which was the first LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified building that the zoo had ever created. Rather than stopping at one "green" building the Cincinnati Zoo started a sustainability overhaul of their entire operation. The zoo's use of pervious pavement helps to catch rainwater as it falls by allowing the water to seep through the walkways rather than flowing over it and being sent off into the gutter. Another amazing accomplishment the zoo has achieved is their construction of the 1.56 megawatt-- 6,400 solar panel parking canopy, the largest canopy of its kind. The zoo had many other awesome green initiatives like their use of wind energy and composting programs. For more information about Cincinnati Zoo vistit their website: http://cincinnatizoo.org.
Thank you to all those who came out to the zoo this past weekend, and a special thanks to Jessica Gearhart for coordinating the tour!

New Year, New Flavor!

2012-01-10T16:38:00.000-05:00

This new year we’re adding new elements to our weeklymeetings. We have appointed severalindividuals to help spice up our normal routine by incorporating culturaleducation as well as new faces to give our weekly updates. With these positionswe’ve enabled new members to step up and take leadership roles in our growingchapter. Congratulations to our new general meeting coordinators: Susan Conroy,Andrew Pickens, and Brian Williams; along with our cultural meeting coordinatorsAndrew Nottingham and Blake Baldwin, and community meetings coordinator JustinNagy!

On the social side of things, this Saturday, the14^th, we will be taking a special sustainability tour of theCincinnati Zoo. On this tour we’ll learn about the different improvements thezoo has undertaken in order to be one of the greenest zoos in the country. Fromthis tour we hope to gain some knowledge that we can bring back to campus toincorporate sustainability into our daily routines.

Awesome Conference at UI-UC

2011-12-02T13:51:00.003-05:00

Hey fellow EWB-ers and friends,

This weekend marks the one month anniversary of our voyage to the EWB conference hosted by Urbana-Champaign. Three of us made it out to Illinois this year (in thrifty college student fashion). The structure contained large lectures and smaller workshops, so we decided to divide and conquer as much as possible.

We all heard from distinguished EWB leaders like Frank Bergh and Peter Waugh as they illustrated where the organization is heading. Frank placed a large importance on every member of every chapter being conscious about their word choice concerning projects. We are not givers-- we are partners. The communities we work with are our partners, and we need to keep that in mind. Peter, on the other hand, outlined criteria for successful project implementation (similar to a rubric).

When it was time to breakout into smaller workshops we each chose a different topic pertinent to us. This way we managed to hit 3 of the 4-5 sessions and brought a little UC with us. Examples of these workshops included bio-sand filters, grant writing, project sustainability, and using personal style to achieve success.

Along our trip we also met up with a former EWB-UC member performing graduate work at the university there. He introduced us to his colleague and they showed us the impressive science labs and engineering facilities on campus, as well as some really interesting work they were performing.

All-in-all, the weekend was a great success as we each gained new skills and valuable contacts. As a new member to EWB, I loved this opportunity to get a small jump-start in understanding what this great organization is all about.

Pictures to come soon!

Thank You Bricks for Burere Supporters

2011-11-10T01:21:00.002-05:00

EWB-UC Friends and Supporters,

Let me take a moment to thank you for your generous support of the University of Cincinnati Chapter of Engineers Without Borders. Your contribution to our most recent fundraising event, Bricks for Burere, has allowed us to take one step closer toward our funding needs for the Burere project. The people of Burere have been patiently waiting for our return to their community to begin construction. Through fundraising events like these, you allow our group to ensure our projects come to successful implementation as soon as possible. In its first year, Bricks for Burere raised $1,000 dollars towards the Burere School Project. This money alone will cover half of the expenses for masonry materials.

In December, our group will submit our Pre-Implementation form. This form details the entirety of the school projects, including: all design calculations, engineering and architectural drawings, project budget, material costs, and all the work that will be completed during the first phase of construction. Pending the success of this project submittal after our design is reviewed by a panel of professional engineers, we will traveling to break ground this coming March. The first trip goals will be to completely lay out the school site, dig out the foundation mold, and pour the concrete foundation.

Without your help and support, this project could never be realized. Thank you again for your contribution and all of us at EWB-UC thank you for your generosity!

Regards,

Mark Schutte

Vice President – External Affair, EWB-UC

Special thanks to Corporate Sponsors:

Consumer Solutions, Inc.

EMA Construction

Star Building Materials

Snazzy New EWB T-Shirts

2011-10-22T14:39:00.000-04:00

This past Thursday EWB held its first T-shirt Printing Party of the school year. The party brought a great turnout,especially from our new EWBers, as well as great new T-shirt designs from our very own design committee. The new logo emphasized our chapter's work on water and school building projects.

Among the new things in EWB this year, we are also building a stronger relationship with the Orientation Board. The O-Board works with incoming freshmen to get them connected to student groups at UC. A better relationship with this group could allow us to reach out to incoming freshman as soon as possible and get them excited and involved in our cause. Be sure to stay posted on all the new EWB events to come.

EWB Kicks Off 2011-12 School Year

2011-10-06T15:00:00.000-04:00

The UC 2011 school year has just begun and EWB-UC has already hit the ground running. Another school year brings new students, new ideas, and new vigor. This past week has seen the first general meeting and has brought a bunch of new and excited EWBers.

The new excitement surrounding this time of year brings immense potential for progress towards our projects. Look for more project specifics in the weeks to come.

EWB kicks off Bricks for Burere

2011-09-08T17:35:00.004-04:00

As EWB-UC ramps up its efforts to begin implementation of its second major project, the organization hopes to close the gap in its monetary needs through a truly exciting event in Bricks for Burere.

What: A fundraising event to help raise money to build the walls of the Kingigoro Primary School in Burere, Tanzania. Most students currently learn in collapsing classrooms - or must have class outside due to an already collapsed classroom.

When: September 19th - October 16th (last day of Homecoming week), the "brick wall" will begin construction at the start of October.

Where: Lobby of the Rec Center (where the old smoothie stand used to be)

How: For every donation, a brick will be given to the donator to be decorated and returned to EWB to be placed in the wall. Pricing is as follows:

One Brick, Student = $2

One Brick, Non-Student = $5

Family Brick (4 Bricks) = $20

Student Organization Brick (3x3) = $30

**Families and Organizations can purchase another row/column of bricks for $20 per added dimension.

Companies are being contacted to match on campus support.

EWB cannot not wait to demonstrate the support and encouragement found in its own university through this event.

Be on the look out for EWB's wall!

June EWBer of the Month: Linea Olsson

2011-07-05T17:12:00.001-04:00

Congratulations to Linea Olsson for being our June EWBer of the Month.

Linea just finished her first year in Chemical Engineering, and an actually international student from Sweden. She has definitely earned this award many times over, being one of our most active freshman in the group. She's shown incredible dedication and initiative, forming partnerships with the professional practice office and becoming one of our youngest exec board members.

Probably the best example of this initiative was Linea traveling on our recent Burere assessment trip to Tanzania. She helped perform crucial soil and material tests needed to move our school design forward. She also help gain final measurement data from the school site. Finally she interacted with members of the community and helped strengthen our partnership with Burere.We look forward to much more from Linea in the coming years.

Click here to see more photos of Linea from our Assessment Trip

Linea & Jim taking measurements inside the Burere school

A Successful Burere Assessment

2011-06-25T12:59:00.006-04:00

EWB-UC is proud to have completed a very successful assessment trip for the Kingigoro primary school project in Burere, Tanzania. The information gathered on this trip will be vital for the review of the project this coming autumn. Pending approval and successful fundraising, the team hopes for approval to begin construction in Tanzania this coming winter.

A special thank you is in order for Tom Bible who, without having had a major role in the first stages of the project, offered to be our mentor on this trip. His help was immensely helpful as we gathered data and we are happy that he is interested in continued support of the design.

The trip was an amazing growing experience. I'm very happy that my term as president of EWB-UC could start with such a moving event in my life. I hope that everyone will keep up with Blueprints and http://ewb-uc.org/ this summer to hear some of the stories from the trip as well as news about the Burere project as it nears design completion. It feels great to be home, but the work to help the Burere community construct their new school continues!

May EWBer of the Month: Brittany Dexter

2011-06-21T21:14:00.000-04:00

Congratulations to Brittany Dexter for being our May EWBer of the Month. Brittany worked hard as a member of the design committee to make all the materials we used at our banquet. From the invitations to the little table-tents, we got great feedback on how well everything was designed.

Especially important was Brittany's work on the EWB newsletter. She revised our design to fit with our national logo and helped give our newsletter the reboot that it needed. You can find our latest newsletter here.

Also, congratulations for Brittany on graduating this year with her degree in Graphic Design from DAAP. Thanks Brittany, we wish you all the best!

EWB Banquet a Huge Success

2011-06-01T09:05:00.001-04:00

Thank you to everyone who attended our Spring Banquet last Thursday. We received an incredible amount of positive feedback, and we're already looking forward to making it better for next year. We had notable speakers such as Provost Santa Ono and Student Body President Alan Hagerty attend and speak to the integral part EWB plays to UC. We also had our keynote speaker, Keith Zook, coordinator of P&G's Children's Safe Drinking Water Program demonstrate the power of clean water firsthand, using their PUR packets. After purifying muddy water to crystal-clear drinking water, members and our speakers made a toast using the newly cleaned water. (pictured above)

We also had several of our partners there, such as Chris Lewis, founder of Village Life Outreach Project and Raj Mehta, the director of UC's Honors Program. Finally, thanks to our faculty mentors and advisors; Dr. Dan Durbin for Burere, Dr. George Suckarieh from Burere, and Dr. Margeret Kupferle who is our dedicated organization advisor. On top of the countless hours they spend advising the group, it was great to have them attend our banquet.

Jim Moyer, our new president, also gave an overview of our future plans for EWB. You can view the whole presentation here. We talked about our upcoming trip to Burere in under 2 weeks, as well as our next trip scheduled for Winter of this year, where we plan to start construction of the Burere school. We also showed our plan for Nyambogo, with a final assessment trip and design selection planned within a year. Finally, we showed how we intend to transfer knowledge from Burere's school to Otho Abwao's and begin construction in Spring of 2012. We also highlighted new successes outside of our traditional projects, such as our new Future Cities after school tutoring program.

On top of all the presentations and speakers, we had some fun as well. We raffled off several prizes, both souvenirs from past EWB trips and shirts, scarves and blankets screen-printed with our EWB logo. We also had a delicious dinner and desert. (special thanks to Classic Fare catering for reducing the price per plate as a donation) In the end, we're incredibly excited that all the hard work we put into the event paid off. We've said it dozens of times, but thank you to everyone who attended and to all the EWBers for all the hard work you put in to make this happen. We look foraward to seeing you all here again at next year's banquet.

Click here to view all the Banquet photos

Last Chance to RSVP for Spring Banquet

2011-05-19T01:42:00.003-04:00

The date of our spring banquet is fast approaching, if you haven't turned in your RSVP yet, or by our mistake, never received an invitation-don't worry, there's still time! Email banquet@ewb-uc.org right now to reserve your spot.

Our spring banquet will be held on May 26th in the Presidential Banquet Hall of Lindner Center at UC. The program will begin at 6:30pm and will consist of a catered dinner, speakers such as UC Provost, Dr. Santa Ono and Stundent Body President Alan Hagerty, and presentations by EWB members about project progress.

If you have primary-aged children, there will be a craft program run concurrently with the main banquet so the whole family can attend without worrying about a babysitter.

