Engineering students who wish to use their skills for community service will need to look no further.
Several students from the Pratt School of Engineering planned and implemented humanitarian projects in developing nations this summer as part of Duke's Engineers Without Borders, an official chapter of the national EWB.
For one month this summer, an EWB team of six students and David Schaad, adjunct assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, worked to build a concrete rainwater-harvesting tank at Central Buganda University in Kasaka-a village to the west of Kampala, the capital of Uganda.
"My perspective on water definitely changed because water in the [United States] is abundant, but people in Kasaka carry water in 20-liter plastic containers from a well a mile away," sophomore Patrick Ye said.
Two years ago, a group of students from EWB completed a site assessment of Kasaka. During the past school year, EWB members designed the rainwater-harvesting tank that was implemented this summer, Ye said.
"It was a good experience that broadened my horizons, and I enjoyed the hands-on engineering work," he added.
Another project in Uganda was a collaboration between Smart Home and EWB to install two solar-powered computers for a resource center of the Rural Agency for Sustainable Development, a non-profit governmental organization in Uganda.
The team also installed a digital library containing 2,000 books on DVDs in the resource center that originally housed 30 books, said sophomore William Patrick, leader for the project.
Working with EWB increased students' awareness of the ability of technology to link parts of the world, Patrick said.
"I actually hurt my knee and had to stay in the [United States], but I was able to plan my team's day-to-day operation in sub-Saharan Africa via cell phone," Patrick said. "I thought the level of globalization and technology was cool because [my team] was able to get good cell phone reception in rural Uganda."
The team also worked to introduce the Universal Nut Sheller-a machine that husks coffee beans-to owners of small coffee farms in Uganda.
Coffee is the second biggest export of Uganda, and small producers often have no way of husking coffee and are forced to sell at a lower price, Patrick said.
"By having the [Universal Nut Sheller], farmers can sell their crop three to four times more," he added.
Another team of EWB members conducted an assessment trip to Peru this summer for two weeks. The team observed the water situation in Ciudad de Dios, a village on the northern coast of Peru near the city of Trujillo, sophomore Maggie Hoff said.
Working in collaboration with the EWB chapter of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, students investigated the lack of consistent water distribution in the village.
Next summer, EWB plans to establish a reservoir to store and distribute excess water evenly for the village, Hoff said.
"What I found [in Peru] were friendly people, a beautiful country and very tight-knit communities," Hoff said. "I appreciated the feeling of having that direct connection with people, and because of this experience, I think I would like to work in environmental defense or advocacy in third-world countries."
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