Whether you're a company or organization that has sponsored us, a professor or professional that has guided us, or a family or friend that has cheered us along the way, we want you to come to our banquet.

An $80 per plate donation is encouraged to cover the expenses of holding this event and help fundraise for our projects. If you're on facebook, you can also RSVP to the facebook event. But remember, the official RSVP is done by emailing banquet@ewb-uc.org.

Please include this information with your RSVP email

Number/Names of Adults

Number of Children

Donation Amount

Thank you and we hope to see you there!

Committee Updates

2011-05-13T14:09:00.012-04:00

This week the Nyambogo Project Committee has two new advisors, Nalin Sahni and Todd Trabert. We are looking to have our alternative analysis for this project done by the end of the month and we are hoping to move into the design phase by the beginning of next year.
In the Burere Project Committee, we are looking to meet with Peter next week for our assessment form and getting ready for the summer assessment trip. We are slated to have this project implemented during the winter holiday next year.

The Banquet is swiftly approaching and with only 2 weeks left we are kicking it into high gear to get everything ready in time.
We are stepping it up in our Fundraising Committee as well. We are in the process of applying for a grant that will hopefully cover the cost of our Otho Abwao project. We are also working on business cards and donation boxes.

World Fest

2011-05-02T14:51:00.002-04:00

On Thursday some of our EWB members went out to World Fest to spread the word about EWB and get our name out to potential members. Those in attendance enjoyed different foods from around the world, different styles of dancing such as mariachi dancing, and different cultural music. Thanks to everyone who came and supported EWB at World Fest.

April EWBer of the Month

2011-05-02T14:32:00.002-04:00

Danny Watson a.k.a. Gigawatson is EWBer of the month for the month of April. Danny is a 3rd year Mechanical Engineering student here at UC. Last quarter Danny was off on Co-op in Detroit, but didn't hesitate to jump right back into things in EWB when he got back. Danny has been an amazing help in getting in contact with people for the banquet and helping out with other things in the Education Committee. Danny has also been highly involved in the Social and Recruitment Committee. Along with balancing his course load and his EWB activities, he still manages to perform at Baba Budan's on their Thursday night Open Mic Nights. Thanks for all of your help Danny!

Committee Chairs!

2011-04-19T23:21:00.000-04:00

At our most recent meeting, the announcements were made for the appointed committee chairs for next year. Thanks to everyone who submitted an application and congrats to our new chairs!

Otho Abwao: Justin Thompson

Nyambogo: Mason Stout

Burere: Ben Gentry

Education: Max Poyle

Fundraising: Alex Jones

Social/Recruitment: Lana Sneath

Public Relations: Linea Olsson

Historian: Sidney Lacey

We're all looking forward to a great year with our committee chairs now in place!

Burere Assessment Trip

2011-04-16T08:31:00.003-04:00

This week we finished up the Assessment forms and submitted them to EWB-USA for the trip this June with VLOP. We also added a few new members to help Avdhesh and the design team; Alex, who is a fifth year Civil student, and possibly a first year graduate student in structures will be joining us this week. We will continue to meet with THP to improve our design and get ready for the Implementation forms which we will be starting soon.

New Document Control Back Up

2011-04-15T17:58:00.006-04:00

The Otho Abwao Skydrive folder has been overhauled and updated to include all relevant documents of the Otho Abwao Primary School project. The previous state of the folder was a mess, so it's great to see some organization implemented again to improve our documentation habits. The folder now features content organized into several main folders, with subfolders within each. Each folder contains a README file to describe the contents of the folder, as well as to provide contact information to direct questions regarding the folder's contents.

In the near future, the Otho Abwao Water Project folder will be overhauled to include all relevant documentation of the water project implemented in March 2009. These documents were previously stored on UC FileSpace, which has been abandoned due to difficulty in obtaining folder permissions for members.

A Weekend with Bill Clinton: CGIU 2011

2011-04-14T22:32:00.008-04:00

The beginning of this month signaled a return of EWB-UC's representatives at one of the biggest youth leadership conference's in the United States - Clinton Global Initiative University (http://www.cgiu.org/meetings/2011/). This three day conference in San Diego aimed to bring together some of the world's youngest and most active philanthropists, innovators, and movement makers - the future NGO CEO's of the world. Sponsored by Bill Clinton and his foundation, the free conference (this year held at the University of California San Diego) played host to around 1,500 young men and women representing all 50 states and 90 countries. Mark Schutte and Jim Moyer, recently elected External Vice President and President of EWB-UC, both had the privilege of going to the conference in early April.

The conference consisted of large group panel discussions, followed by small breakout sessions and plenty of time for networking. "It was really an incredible experience - there were so many big names that came out to speak: the co-founder of Youtube, Sean Penn, Mandy Moore, Drew Barrymore, countless CEO's and policy makers, and of course, Bill Clinton himself," says Mark, "But really just being a part of such a huge group of people, all working towards some incredible commitments was the most rewarding part of the trip for me. It helps give me energy to go out and get to work on our EWB projects when I get to see all the great ideas others have come up with." Jim had a similar experience: "It was unbelievable how ingenious some of the commitments were. Jessica Matthews, presented her invention: the sOccket, a soccer ball that converts the kinetic energy used to kick it into electricity. Just 15 minutes of kicking creates 3 hours of light! Truly inspiring." (http://www.soccket.com/#!)

For all the hard work, Jim and Mark certainly were successful in networking with students and young adults from all over. They look forward to bringing back what they have learned to better serve EWB-UC and the UC community! Of course, not all their time spent was hard at work - San Diego's beach towns capped off the weekend beautifully!

A New Tradition: EWBer of the Month!

2011-04-13T20:49:00.021-04:00

EWB has started something new and exciting! As of winter quarter, we’ve established EWBer of the Month. EWBer of the Month is chosen by the Exec board and has to be an outstanding member of the group. They must be outstanding in the fact that the work that they are doing is pushing their project, committee, and/or the group as a whole forward.

I am pleased to announce that we have already named two EWBers of the Month. The EWBer of the Month for February was Ryan Deffinger. Ryan has done a great deal with the External Affairs Committee. His work focused on fundraising for EWB on a very personal level and in doing so, he also recruited Dr. Ming Tang, a professor of an Architectural Design course in DAAP, to help revise and provide constructive criticism with the Otho Abwao and Burere schoolhouse schematics and blueprints. Ryan has also been seeking out companies for donations and sponsorship. Through personal connections and donations, Ryan has raised $676 for the group! He plans on continuing, and expanding upon, his efforts. Great job Ryan!

The EWBer of the Month for March is Avdhesh Gaur. As a graduate student from India studying Civil Engineering, Avdhesh is a very crucial member of the Burere Project. He has been working closely with THP and his work on the seismic and wind load calculations for the Burere school is extremely valuable for not only Burere, but for the entire group to use on future projects. Avdhesh has also been working on the structural design of the Burere school - another thing that will be very useful not only for Burere, but for projects to come! Keep the good work coming Avdhesh!

Congratulations again to these two gentleman. Keep up the outstanding work, our group wouldn’t be where it is now without you! Stay tuned for more EWBers of the Month!

New Exec Panel Elected

2011-04-12T11:16:00.000-04:00

At our most recent meeting, we held elections for our upcoming year. Thanks to everyone who ran for positions and congrats to the following new members of the exec panel.

President: Jim Moyer
Vice President of Internal Affairs: Kevin Knollman
Vice President of External Affairs: Mark Schutte
Treasurer: Sarah Hrinko
Secretary: Morgen Schroeder

We also had a record number of applications for chair positions this year. Our new exec panel is reading over the applications and will be making appointments this Thursday.

UHA 5K Raising Funds for Burere

2011-04-07T12:49:00.000-04:00

In what has been a long string of partnership with other organizations, EWB has secured the role of beneficiary for UHA PJ 5K. In what consistently is one of the funnest walk/runs held on campus, participants will show up in their favorite pair of pajamas, and run a 5k around UC's campus. (rated as one of Forbe's most beautiful campuses, so it also must be one of the most beautiful to run on)

Special thanks goes to everyone in the University Honors Association for all the hard work and planning they're putting into this event(special props go to the designer of the uber-cute poster). Details for the event are below, look for more info as the date approaches.

Day: Saturday, May 7th
Registration Time: 9:30am
Race Time: 10am

If you want to mark your digital calendar for this awesome event, click the button bellow:

Otho Abwao Update

2011-04-05T19:14:00.005-04:00

The AutoCAD drawings are taking form as we begin to document our preliminary structure. We have a first pass at the floor plan for a two-classroom building, and elevation drawings are next on the to-do list. The classrooms will each be 24'x27', as requested by the Otho Abwao Primary School administration. The ISSB wall is slated to be 6'' thick, and our confined masonry columns are sketched as 8''x8'' reinforced concrete columns. We might play around with the window and door placement, but this is a good first draft.

We're also getting ready for an organizational shift in leadership as elections for the 2011-2012 academic year approach. We're looking to shake things up a bit and restore some extra energy as we prepare to send off another trip to Tanzania in June to complete the Burere assessment. The quarter looks promising!

CCOSPE Awards Sponsorship

2011-03-06T18:42:00.002-05:00

Friday, February 25th, the Cincinnati Chapter of the Ohio Society of Professional Engineers (CCOSPE) held a meeting at Montgomery Inn - Boathouse, cordially inviting students from EWB-UC. This was a tremendous opportunity for students to network with industry professionals, gain insights, and share knowledge.

During the evening's festivities it was announced that EWB-UC had been chosen as the recipient of this year's student sponsorship award. CCOSPE Treasurer, Pam Heckel, presented EWB-UC President, Vinny Travee, with a $1000 check, becoming a Silver Sponsor.

Travee and Burere Project Lead, Ben Gentry, graciously accepted the gift, sharing details of the group's latest workings and thanking CCOSPE for its continued support.

Date Auction Fundraiser Raises $1830

2011-02-27T22:40:00.004-05:00

This past Friday was our date auction fundraiser. Students auctioned off the opportunity for a date to the highest bidder to raise money for EWB. In total, we raised $1830 for the Burere school project.

This event topped off a full week of crazy events that made up EWeek, the week celebrating engineers. This year's superhero-themed EWeek had tug-of-wars, paper-airplane contests, skit competitions and more. EWB had 2 teams that competed as part of these events.

A special thank you goes Engineering & Applied Science Tribunal for their work in planning the date auction and EWeek as a whole. Also, thanks to all the brave souls who got on the auction block for charity, and the generous benefactors who bought them!

Lights Out Fridays Going Strong

2011-02-18T11:06:00.004-05:00

One of the several Education Committee Initiatives this year is Lights Out Fridays. Through Lights Out Fridays (LoF), EWB-UC members go around every Friday in the late afternoon and shut off lights left on in classrooms all around campus. The point in this program is an effort to change the energy culture at the University of Cincinnati. Lights left on on Fridays will probably be left on an entire weekend, wasting a lot of energy. If this is happening every week in classrooms all over campus, that can add up to quite an additional strain on UC's pocketbook. EWB students calculate the savings based on the amount of lights turned off, and we hope to submit a proposal to the University of Cincinnati at the end of the year, calling for installation of the motion sensing lights in classrooms across campus. This new equipment could easily be purchased with the money which UC has already saved from the EWB LoF team! This is exactly what EWB-UC stands for: sustainable solutions through partnership, that educate our community!

We like to have fun, too! Check out this great promotional video by two of our very own LoF leaders!

Summer Travelers Selected

2011-02-10T00:37:00.001-05:00

After reading all the applications, we've selected our two travelers for the June assessment. Linea Olsson & Jim Moyer will represent EWB on our assessment in Burere. This assessment is focused on preparing all the final details necessary before school construction can start. We'll be bringing an updated memorandum of understanding to sign with the village council, and showing layout drawings of our proposed school. Linea & Jim will also be planning out water management necessary for concrete mixing on site, and securing building materials.

This trip will be part of a Village Life Outreach Project brigade. Along with representatives from EWB, UC med students will be traveling to conduct health clinics in VLOP's three communities. Students from the UC Honors Program will also be traveling on the brigade, as a culmination of a humanitarian design class taught by DAAP architect Michael Zaretsky. This multidisciplinary team will surely create an exciting and unique trip experience for all the travelers.

Jim is a 3rd year in Civil/Environmental Engineering originally from Toledo. He's currently EWB's internal vice president and has been since Spring of 2009. Jim has also worked closely on the Burere design since he first joined EWB during his freshman year. Jim's the person who schedules all of our great general meeting speakers, plus he oversees our project committees.

Linea is a freshman in Chemical Engineering who is actually an international student from Sweden. Linea has already gotten involved in both the Nyambogo committee and External Affairs. Through External Affairs, she's managed to forge connections with the co-op office (we're now presenting about EWB in Intro to Co-op classes) and Student Government(SG is currently investigating a bill that would make service-based travel eligible for UC International Grants based on their educational merit).

We're excited to have two great EWBers representing us on our assessment. As it gets closer to June, look for more updates on our trip.

EWB Hosting Invisible Children Screening

2011-02-03T22:53:00.001-05:00

Last year, we hosted one of Invisible Children's road teams to screen their documentary. This year, we're doing it again. IC is back with a brand new documentary that's more ambitious than ever and looking to get the word out. The Invisible Children team will be coming hear to screen their new movie,"Tony" as part of their Congo tour. This film will show the latest updates on IC's fight to end the LRA's reign of terror in Northeast Africa.

Our screening date is Thursday, April 21st in 525 Old Chem. As the date approaches, we'll be releasing more details and advertising the event to all of UC. As alway, the screening's free so bring all your friends!

If you have Google calendar, you can add the event right now by clicking the button below.

Future Cities First Meeting a Success!

2011-02-01T17:42:00.003-05:00

The Engineers Without Borders After School Program, Future Cities, just completed its first meeting - and what a blast! This week there were about twenty 3rd to 8th graders that participated. We really just wanted to get to know the kids, so today we talked about recycling and tried to as learn as many names as possible. As you can see from the picture, we made recyclable name tags. As a group, we still have a lot to learn about working with younger kids, but we are so excited to do it! Stay tuned for more Future Cities news - if you are interested in our program, or would like to help, contact Mark Schutte and schuttmp@gmail.com.

Nyambogo to be Sponsored by Global Fast

2011-01-30T16:13:00.001-05:00

Global Fast is an new non-profit that connects people with worthwhile causes, while changing the way they think about donating. While most nonprofits only ask you to give up part of your paycheck, Global Fast advocates for sacrificial giving. By giving something up, whether a meal, a movie, or that new t-shirt you've been wanting to buy, you now have money in your budget to donate instead, building solidarity with those we aim to help.

Our Nyambogo water project has been vetted by the Global Fast staff and selected as one of the benificiary projects. Members of the UC community, including the service fraternity Alpha Phi Omega & University Honors Association, will be partnering with EWB to run a Global Fast at UC. In the coming weeks, look for events and other publicity aimed to engage all of UC in this fast, all earning money for Nyambogo's new water system.

Click here to visit the Nyambogo project page on GlobalFast.org

Screen Print is ready for Future Cities!

2011-01-29T17:19:00.004-05:00

Hey everybody!

Local outreach is new to EWB-UC. Currently, the Education Committee (a new section of our chapter) has completed talks with William Howard Taft Elementary. We are officially one of their weekly after school programs! And what are we doing, do you ask? This after school program is going to focus around the pillars of our group, but also around a national competition - Future Cities (http://www.futurecity.org/). This national competition for 6th, 7th, and 8th graders challenges students to envision their ideal city of the future. Many schools from around the nation will compete in regional competitions which must showcase a digital rendering of the city, an engineering report, and the presentation of a scale 3D model of a section of the city! We are very excited to have our first ever Future Cities after school program meeting this Tuesday, February 1st. To better help the students recognize us, we will all have program shirts to wear to every meeting. EWB uses an interesting style of t-shirt printing - sustainable and creative, of course! Screen printing, just as was used with our EWB chapter shirts, gives us a template which can be used over and over - and we can choose as many color combinations as we'd like!

Look for posts on progress of Future Cities: Sustainable Design By Children, EWB's first ever after school program initiative in the near future!

Otho Abwao Status

2011-01-11T22:08:00.004-05:00

Hello All!

As we enter the meat of the winter quarter, the Otho Abwao project is looking forward to exciting progress. Our team has been hard at work defining and selecting building concepts and rendering them in Solidworks. Exciting progress from last quarter saw the arrival of several informative documents from Kenya, including example technical drawings from a local contractor and a set of public school classroom regulations per the Kenyan Ministry of Education. These documents will aid us greatly this quarter as we continue design work.

We have made our final concept choices and will spend the next few months forming our specifications. This will entail fully-defined CAD drawings, load calculations, written specifications, and the like. We are working to partner with the Walsh Group, a construction management contracting company, to obtain assistance with our CAD drawings. Our next step is to present our initial models to the Walsh Group and begin more exact CAD drawings in order to spec out the foundation and walls. We're always looking for more engaged team members, so feel free to come out to any EWB gathering and see what we're all about!

Progress in Nyambogo

2011-01-10T19:07:00.006-05:00

Greetings! Over the last quarter and break the members of the Nyambogo design project have been hard at work. Last quarter's attendance at our committee meetings was incredible and the extra help has been quite a boost to the project. We're currently fully invested in determining the best solution for the water storage that will be part of our design. Last quarter we evaluated boreholes and water catchments as the two most feasible sources. Water catchment was given second priority due to its limited ability to supply during the dry season. This drawback would require massive storage capacities in order to ensure availability during the dry season. The borehole offers year round water availability, so the amount of water storage required at any one time would be greatly reduced. This quarter's work involves investigation of types of tanks from large ferrocement tanks to smaller prefabricated plastic tanks. Spring quarter will focus on the incorporation of filter technology as well as planning distribution sites throughout the community.

Burere Update

2011-01-02T14:09:00.006-05:00

Over the break the Burere project has been looking over documentation from VLOP and researching information about materials, building techniques, and the government in Tanzania. Before break we contacted THP Limited, Inc. to help us with the structural issues with our first design. This quarter we will be continuing to communicate with THP and figure out exactly what we need to do on the assessment trip this summer.

Happy Holidays from EWB

2010-12-23T11:19:00.000-05:00

We just wanted to take a quick moment to wish you all a happy holiday season. This has been quite a year for us with two trips, several new initiatives and an incredible amount of new energy. It makes us excited for the big possibilities that next year holds as well. Finally, it also makes us thankful for all of you that support us and help keep us going.

Thanks again and have a wonderful holiday season!

New Information Packet

2010-12-11T11:24:00.006-05:00

One thing we've always struggled with at EWB-UC is finding a clear concise way to present our projects and organization as a whole. We can always direct people to the blog and website, or give an on the spot speech about our work, but these always feel like they fall short. That's why I'm ecstatic to announce the release of our Information Packet.

The information is concise, visual way of telling EWB's story. We can show where our projects are, what we've done, and what we're planning next all in a few pages. Over time this packet will continue to be updated as our projects move forward and EWB evolves. Starting Winter quarter, we'll be able use this packet as our primary research when approaching companies for sponsorships. But the real beauty of our information is that it stands on it's own, so rather than spending a long post describing it, see it for yourself.

Click below to view the Information Packet

A special thanks to everybody on our external affairs committee who worked all quarter long to make this packet a reality.

The Follies Raise Money for EWB

2010-12-04T14:24:00.000-05:00

This Friday, many talented members of the UC community came together to perform and raise some money for EWB. The Follies had band performances, dancing, jokes and more. The event was free to all but with the option of donating to EWB. In the end, EWB gained $54.50 in donations! Thanks to everybody who came out and who donated; it was a great time!

Click here for all the photos of The Follies

Follies to Support EWB

2010-12-02T12:17:00.000-05:00

This Friday is the Follies. It's a live variety show featuring comedy sketches, dance numbers, musical performances and more. But most importantly, any donations raised will go to our chapter. Tell your friends and come support EWB while having a great time. All the details are below.

Time: This Friday, doors open at 7:30, the show starts at 8pm

Location: Hughes Auditorium (map below)

Cost: Free, but donations accepted for EWB

View Larger Map

Trip to Great Lakes Regional Conference

2010-11-24T14:32:00.005-05:00

A few members of our group recently attended the great lakes regional conference in Indianapolis. We sat in on presentations from EWB-USA national members and got to meet our new Chapter Relations manager, as well as discuss the new system for chapter fees. During the breakout sessions we traded group contact information, project details, and learned about how to lead effective meetings, anticipate common problems, build safety into our designs, and correctly fill out the mountains of paperwork involved with an assessment or implementation trip. It wasn't all business though, we made some great friends as well! the knowledge we've gained will be added to our projects in the coming year to aid our success!

Presenting for International Education Week

2010-11-22T01:22:00.002-05:00

As part of international education week, Engineers Without Borders was asked to give a presentation as one of the events. Our presentation focused was called Building Blocks of an International Project. We talked about all the parts that go into putting on a successful international service project.

We broke an international project into four key components that are absolutely necessary

Partnership: from first impressions to keeping consistent communication, having a strong with the community is crucial to the long-term success of a project
Logistics: from lodging to travel, food to communication, we gave little tips and tricks for the nitty-gritty details necessary to get you through the trip safely
Mission: start with the passion of members and use that to direct your goals and motives for the trip; then be sure to list those goals and prioritize them, so you get all the most important tasks done
Team: from selecting members through the pre-trip meetings, all the way to post-trip relays of information, it's important to building a strong team with diverse skills so everything gets done

A special thanks to everyone who came out to see the presentation. Coming to our event allowed people to "stamp" their fake passports, and anyone who got 3 stamps is eligible for a raffle of a round trip plane ticket, so hopefully the lucky winner is an EWB member.

Click here to view the full presentation

Fundraiser Raises $250 for EWB

2010-11-13T17:19:00.000-05:00

Our Kegs For Kenya bar night was a big success. Thanks to everyone who came out and helped support us and our projects. In total, we profited $250 which will go toward completion of our projects.

It was also a nice for EWB members to come and take a well-deserved break from all the hard work they've been putting in on the projects. A special thanks to Mark, Jim, and everyone else who worked to put this fundraiser together.

Click here to see photos from the fundraiser.

More EWB T-shirts Printed

2010-11-05T13:56:00.006-04:00

Just a quick photo update. We've finished printing the 1st batch of EWB t-shirts. (there were so many people who wanted to print shirts, we couldn't so them all in one day). We managed to get even more creative with some color-blend ones, and even some really cool glow-in-the-dark shirts.

EWB Presents at Global Studies Conference

2010-10-27T11:00:00.008-04:00

On October 7-9, 2010, three EWB-UC students traveled to the University of Nebraska at Omaha to present EWB's latest activity and progress to the annual Global Studies Conference. The students were Jim Moyer, a 3rd year civil engineering student, Ben Gentry, a 2nd year computer engineering student, and myself, Kevin Knollman, a 3rd year biomedical engineering student. This was EWB's third consecutive year presenting at the conference, which hosts professionals and professors from all over the world as they discuss the significance of various current events and present their latest research and studies to a like-minded audience.

This year, our team presented about recent progress made on the Otho Abwao and Burere projects, and also discussed the methods and value of developing partnerships with our communities and with other NGOs. Our presentation was received well, and was followed by very astute questions and interesting discussions. Overall, the conference was very successful. We came away with a few new contacts, such as an expert in African aviation services, as well as a few new ideas, such as how to better administer a survey to a community to obtain more accurate results.

Of course, the trip wasn't entirely formal. We also got a chance to explore the many shops and restaurants of Omaha's Old Market District, and we spent much of Saturday enjoying the famous Omaha Zoo and its Rain Forest and Desert Dome exhibits.

Many thanks are owed to Dr. Erwin Erhardt of the UC College of Business, who has traveled to this conference with EWB and several business students over the past few years.

Paint Uptown Advertises EWB

2010-10-25T01:44:00.000-04:00

This year, EWB participated in Paint Uptown, an event where student organizations are given a portion of windowspace at UC to decorate. We used this opportunity to improve our campus visibility and show everybody our logo, while also painting the website. If you're on campus during Homecoming week, be sure to check our window out; it's on the Steger underpass. See all the photos from painting here.

Kaplan Class Auction Fundraiser

2010-10-21T17:34:00.000-04:00

Through our partnership with Kaplan, we've earned 4 certificates for Kaplan classes. To raise money for our projects, we're auctioning these scholarships off. All money will go towards funding our 3 projects, bring us that much closer to implementation.

The scholarship is reedemable for any Kaplan test prep class (MCAT, LSAT, you name it) and is worth up to $2000. If you know anyone thinking about prepping for one of these tests, tell them about our auction. They'll likely end up paying less than the full cost of the class, plus they'll be helping out a great cause.

To bid on the 1st scholarship, go here: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=110600787486

New EWB T-shirt

2010-10-18T00:56:00.001-04:00

We just rolled out our new T-shirt design in for the 2010-11 school year, and we're pretty excited about it! To see all the fun we had making it, click here.

Last year was the first time we designed a full-scale shirt for all members. We made strides to avoid the pitfalls of normal college t-shirts. Instead of purchasing the cheapest shirt available which almost certainly was manufactured by sweatshop labor, we opted for a shirt fairly-made in the US.

This year, we stepped it up another level. Instead of creating waste by buying shirts, we went a completely different route. We designed our own graphic and then converted it into a silk-screen. Then we had each member bring an old T-shirt, hoodie, or whatever, so we could print it. Not only did this reduce demand for new textiles and reuse old items, but this allowed for an awesome degree of creativity.

Since we were printing shirts ourselves, we could easily change the color between each shirt we printed. We had everything from solid colors and whites, to sparkly pink-to-silver gradients and glow-in-the-dark shirts. This definitely beats the soulless replication of a standard mass-produced shirt; each t-shirt has it's own quirks and character, while also being a high quality graphic that will last even after dozen of loads in the washing machine.

Finally, we had fun doing it. While we were printing, we grilled out and played music. Members got to hang out and have fun, and even print they're own shirt if they wanted. (a little messy, but a lot of fun!)

If you're around campus, look for people wearing the new EWB shirt; we printed more than all other T-shirts that we've made combined, and still have to print some more.

Goodsearch: Raise Money for EWB with Everyday Searches

2010-10-14T17:19:00.000-04:00

We're excited to announce a brand-new way to raise money for EWB. Best of all, it doesn't cost you a cent and it's based something you do every day anyways. All you have to do is search the internet using Goodsearch, and our chapter will gain money. With Goodsearch, money from search ads goes towards our projects; we gain 1¢ for each search. While that may not seem like a lot at first, think how many times you search a day, then multiply it by all the friends, supporters and members of EWB-UC. So what are you waiting for, start Goodsearching now!

3 Ways to Goodsearch

#1 Website (www.goodsearch.com)

Just go to the www.goodsearch.com and paste ENGINEERS WITHOUT BORDERS - UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI into the box as the name of your charity, then use the search box just like you would Google or Bing. Goodsearch saves your preference, so next time you search on that computer, it should already remember you're searching for EWB-UC.

#2 Toolbar

If you use, Internet Explorer or Firefox, you can install a toolbar that gives you quick access to Goodsearch all the time. The page to download it is here: http://www.goodsearch.com/toolbar/engineers-without-borders-university-of-cincinnati

#3 Plugins

You can also use plugins for just about all the major browsers. Click on the respective link to install a plugin for your browser.

Internet Explorer Plugin

Firefox Plugin

Google Chrome (technically not a plugin, instructions on changing settings to support Goodsearch)

If you ever want to see how much money we've raised so far, you can see the financial info here: http://www.goodsearch.com/nonprofit/engineers-without-borders-university-of-cincinnati.aspx

Thanks for your help, and happy Goodsearching!

EWB Gets a New Advisor!

2010-10-10T13:48:00.006-04:00

We're pleased to announce that we have a new advisor, Dr. Margaret Kupferle. She comes to us from UC's Environmental Engineering Department, where several of our members have had her as a professor.

Dr. Kupferle will oversee our group and help with lots of the little administrative things we need an advisor for. (signature for service hours, renting GPS equipment from the library, etc.) It'll also be valuable to have her insight and advice on our project schedules and overall organizational planning.

We'll still keep our project mentors, but adding an overall advisor will allow them to focus more squarely on their specific projects, instead of being bothered by the extra administrative issues as well.

For more info about Dr. Kupferl, visit her webpage on the UC website.

Fall Meetings Begin: Record Attendance!

2010-10-03T17:11:00.002-04:00

Huge Crowd for the 1st Fall Meeting

Meetings have started up for fall quarter and our hard recruit during recruitment has definitely paid off. Our 1st meeting was a lot of fun, but also really productive. We had a bridge building competition using only newspaper and tape. Even with limited time, some groups were able to manage holding up things as heavy as a laptop. New members and returners alike also got updates on all the projects. (Burere's design is completed and submitted to EWB-USA for review-stay tuned for more on that) We also got an unveiling of the new EWB T-shirt design for the 2010-2011 school year(also, look for a more detailed blog post with pictures of the design). At the end of the meeting, all the members split up into committees and began planning for the new year.

Mark Talking about the Education Committee at the 2nd Meeting

Even more exciting was probably the second meeting, which had just as many, if not more people come to it, even without Welcome Week advertisements, a fun game, or even the promise of free food. At our 2nd meeting, Mark Schutte explained the progress of the Education Committee, the new committee that was formed this year which will take on new initiatives and reimagine those previously performed by our Health and Culture committees. With an expanded group size, and a great start to the quarter, it's looking to be a great year for EWB!

Recruiting New Members (New Pics)

2010-09-21T23:38:00.000-04:00

We're in high gear recruiting new members as new freshman come to UC for the first time and everybody else returns for fall classes. We've been hanging posters and tabling at various events. All in all, we've added over 100 new people to our email list. Now we're just frantically making last minute preparations for our 1st meeting of the quarter, this Thursday.

If you want to see first hand some of the stuff we've been up to, we added some new photos.
Click here to view our photos from this quarter

Blog Redesigned

2010-09-20T16:20:00.006-04:00

As you might notice after a few glances, our blog has undergone a pretty radical redesign. The black background and narrow post column has been replaced by a textured background with photos on either side of a full width post area. Since we changed so much of the design, we're also renaming it: from now on, the EWB blog is titled BLUEPRINTS.

Apart from the obvious engineering connotations, we chose the name because like blueprints, this blog is a peek at future ideas and plans that haven't yet come to fruition. They're designs that still may change or switch with time, but serve as the definitive source of current information on our projects.

As always, you can check all of our latest blog posts on BLUEPRINTS at http://ewbucin.blogspot.com

EWB Speaks at Global Health Conference

2010-09-18T19:45:00.002-04:00

Cincinnati Children's had a conference on Global Health and EWB was invited to speak on building community partnerships. In our talk, we focused on a series of steps to building a solid partnership based on our experience. They are...

Make a Good First Impression: know the culture and get to know the people
Identifying Stakeholders: start meeting the people in the community with influence
Establishing Roles: create roles like a community contact or decision making committee
Setting Partnership Terms: agree on areas like funding and community contribution
Reinforce Roles: train people for their roles and show the rest of the community who the role-members are
Maintaining Communication: even between trips, keep a steady flow of communication
Revision and Reaction: constantly evaluate and tweak decisions based on how things are going.

At the Cincinnati Children's Global Health Conference

Latest Burere School Design

2010-09-14T15:45:00.001-04:00

Our Burere team has been hard at work over this summer, finishing up the school design for this Winter's implementation.

Here are the latest drawings of the school. It's a four-room school-house with each room intended for one grade level.

The walls will be concrete columns and confined masonry in-between. The roof with be wood and corrugated metal sheeting. The foundation will be constructed while our team is there this December!

VLOP's Night on the Serengeti

2010-08-30T09:46:00.000-04:00

Village Life Outreach Project, our partner organization who we work with closely in Nyambogo and Burere, is having their annual fundraiser in a little less than a month. It's a fun night of African cuisine, dancing, and more. Take a look at their flier for all the details.

Click here to book your tickets for this event.

If you want to learn a little me more about VLOP, you can view their annual report here.

Exec Dinners - Ramping up for Fall Quarter

2010-08-26T10:35:00.000-04:00

Sorry, if updates have been a little sparse over the summer; we've been hard at work doing stuff behind the scenes, like dealing with all the data from our very successful summer trip, or finalizing the Burere school design.

One way we're doing this is through exec dinners, which have grown into a bit of an EWB tradition. Somebody hosts at their house and cooks a meal and others can bring some dish too. As you can see from the picture, our latest dinner was chicken fajitas at my house.

But don't worry, besides eating a delicious meal, we got a lot of work done.

We narrowed down candidates for a new EWB mentor:
Look for more on that in the coming weeks as things get finalized!

Project Updates:
Phase I of the Burere school is planned for this December, Nyambogo assessment this summer went great and they're processing all the data from it, and Otho Abwao is pushing forward on design to hopefully start construction of their school this spring.

Our brand is getting updated:
While we really did like our old logo, EWB-USA gave us a new one with a few new guidelines so we're working on merging that with what we have. That means new T-shirts, posters, fundraising documents, and everything else in-between.

Fundraising is ramping up:
Look for a big push for corporate donations this fall supported by all new fundraising documents(if you have any corporate contacts, please let us know, we can use all the help we can get). Also, the Burere travel team has already started doing small-scale fundraising events to raise money for their travel costs.

Education Committee off to a great start:
Despite only just forming the Education committee by combining our Health and Culture committees, we've got some exciting progress and many new members. Look for staples like Lights Out Friday to continue, but new initiatives like an afterschool program to start up.

Recruitment is going to be huge:
We've already started reaching out to a few listservs already, but we're also ramping up a full recruitment for fall quarter. Expect a huge crowd at the 1st general meeting!

Online going into overdrive:
Look for more frequent posts on the blog, plus more pictures and updates in general. We're also looking into expanding into other digital ways of getting the word out. (Look for the EWB_UC twitter coming very soon)

And even more:
Believe it or not, there's even more where this came from. Once a few of our other ideas and initiatives evolve into a more concrete form, you can expect to hear about them too!

Day 2 - Arrive in Kenya

2010-06-14T00:10:00.001-04:00

We are now at the Mennonite Guest House in

Kenya

! I am completely exhausted. When we arrived in

Kenya

, we had to fill out several forms all saying the same things but on different colors of paper in order to get visas and get out of the airport to the parking lot. (My passport has its first stamp in it!) We met our drivers at the airport and they brought us here. I’ve heard many good things about Fat Joe and Slim Joe, and am excited to get to know them this week. None of us got enough sleep last night, although the rooms are very nice; however we should get another chance to sleep today on the drive to Shirati – it is a full days drive.

Summer Trip - Day 1

2010-06-13T03:30:00.003-04:00

Hi, I'm Will Hilton, and I'll be posting updates on the EWB summer trip when I get a chance. (Which might not be often...)

Day 1:
I am sitting in the airport in Paris, France. It’s about 3:30 am Eastern Time, but we are all wide awake. Having successfully navigated security at Cincinnati’s airport and again in Paris, we now await the final leg of our journey from Paris to Nyambogo. We have several hours in our layover, so we looked around the airport. Sadly, $10 only gets us 7 euro, so even a simple donut is >5 dollars. I do get a chocolate muffin though. I buy 30 min of Internet time so everyone in the group can update our Facebook statuses. (You know it’s worth it!)

From left to right: Ben, Will (me), Mason, Paul

Summer Send-off

2010-05-26T08:22:00.002-04:00

This Friday, we'll be having another awesome EWB trip sendoff. This time it's for the members of our summer trip who are traveling to Nyambogo & Burere with Village Life Outreach Project.

We'll be getting community input on our designs that we've created for the Burere school, and we'll be performing an assessment to start design on the Nyambogo water system. But don't take my word for it, come to the event to hear all about it.

Date: This Friday, May 28th
Time: 11:00-11:30am
Location: TUC Theater

EWB Wins a Jefferson Award & $250 Grant

2010-04-20T08:02:00.001-04:00

On Saturday, our chapter participated in a Service Symposium at the Duke energy center. Students in gradeshool, highschool, and college all competed presented their projects and shared ideas. Along with having some fun meeting other service-minded people, we were competing for mini-grants. (categories were broken down by school level and impact scope-we were college-level international-impact)

Based on voting done by other projects, EWB won our category, and got a Jefferson award, and along with it, a $250 mini-grant for our work!

Special thanks goes out to Vinny for organizing our EWB presence there and to the Center for Community Engagement (CCE) for telling about this in the first place.

Assessment Trip Success

2010-04-18T22:08:00.001-04:00

This entry is a little belated, but better late than never, I suppose. Time got away from me a bit when I got home from the assessment trip, what with the start of my first co-op job. It’s incredible how busy we all keep ourselves here. We don’t know any better, it’s part of our culture. That is one of the many striking differences between home and Otho Abwao. We are always on the move, accomplishing more, learning more, doing more, while they operate on “Kenya Time”- they’ll get around to their tasks, but nothing is so important that it can’t wait. But I digress.
I would definitely call the trip a wonderful success. We accomplished everything we set out to do, and more. We gathered all the necessary assessment information for the Otho Abwao school project. We administered enough health surveys across the community to label the water system extremely effective by virtue of drastic decreases in water borne illness cases. Finally, we repaired several flaws in the design of the water system, including the roofs on the water tanks and the vulnerability of the solar panels to lightning, to make it more robust and sustainable. Thus, from an engineering standpoint, we succeeded very well. More importantly, though, I think we all grew a little bit as students and as global citizens in a way that professors can’t simulate in a classroom. Doing the design work and fundraising for our projects back home is all well and good, and should be commended, but actually traveling to the communities with whom we partner to perform the work at ground zero shows true commitment and purpose. It shows that we are willing to take on the most pressing issues of our generation with zeal and ingenuity, both of which are absolutely essential if any solutions are to be found. As the rest of the world chugs along the road of progress at an ever increasingly rapid rate, how will we look back at those less fortunate and ensure they are not left behind to fend for themselves? It will be one of the great challenges my generation will address. They say it is typical of college students to work for a cause greater than themselves. I wish this were not typical of only college students. I certainly hope the drive to care for others does not die in me among the engineering job and family awaiting me post-graduation. I hope it does not die in those with whom I traveled this spring break, as well. We all certainly have the potential to be parts of the solutions to the world’s problems. The question is, are we driven to turn that potential into tangible results?
I realize this is a fairly scatter-brained post. I think it was more for my benefit than anything else. It helps to hit the pressure-release valve on all these thoughts that have been bouncing around my skull for the last few weeks. I hope readers can draw something meaningful and helpful from this collection of sentiments. If projects like these strike your fancy, feel free to come check us out anytime and learn more of what we’re all about. Most of all, though, I hope you experience the joy of that typical college student characteristic: working towards a cause greater than yourself. After all, what higher cause is there?

Election Results

2010-04-16T16:15:00.001-04:00

Last night EWB had elections for next year's exec positions. Thanks to everyone who ran and congratulations to the 2010-2011 exec board.

The exec board is as follows...
President - Vinny Travee
VP Internal - Jim Moyer
VP External - Tom Meyer
Treasurer - Sarah Hrinko
Secretary - Morgen Schroeder

In two weeks, the new exec will review applications and choose leaders for our appointed positions. It's gonna be a good year!

EWB Featured in the News Record!

2010-04-07T13:14:00.001-04:00

Check out today's issue of the News Record(our student newspaper for those not at UC, in case you were wondering) Our spring trip is featured in one of their articles.

If you're not on campus, you can read the whole article online here: http://www.newsrecord.org/living/spotlight/ewb-uses-spring-break-to-make-a-difference-1.2213175

EWB Football Team: Final Score 7-7

2010-04-04T20:39:00.004-04:00

Here's my first in a series of short stories & reflections on the trip... One of the highlights of the Spring trip for me was our final day with the school. With most of our work like health surveys and school assessment winding down, and the last little bit waiting on supplies Charlie & Jimmy were getting in Kisumu, we had a chance to spend the last day with the kids.

Safa had bought a football (soccer) ball in the Amsterdam airport, and finally managed to buy a pump for it in Kisumu. We saved this big reveal for the last day. Once he reached into his bag and pulled out the inflated ball(no branded with a sharpie C-paw) the kids gave out a collective cheer. After running around the field a few times chasing the ball in a mob, some order set in. Every 10 minutes, two more teams of students would switch out playing each other.
This was all leading up to our turn, when we would face off against the kids. As our turn approached it started to rain and the field quickly became a giant mud puddle. Finally it was time, and along with some of the teachers from Otho Abwao, we faced the all-star team of the Otho Abwao school.

In the pouring rain, we gave it our all and managed to come up with an early lead. The rest of Otho Abwao's school children watched intently from the sidelines cheering us on. Every time we scored a goal, we'd celebrate in ridiculous fashion such as arms flailing like an airplane or over-the-top chest bumps, which caused tons of laughter from our spectators.

However, the students had a ridiculous amount of stamina and soon they were catching up to us. The score was 7-6 us, and our entire team exhausted, soaking wet, and covered in mud from while still still having a blast. We agreed to play a sudden death finale: next goal wins. While I would draw this out and build on the suspense of missed goals and extreme athleticism, I'm guessing you read the post title, and therefore know that the Otho Abwao children emerged victorious from an intense and incredibly fun game.

As you can see from the first photo, we definitely gave it our all, and were pretty serious about our soccer. In future trips, we might need to add a question about soccer skills on the trip application. We also might have to start doing daily practice to hone the skills of our team. This definitely was a blast and despite losing, it felt amazing being drenched, dirty and exhausted, knowing you'd given every once of effort while having an immensely fun time. But until next time, Otho Abwoa has a new soccer ball as their trophy from their victory of the first ever EWB football tournament.

Otho Abwao Assessment: Productive & Fun

2010-04-01T06:42:00.004-04:00

While you'll be hearing lots more about it in the coming weeks, I just wanted to post a quick update about our trip. We got a lot of stuff done, from surveys and soil samples for school assessment to adding tank coverings and adding new taps to the water system. Plus we were able to make progress on other initiatives too such as a microfinance project, our visual penpal program and health surveys(which showed some excellent improvement in health, assumed to be in part to their new access to clean water).
There was plenty of fun too, from a soccer game vs. the school's all-star team during a rainstorm, to navigating the markets in Nairobi. It was a blast!

Again, look for lots more about the trip once our team(me included) shakes off their jetlag and can actually process this amazing experience.

Send-Off Success!

2010-03-16T15:52:00.001-04:00

The EWB Spring Trip send-off yesterday went great!

A special thanks to all our speakers as well as everybody who came out to the event. As you can see in the picture, we even got a fancy proclamation from Steve Driehaus.

And if that's not cool enough, we even got a spot on the channel 9 evening news. Click the link below to watch both me and the reporter stumble through the segment. (by the way, it's Otho Abwao, not Otho Bwy-you, or whatever he said)

http://www.wcpo.com/news/local/story/UC-s-Engineers-Without-Borders-Returns-To-Kenya/g-rLApHg3kOoXC0J4Jr4NQ.cspx

Trip Send-off Partay!!!

2010-03-07T22:31:00.000-05:00

Get ready for an event that's going to be almost as cool as traveling to Kenya yourself. Monday of exam week, take a break from whatever studying your doing. (or not, if you're lucky) We'll be throwing an party in TUC Cinema as a send-off for our spring team. While technically we could have called it a presentation, or a speaker event, we're going with party because we're all really excited to be traveling and we want everyone else to share our excitement. Plus, there's free food!

Here are the details...

Where: TUC Cinema

Date: Monday, March 15th

Time: 12:30pm

What: An EWB Send-off Party - Free food, fun, friends, videos, speakers and more! All are invited!

So where are we going anyways?

2010-03-06T21:21:00.001-05:00

That's a good question. On our spring trip, we're traveling to Otho Abwao, Kenya. We'll leave Cincinnati by plane and after 2 layovers arrive in Nairobi. After staying the night there, we'll be driven west till we almost reach Lake Victoria. Otho Abwao is located within sight of Lake Victoria on a hill.

If you really want to investigate more, type those Latitude and Longitude points into Google Earth and explore Otho Abwao for yourself.

EWB in the News

2010-03-04T13:15:00.000-05:00

Good news! Literally.

EWB has been getting a little bit of press lately with our upcoming spring trip. Hopefully even more is on the way.

We're now the picture on the main page of UC's news site.
Check it out: http://www.uc.edu/news/

Also, we're mentioned in a recent article about spring break trips at UC. We even got a picture of Emily with some of the Otho Abwao kids in there.
You can read it here: http://www.uc.edu/news/NR.aspx?id=11501

Hopefully this is only the start of a wave of publicity for EWB.

Peace!
-Tom

Spring Assessment Trip

2010-02-22T08:41:00.001-05:00

First off, sorry for the long delay in blog posts, we had some technical difficulties getting new people able to post, but a lot has happened since then.

We traveled to Burere to assess for our school project, we got a new website, and most recently we got technical approval for an assessment trip for the Otho Abwao school!

Check out the schedule for the trip posted above.

Messages of Thanks From the Community

2009-05-12T10:13:00.001-04:00

We received emails from the community with notes of thanks:

TITLE: WATER IS LIFE IN OTHO ABWAO KENYA AFRICA

I would very much on behalf of my community: Otho Abwao, Nyando District, Kenya, Africa give our gratitude to the students of Cincinnati university for making it possible for us to have a running water in our community. Our ladies who were tired of stepping on the foot pump which was very hard for the old ladies to pump water can now fill their 20litres jerry cans within a minute. Thanks to EWB Cincinatti, Prof. Dan and the entire team who ventured in Kenya, Africa to let us have clean drinking and cooking water. Thanks so much. We hope our partnership will keep on and you will be back!!!!! Thanks and God bless your organization.

Hazel Okullo

-------------------------------------------
Hi Andy and colleagues,

Hope your journey back to the states was fine. How are you doing? Once again on the behalf of the community and my own behalf register our appreciation for the excellent work your group did for us. It is our prayer that may God continue to bless you as you continue to study and in helping the less fortunate. We look forward to hear from you and see you once again. Say hi to the rest

Kind regards
Seth Oluoch

The Smiles Mean the Most!

2009-04-09T14:47:00.001-04:00

Going to the village of Otho Abwao with EWB was an experience I will never forget. That's a good thing!

As a senior I felt that it was a little late for me to join the EWB group, and I wasn't sure where to direct my efforts into the organization. I had heard a great deal about the implementation trip, but since I had not done much with the group yet, I wasn't sure that this was the right opportunity for me to start my involvement. With much hesitation, I decided to give it a shot, and spoke to Andy, the President of EWB-UCIN, about joining the other students on the implementation trip. That was the best decision I had made all year! It is NEVER too late to get involved. I spent the next four months ironing out the last details of the design and preparing myself for a trip that I knew would have a tremendous impact on my life to come.
I have always enjoyed participating in service work and helping others - the biggest reward being those beautiful smiling faces - however, actually designing the project that is to be implemented, creates a very different feeling. A much more rewarding feeling.

It was my first trip to Africa, and my first trip to any developing nation, and while I had an idea of what to expect; there were, as you can imagine, still many things that took me by surprise. Nothing can prepare you for the sights of the vast lands in Kenya: The baboons sitting in the road, the acres of tea plantations, the rundown shops lining the roads, the locals riding by with 5 Jerry cans on their bicycles, the poverty. Going to Africa and seeing these things first hand has created a feeling in me, that I hope I can never forget. It has encouraged me to continue in doing these kinds of projects, and contribute all I can to help the nations that need it most. Every little bit helps.

The most touching memory I have of Otho Abwao, was on the last full day we spent in the village. Almost all we could do had been done, and while we knew we would not be able to see the final product of all our hard work we also knew that Dan would stay until the job got done. A few of the students and villagers were digging one of the last trenches. A trench which had to be dug in very compact soil, because it was at one of the "roads" in the village. People came and went, to watch and to help, children included. One boy in particular (probably about 13 years of age) was working very hard to help dig. As we were both digging - and sweating - he stopped and looked over at me. I could tell he was trying to say something while catching his breath. He looked as exhausted as I felt and I though he might have hurt himself (or be ready to fall over at any moment). Instead - he mustered out the words... "Could I please have a pen?" - The smile that appeared on his face when I gave him that pen, will forever stick in my head.

A Lesson I Never Found in a Classroom

2009-04-02T19:45:00.001-04:00

What a way to kick off a college career. Six months after my terrifying first big time college class, I found myself standing in Kenya with a group of advanced engineering students and their professor. If you had told me six months ago that I would be going through with this, it would have appeared quite the daunting pressure situation. It retrospect, though, it was exactly the converse: this implementation trip was one of the most educational and revealing experiences I've ever had the privilege of taking on.
On a relatively superficial level, I certainly deepened my engineering education during our stay in Kenya. I saw a complete design that previously existed only on paper and computer screens come into reality as networks of HDPE and GI pipe were constructed. I learned the calculations and considerations behind the design and how the system worked. I witnessed a bit of impromptu engineering as the group adapted the roof structure to fit the tanks (the original design for the roof was overlooked by the contractors who built the tanks). Finally, I learned to interface with suppliers, contractors, and clients in order to complete a project that is satisfactory to every party involved. Doubtless, all these facets are vital to my career development and education if I am ever to become a succesful and effective engineer, and I look forward to future EWB experiences to shape me into a more complete engineer.

I think the even more valuable insight, however, comes on a deeper, perhaps philosophical, platform. This was my first international experience (I don't count a trip to Niagara Falls as international), and my first experience as a minority. I've never been able to witness first-hand how people outside our borders live their lives. What struck home hardest for me (sorry to repeat the words of other posts) was the attitudes and demeanors of the members of the Otho Abwao community. Scroll through the pictures of the residents; there really is not a single sad or dejected face in the group. These people are perfectly happy and content with the lives they lead, difficult as they are by our standards. Is this simply because they have never experienced a more lavish lifestyle in a more developed country? Perhaps. But I think it is better explained by the culture of the area, summed up by a quote from Ghandi: "Live simply, so others can simply live." As our American culture advises us to continually search for that better life, where the grass is greener on the other side of the hill, there is a clear lesson to be learned from these people. The knowledge that they are content and satisfied with the lives they lead did somewhat ease my shock of how difficult their lives are compared to mine, but it does not change the morality of the situation. The world has an ethical obligation to extend a hand to this and other developing nations to help them to the level of technology, health care, sanitation, etc. the rest of the world enjoys today. Indeed, the world cannot afford to leave these peoples behind: it would miss out on too many valuable cultures and brilliant minds (the water technicians we trained were asking much more intelligent questions than I ever came up with). This is a very tricky and complicated issue to take hold of, as I saw on this trip. Most attempts only scratch the surface of the issue by providing money, labor, and supplies, but don't even consider offering education or adapting the projects to fit into the culture of the area. I look forward to continue working in EWB to bring comprehensive solutions to these problems. After all, that is what engineers do: solve problems.

Water Education

2009-04-01T10:41:00.002-04:00

I could blog about so many things. I had the opportunity to spend six months in

Tanzania

, just miles away from the area of our Otho Abwao project, yet every day of this trip was new, exciting, and of course challenging. I could blog about insects alone. Like the inchworm in my salad, which I had to befriend in order to mentally finish my meal, or the cockroach that ran across my pillow while I slept (I’m convinced it was able to fly), or the termite which I ate out of my own free will. . . even if I did have to pick off the legs and head to convince myself to taste it. I could do an entire blog about transportation. Or the feeling of sharing such an intense culture experience with someone that was quite unfamiliar with the place and that I hardly knew. Or the feeling of returning home to remember that home is a place where I feel quite foreign and where the things that I’m passionate about and have grown so fond of can be understood by so few. But I think, for the sake of sharing the project, I will blog about the Adult Education program we conducted.

It was the morning that the main group left. The atmosphere quite changes when the visitors dwindle from 9 to 2 (just Mike and me) and the big van is seen exiting on the “main” road. We first conducted an education program for the children. The primary school was split up into groups of two so that we first did graded 4-7, and then did grades 1-3. It was focused around bacteria, with some pictures I found on the internet, and keeping those bacteria out of your body. We had a picture of sand under a microscope to present the concept of seeing things that are really small. And we struggled with the fact that bacteria, translated to local language, is the same word as dirt. I was a bit concerned about our success, but based on the questions that were asked, the students definitely understood the concepts. We kept it short, to maximize attention, and had time left over to wander around the community and simply be observant before the Adult Education program. We looked at eroded places and paths, we compared different bricks and rocks in the fancy abandoned house next to our tanks, we looked at the plants, and we untangled a goat from his rope.

When it was nearly time for the Adult Program, we reviewed the material and posted our big notebook to a tree, as the format was going to be group discussion. The best English speaker in town had gone to the city, and her cook name Judy, who was the next hope as a translator, began bringing out chairs. I offered to help, and she hesitated, but did not say no, so I followed her to the school to collect benches. But it became apparent, for reasons I can’t know for sure, that it was definitely not acceptable for me to help carry the benches. So after the first batch, I re-reviewed my notes and prepared myself. Both Mike and I sat down and greeted people as they arrived, which I think really helped the atmosphere of the workshop. As nearly only women were showing up, I asked Judy if it was intended for women only, and if so, was it alright if Mike was around. She said it would absolutely be alright, and would not bother the women. Not to mention a few men didn’t get the memo, and hung around anyway.

Nearly an hour after the meeting was scheduled to start, the rate of people arriving dwindled, and we decided it would be a good time to start. As well, the woman had returned from the city and was able to translate for us. We had two main points, 1) keep the clean water clean, and 2) make sure the clean water is the only water that you and your family drink. The community was encouraged to brainstorm on how to make sure each of those happened. For the first point, everyone contributed great ideas, and I followed up with the few that were left out. They agreed that each change was easy enough to make, and they recognized the value it had for the family. On the second point, about all that could be brainstormed was to carry a water bottle. This got quite a bit of laughs, of which, I could not quite understand or get translation. I wondered if it was the fact that only the mzungu, or westerner, does carries a water bottle or if its really ridiculous to think that they can’t go a few hours without water, or if they have some preconceived notion about their immune system that causes them to laugh. Yet with no explanation for the chuckles, I had to continue on and ensure that the solution was acceptable. We then allowed for questions and received endless thanks. One woman, who mentioned that she had the tap in her yard, brought a dried gourd to give to us, and told us we could drink porridge with it. She seemed more thrilled with the opportunity to come up and thank us, than to actually give us something, which I was grateful for because I knew I couldn’t say no to the gift. It felt as though they didn’t want the workshop to be over, because after all the thank yous had been done, no one moved. All I could do was wish that I spoke the language better.

At the End, Coming Full Circle

2009-04-01T08:50:00.001-04:00

Imagine. Imagine growing up in a small community. No paved roads, no sidewalks. No TV, no email, no internet. No newspaper on your doorstep, no shelf of books at home. No carpet, no tile, no linoleum on the floor. No refrigerator, no lightbulbs, no electricity. No flushing toilet, no running water. No running water.

Many of us read what's above and think that we can handle it. It's just like camping! But think about it again, this isn't camping for a weekend or a week, this is your home, for everyday. This is how people in Otho Abwao live. But the best part? Look at the photo below, do those kids look sad?

That's what hit me the most when the EWB-UCIN team of eight plus one professor went to Kenya to implement our water distribution project. The smiling kids were everywhere. They were happy to scamper and play and watch as we built something they had never seen, a tap with water running out of it.

Other members below and above have expounded on some of the grittier details. About how we got there, the delay of materials, Dan needing to stay longer, the power of a thank you. While I don't want to make my post a repeat, the same thoughts and feelings apply with a personal twist.

Being there and helping make something that all of us take for granted is amazing. It truly is hard to describe. I feel that you need to speak to me in person about it so you can see my facial expressions. From gathering water in a muddy pond with water lapping at cow and goat poop on the side to clean groundwater pouring from a tap. That is a leap, that is impressive.

Completing this implementation trip at the end of my senior year, I feel that I've come full circle. When I joined EWB as a freshman, soon after it was founded, I knew this is what I wanted to do. No other organization could touch the real engineering design influenced by health and culture. You simply can not get that anywhere else at UC. On the trip I think Jordan put it best when he said that all of his other engineering work didn't matter. Yes, we've all learned important concepts and educational tools to be able to complete this part of the project, but this is the first time any of us has made a real impact on real lives. This is real engineering. The full circle part? That's me at an EWB meeting telling younger members what EWB is and now what EWB has done. To see freshmen get excited about EWB in the same way I did, and then want to run with it. That's how the circle is completed, only to come around again.

The real meaning of 'value engineering'

2009-04-01T04:47:00.001-04:00

If a picture is worth a thousand words, what's this image worth to you? For the students of the Engineers Without Borders chapter at the University of Cincinnati, this picture represents years of commitment and thousands of dollars of investment. School children in a rural village in Western Kenya watching water pour from a distribution kiosk. This is the first time these children have seen water from a tap. The first time they've had water available at their school - in any form other than buckets of dirty water collected from ponds on their morning commute. What's this worth?

Its worth the time and effort of a dedicated team of students. It worth financial input from generous family, friends, church members, the University, and others. Its worth strained relationships and self sacrifice. Every day, more than 10,000 children around the world die from a lack of access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation. More than two billion people - that's one in every three humans on the planet - live in conditions where they haven't witnessed a scene like this.

As shown in this series of pictures, the system designed and constructed by the students utilizes a solar array to generate electric power for a pump which delivers clean ground water to concrete storage tanks constructed uphill of the community. Clean water from the tanks is redistributed down the hill to five kiosks strategically located throughout the village. Old women no longer need to struggle with a foot pump. Young girls don't need to carry forty pounds of water on their heads in jerry cans. Attendance of girls at school should increase. Mothers should be more hydrated and better able to nurse newborns. Sanitation and personal hygiene should improve as water is more readily available for hand washing and proper preparation of food.

The lives of more than 500 people have been positively impacted by this project. And the motivation for greater accomplishment comes from this success.

Personally, I'm as proud as can be of the work of the EWB team at UC. Sure, as reflected in the students' accounts of the project details can always be improved. Engineering in a developing country never goes exactly according to plan (i.e., never forget that long sections of black HDPE pipe experience significant thermal elongation and contraction in the equitorial sun - translation: cut and fit piping early in the morning!) But this dedicated group of students - those who traveled to Kenya and those who worked tirelessly at home to make this trip a success - have achieved a major goal. As a teacher, what more can one wish for one's students?

No more footing the pump

2009-03-31T17:16:00.001-04:00

Our trip was filled with many different experiences that truly made it a once in a lifetime opportunity. Driving to the village was interesting as we got to see a wide array of environments and living styles. The vast Rift Valley and baboons on the side of the highway were pretty cool. The roads themselves were intriguing to me as a future transportation engineer. Driving on the left side was new, but the lack of striping and stop signs was really interesting and the driving culture was unique, a first-come-first-serve approach as you had to be aggressive. Seeing the constructed tanks that I helped design put things into reality as most of my co-op work was preliminary stuff and I never saw much of it completed.

Providing someone with easier access to water might not sound like much too many people, but until you understand the impact it will on there lives, you see the importance. For many villagers using the foot pump to get water takes hours each week that could be used to tend crops, help children, and for women, attend school. For some people the work involved to get water from the borehole is too much and therefore many resorted to gathering water from the ponds and other dirty water sources. Many times I saw children getting water from these locations and I’d just sort of make a mental comment of “just a few more days and you won’t have to get water from there anymore.” Many of the villagers were concerned why the tanks had no roof as most of the concrete tanks in the area had roofs, but these systems allowed bacteria to grow inside, thus contaminating the water in the tanks. The benefit of our system is that we will use the sun to help kill some of bacteria that is in the water via a removal roof on the tanks, which also allows easy access to clean the tanks when sediment accumulates in the bottom. Engineers also understand the limits to which they can design for and we understood we couldn’t treat the hardness of their water, but the fact that we are making their water easier to access was priority. The true impact of our system won’t be clear for another few months as health assessments and other feedback will be completed.

Probably the single event that made the whole project hit home was the first night we arrived in Otho Abwao. As we were making our first walk up to the tanks along the trench an older gentleman walked up to me and shook my hand and simply said “thank you” in English. That simple phrase rarely has much meaning to most people in our society as it’s just a common saying with little real meaning, but this was probably one of the few times I felt the full grasp of a thank you. I feel I’m really in tune with the power we engineers have in society, but that act made me really understand the impact we have on people. Along the way we were joined by dozens of kids and more adults until we reached the tanks and looked over the village and towards Lake Victoria. This was another feel good moment as we got acquainted with the people whose lives we were changing for the better.

We were told we would be followed by kids all the time, but until you are surrounded by them watching your every move you don’t know what to expect. For me it was kind of like working with my four year-old niece, Taylor, except that these kids weren’t asking a million questions and grabbing all the tools and materials, but rather fascinated by our work. The trip had many stressing situations and simply working on your tasks and being surrounded by smiling children shows you that you can’t let one thing overcome you. We all knew that the water system would allowed them to have more time in school as they would be able to spend less time gathering water and the water would be a bit safer so they won’t get sick as much. And everyone loves seeing pictures of cute kids smiling.

Engineering is full of adapting to situations and this trip allowed everyone to be flexible because well, TIA (This Is Africa, our motto) and you can’t control everything so you have to just go with the flow. For me this facet is usually easier said than done as I prefer most things to be planned out with little hitches. But having to redesign the roof system, have the contractor back a few piping changes, and going shopping in Kisumu were the best opportunities I had at improving my engineering experience. As Andy would later say “trying learning that in a class room,” which continues to show how important co-op is in the curriculum at UC and how it prepares us for any work that can be thrown in our direction.

The hardest decision we had to make and cope with was that we didn’t see the full completion of the project because of customs issues we had we our pump and a few solar panels. To see water being pumped from the borehole to tanks, then into the distribution network, and finally seeing villagers fill their jerry cans at the tap stands would mark a completion of the project for some of us. For Andy and Neil, who have been involved a long time in EWB, this might have been a bit harder on them. Professor Dan helped explain the situation and helped us refocus our personal feelings about leaving an unfinished project. By reiterating the fact that we can complete the stuff we have power over, we should feel that we completed the project and to let things we can’t control be just as they are. We all had total confidence in Dan completing things for us.

Although this project was real and our decisions have effects on everyone involved, it’s another learning opportunity we have in our education, but for us this opportunity is truly unique and one that everyone should experience. For us seniors it has allowed us to use all the work we have done on co-op and in the classroom to make an impact in the world, one small village at a time. For our freshman member, I can’t really speak on his experiences, but he got the opportunity to see how far engineering students progress in less than five years in regards to our professionalism and how we make adjustments. I told him this was his first co-op and he would get a lot more out of this experience than it might seem. Traveling and working with my friends made things easier for all of us since everyone enjoys working with friends. When you have complicated and intense situations and decisions to make its more fun with people you’re comfortable with. Even though we did have some disagreements about stuff, we understood it’s from an engineering perspective, not personal.

It wasn’t all work and we did have a lot of fun. As I mentioned before, being around friends as great in that you can always joke around with them. Some things that happened can’t be talked about because, “What happens in Africa, stays in Africa,” but we had many laughs at the dinner table and on the porch. Everyone got picked on and everyone dished it back which helped us relax after a long day in the sun and heat. Dan is very interesting to be around and he really made things fun even though things weren’t always rosy.

The flights home were interesting, I got patted down in both Nairobi and London and Andy got it in Chicago. I was hoping not to 3 for 3 in Chicago, but I passed otherwise I was going to scream. Our problems in Chicago started in London as we got delayed on the runway for 30 minutes. This delay got us to Chicago at 4:30pm for a 5:10pm flight. A little tight even if you’re flying domestic, but we had to pass through customs, collect and recheck bags, and go through security. Liesbet is a Belgium citizen so she had to go through a different, slower customs line. Neil volunteered to stay back with her, which left the rest of us to sprinting to the gate. The American Airlines counter people didn’t think we had a chance and sent us to schedule a new flight. The next counter told us we could make it and checked our bags and sent us up to the gate. Chicago’s airport is annoying in that you basically have to go halfway across the airport to get anywhere. We passed through security at a line where there weren’t very many people, and this is where Andy’s moist toilette got him stopped for a few minutes. After he passed through we sprinted to gate H-1B about 400-500 ft from where we came from. At the counter, one guy wouldn’t let us on (the plane was still sitting there), but another co-worker let us on. Turns out the plane hadn’t been fueled up, so we had a few extra minutes. We were hoping Neil and Liesbet would make it in time but they didn’t. We got home about 8pm in Cincinnati where we were welcomed by 40° and rain compared to the 90° and dry sun. Right now it’s a matter of getting the sleep cycle back down before classes start on Monday.

Today they got water from a tap

2009-03-29T04:07:00.001-04:00

Friends,

This is your EWB President, Andy Schriner, having just returned from Kenya from our first ever trip to implement a project. This project was the water distribution system for the ~500 people of the Otho Abwao community in southwestern Kenya, who previously relied on a very laborious foot pump for their only source of clean drinking water. Now, thanks to the solar panels, electric pump, two storage tanks, several kilometers of pipe, and 5 water access kiosks EWB installed, the people of Otho Abwao can get water in less time with less effort, which we expect will improve health in the community, improve school attendance as children are freed from the burden of collecting water, and create more time for community members to engage in valuable economic activity and move themselves up the ladder out of poverty.

There are a lot of angles to take on this momentous occasion. I'll start with a brief recap of the trip, then I'll throw in some of my reactions and experiences, and then I'll try to put this into the context of my personal journey with EWB. You can look forward to blog posts from the other travelers in the near future.

The team of six students consisting of myself, Emily Stover, Neil Schaner, Liesbet Michiels, Kevin Knollman, and Jordan Vogt, and our wonderful faculty mentor Dr. Dan Oerther, arrived in Nairobi on the night of Sunday, 3/15. The additional team members of Mike Morarity and Ely Dixon were scheduled to arrive four days later on 3/19. On Monday, 3/16, we drove to Otho Abwao, arriving in the evening, excited to find two large ferrocement tanks built by Nelson Amolo, a local contractor, where before there was just a field. Most of our materials arrived on a truck the next day, and over the next several days we worked together with the water technicians the community had chosen to get the pipes laid, connections made, and kiosks installed. Emily was able to conduct health surveys in a number of households, even more than she had anticipated. There was something of a snag in the construction process, though: the pump and 2 of 7 solar panels were held up at the Nairobi airport in customs due to a tax issue with the vendor. We worked to finish as much as we could without those key parts, and by Saturday it was decided that someone needed to stay longer than originally planned to supervise the installation of the pump and panels. Dan, being the dedicated professional he is, volunteered, saying he thought it best that he be the only one to stay to fit the last pieces into the puzzle. With everyone agreeing that Dan was more than capable of finishing the job solo, arrangements were made for him to stay through the rest of the next week. On, Sunday, 3/22, the last full day before we left Otho Abwao, we held a community meeting during which we discussed the importance of the community's taking ownership of the system, not making changes or additions to the pipe network, and not using water extravagantly, and during which the water technicians explained the system to the community in their own language. Ely was scheduled to carry out the health education programs for the school children and adults on Monday, 3/23, and she and Mike were scheduled to travel across the border to Tanzania later that week to collect information for future EWB projects there. Also on Monday was the planned departure of the first team from Otho Abwao; the six students said their goodbyes and set off, with Dan accompanying so that he could personally ensure the procurement of the missing pump and solars panels in Nairobi. On Wednesday, 3/25, Dan sent a text message to the US, saying, "We have water!" (meaning the pump had been installed and the tanks were being filled). By this time the remaining members of the travel team are making their way back to the US, and we can all look forward to their additional updates.

In terms of my reactions and experiences, there are all kinds of things I could say. I don't think there's a good way to organize everything, so here's a list in no particular order:

I've certainly learned a great deal from this experience, with no small amount of the learning coming from my own mistakes. Some say that's what mistakes are for, and while I certainly will make use of my mistakes for their educational value, at the same time it's still frustrating to have things not go as well as they otherwise could have. Ah, such is life.
"TIA" - We throw this phrase around a lot in EWB. If you've seen the movie Blood Diamond or been around EWB much, you might know that it stands for "This Is Africa". It basically means that things in Africa don't really work the same way we expect them to in the West. Like the solar panels and pump being stuck in the airport in customs for the entire duration of our planned stay in Otho Abwao. Like when someone asks at 2:30 pm when the driver will be back from town with our drinking water, seeing as how we are completely out and are working on the equator, and the driver says one hour, and isn't back till 5:30 pm. Also, like when a newly trained and empowered water technician offers to give you a small hen to remember him by. Or when an old "mama" grabs you genially by the wrist, and through a translator, inquires as to whether your mother is still alive, and when hearing the answer is yes, asks you to say hello for her. I'm just barely scratching the surface here. Dan could probably write a book called TIA.
Speaking of the water technicians: I was caught a little off guard by the level of engagement and understanding and quality of questions they were asking. It was an excellent surprise.
Two words: camp shower.
I think it should probably be noted that the fact that one of Kenya's official languages is English is a huge help in our work. That means we can communicate directly with the technicians, and when we do need a translator for Kiswahili or Luo, there are translators all around.
I don't think the relationship with the community as partner and customer was emphasized enough throughout this whole process. Sometimes it's too easy for designers to go off behind closed doors (or "behind" 8000 miles of physical separation) and create something, in this case a water distribution design, that fits into their ideas and expectations of the context of use. What we forget, and what I learned to a greater extent on this trip, was that people will live their lives the best way they know how, and if that means using a designed object in a way different from what the designer intended, then so be it. I don't think this particular design will be used in a way that is wildly different from the intention of the particular designers (i.e. the students of EWB), but perhaps with a greater emphasis on collaboration, the experiences and knowledge of the community members could have helped guide the design to a higher level of overall quality.
Working on a very tight schedule, in a different culture and a very different place, doing a task with which you have no previous experience as things change and go wrong, while living, working and eating with your colleagues, is exhausting. Make no joke about it.
I think all of us who traveled were looking forward to seeing the moment with our own eyes when the people of Otho Abwao first drew water from the new system. I think we were all likewise a little disappointed to have to leave before seeing that. We have to keep in mind, however, that we're not in this for the feel-good photo op. We're in this to make a difference - and that's what we've done. At the same time, I'm very happy for Dan that he had the opportunity to see that moment.
500 people in Kenya now have much easier access to clean drinking water thanks to the hard work and support of many, many people. Thanks to you all - you've done a good work.

Lastly, and I know this is turning into a novel...

It's a strange feeling to be where I am now, having co-founded this chapter of EWB at UC some four years ago, having participated as an engineer in the design of this project, having worked as President to put all of the various other pieces in place to make this project successful, and now having just returned from the implementation trip that marks the first tangible step that this organization has made to fulfill its mission of improving quality of life for those in developing communities. A part of me wants to make a neat, tidy conclusion out of it. It's done, right? Water is flowing. But to do that would be to miss the point of what EWB does, and what makes EWB different from other aid organizations. For us, the Otho Abwao water project has just begun. We have health monitoring to continue; we have school attendance records to check to see if more kids are attending. We have to support our partners there in the operations and maintenance of their system. We have to check back and see how they are using it, how it's affected their community, and how we can do things better in the future. We have to do things better in the future on new projects. There's a great deal of work left to do. I hope you'll continue with me on the journey.

up up && away

2009-03-10T19:45:00.000-04:00

Well, it's certainly been entirely way too long since the last post. So here goes the long needed updates (in no particular order):

*There are now two new execs for fundraising & related issues: Mark & Vinny.

*On the 19th of February, Dr. Eckhardt came to speak to EWB about a variety of issues. We discussed various world-wide issues, social issues, education, food consumption, religious issues, and other problems that plague various parts of the world.

*Things are going well with Tom & the Nyambogo crew. Last heard, they were working on the assessment stuff in tangent with fundraising things. The assessment is either completed or veryy close to completion at this time. They wish to have an assessment trip in June

*Phil & the Burere guys were last heard to be working with the application, which should now be completed. They are also working on assessment questions for the trip.

*Last week at the last general meeting of the quarter, Zahra led a cultural events for everyone in EWB. We played a jeopardy game, learning about the geography, cultural, and politics of Kenya. Although some groups ended up with negative points, we all learned a more about Kenya.

&& last, but definitely not least--especially because it's probably the most exciting...

The Otho Abwao travelers are leaving on Saturday! Yay for EWB's *1st* implementation trip! Wish all the travelers the best of luck as they fly to Kenya. I'm sure it will be an amazing accomplish, and a great show of all the hard work of all of the EWBers. Wahooo! The next blog will be a good recap of the trip with pictures I hope!

(=

"Wait, did YOU move my meeting time?!"

2009-01-29T20:57:00.000-05:00

Hey there! To start, I couldn't think of a title for this blog, so I decided to pick a quote of the evening (=

Calendar:
*30 January 2009: Lights out Friday, 4:30PM; more details in previous blog
*05 February 2009: next general meeting

This blog might be more random than others as lots of random things are going on right now. Due to this randomness, I shall bullet (by using *'s) this blog (=

*Last week at the general meeting, Neil gave a presentation on his international co-op in Berlin at Deutsche bahn ("german train”), where he did waste water management. He encouraged everyone to take part in an international co-op, as it is a great experience, and you will definitely walk away with so much more than when you began.

*Ely reports that lights out friday is off to a great start. In two weekends in one building, 1000 kWh of energy was saved.

*Ely and the health committee wish to assess the up-hill water distribution project as the regular water distribution implementation trip concludes this spring. The health committee is also working on the adult and children education programs. A child education program was handed to Ely, but the health committee is unsure whether this program will be the final program or if modifications are necessary.

*Charlie and his guys are putting a manual together for the water pump. He also reported that Hazel (our main contact in Otho Abwao) met with contractors last Friday and construction should have already began/should be beginning soon.

*Phil and his crew are dealing with foundation issues and building types. Currently, they are working on models, drawings, actual equations, and things of that nature to assess different building types.

*Tom's progress is still in the gathering general information stage. They are working on a water assessment plan and fundraising issues, as that is always a main concern.

Sorry for all the *'s this time, guys. Sometimes complete randomness calls for such things.

(=

1st meeting of *09

2009-01-10T16:53:00.000-05:00

On the Calendar:
*28 January 2009: Shine the Shoe. Immediately after our bball guys take on Georgetown, at approximately 9:30p, EWB will "shine the shoe," which pretty much means clean up things. This is a great and easy way to make a good sum of money, and adequate participation from EWB members is a must.
*Lights out Friday: each Friday at 4:30pm, beginning by the ice cream machine in Zimmer Auditorium.
*next meeting: 22 January 2009

Now onto the actual meeting. The first meeting of the winter quarter featured two keynote speakers. The first was Peter Kube from the EWB Cincinnati professional chapter. When he attended the EWB fall conference, he noticed a unique relationship between student EWB chapters and professional chapters, as the two seemed to both grow and thrive of each other. He wants to see a better relationship between our chapter here at UC and the Cincy professional chapter, and he also says that the professional chapter is making it a priority to help us out by sharing ideas of what works, what doesn't, and ideas about resources, fundraising, and connections. Following Peter Kube was Joe Harrell, Executive Director of Utilities at UC.

Joe Harrell discussed the Lights out Friday effort EWB is starting to undergo. He handed out a form to help EWB tally where we are turning off the lights, how many lights are per switch, and other pertinent information. As previously discussed, EWB wants the money saved from turning off these lights to go towards the installation of light sensors around the campus so that lights will only be on when the room is being occupied.

(=

Enter: 2009

2009-01-05T14:13:00.000-05:00

Well, it's certainly be quite some time since I've posted last. New Years Resolution: weekly/biweekly (= Wahoo!

Alright.. so a LOT of good things happened in EWB in *08, and *09 is already looking to beat *08. So here we go...

Things are going well in Nyambogo so far. Tom is doing a great job double dipping with both EWB and SBC. Last heard, Tom was meeting with Mike Morarity, a senior design student. He (Mike) had planned on going to (I think) Nyambogo for a quarter, but it will most likely just be spring break week. This would be a huge help to Tom and the whole Nyambogo crew here at UC.

Now onto the Burrere project in Tanzania. Before break, Phil was going to check and make sure important paper work was submitted during Christmas break. In terms of the issues we must deal with in Burrere, the walls of the school are in bad condition, the roof is also not sufficient, as it is too hot and it also leaks, and due to erosion, the foundation is not adequate.

In addition, Ely is also in charge of the *Lights out* effort on campus. Here's the 4-1-1 on that: every Friday, a group of EWBers goes around campus in the late afternoon-ishh and turns off lights. It may seem pretty..basic... but think about it: how many lights are left on in empty classrooms for the weekend or even longer? A LOT. And there's zippo point in having the lights on.. no one will even be in those spaces, and most importantly, it just wastes energy. So, before break, Ely talked to the PACE people on campus and then the facilities people, and she had to really push the sustainability issue, but the right people were interested. When lights out takes place, the EWBers are supposed to record the amount of lights in each room in an excel sheet, and the people who we submit this to (I'm not exactly sure who that is...) will know how much wattage it is. Then, they will calculate the cost of what they saved. EWB wants a portion of that savings to go to light sensors in each room so that lights are only on when the room is occupied.

2009 is off to a great start for EWB so far. More soon (=

let's start at the very beginning ;; a very good place to start..

2008-11-13T17:14:00.000-05:00

Well, I guess since this is the very first blog, I'll get all of the intro stuff out of the way.

I'm Allison, and I'm currently the secretary for Engineers Without Borders. As secretary, I'm in charge of the whole blogness. So forewarning: be prepared for some random commentary, extra letters & -ness added to random words [= But no worries, this won't be like total internet lingo. Alright.. now to more serious stuff..

EWB. Engineers Without Borders. It's a lot more than justtttt engineering--so don't freak out too much yet. There's culture, health, design, and some finance and business as well. It's a pretty all encompassing little group, even though the majority of members are engineers--pretty much all except for... less than 4 of us [=

So what do we do? Wellll.. we are currently working on a project in Otho Abwao in Kenya, where we designed a water distribution system. There is also a cultural and health program that is also a large part of that project. The implementation trip is set for the spring of 2009. It's definitely a super exciting thing for EWB, as this is our first project and getting it finallyyyyyy accomplished is going to be sooo awesome [=

There's also a lot of new things going on in EWB. A new project is just starting off in Nyambogo, Uganda... I think. I'm not exactly sure if that it spelled correctly or not.. it could even be the wrong place, but I'm pretttttyyy sure that's it [= Tom just took over for that project so that's exciting as well.

Well.. what else is going on... There's another project in Burrere, Tanzania. This project is brand new as well, and Phillip is going to take the lead in that project.

3 project simultaneously. This is prettttyyy awesome if I do say so myself [=

So I think that's just about it for the rather long intro stuff. More exciting stuff [[I'm saying "stuff" a lot in this one.. sorry yall]] coming soooon [=

<3 Allison