Engineers Without Borders - USA
2008 Annual International Conference
March 27-30, 2008
University of Washington, Seattle
Sustainable Engineering and Global Health
Specialized Workshop Descriptions -- Saturday, March 29, 3:15-5:00 pm
Women Engineering Leaders in Traditionally Structured Societies
HUB 209A
Linda Driskill, Ph.D, Professor, Rice University, Director of the Cain Project
in Engineering and Professional Communication
Ute Cezeaux, Ph.D, Intercultural Training Association, Houston
Members of EWB-USA Rice University Chapter
Come share your experiences, your success, and your questions about how
to lead in intercultural settings!
Immediate Practical Benefits: frank exchanges on the spot about what has
worked for women who have led EWB-USA projects in developing countries
and new strategies you could try in your own projects.
Long-term outcomes: A collection of women leaders’ strategies that could be
shared with future EWB-USA leaders on the EWB-USA web site.
When working in an intercultural setting, small decisions can have a big
impact on your team’s progress and the project outcomes. Test your
leadership instincts: What would you decide in these two situations
Situation One: Your local contact person tells you when you arrive that his
wife could cook for the group for $15 US per person per day. Your team
actually has budgeted $25 per person. Do you ---
- Accept with delight and consider the oral agreement final. You’ve been worried about how your group will get food since the village is a one-hour drive from the place where you found housing for sleeping?
- Wait and see what else might be available in the village?
- Negotiate for a lower price, assuming that the offer has been made with a higher than necessary price at the beginning?
- Look for another cook who will not be associated with the contact person in order to avoid influencing power relationships in the village.
- Ask a Peace Corps volunteer who has worked in the village before to make arrangements.
- Suggest a written agreement with the prices, payment times, and menus worked out that meet your team’s dietary preferences. (a good leader takes care of her people, right?)
Situation Two: Your team is going to test water samples for bacteria in a village that has no electricity. In order to incubate the samples overnight, the team has brought a gasoline-powered generator from the United States that will come with them, stay with them, and leave with them. A man in the village offers to store the generator while you are away so that you won’t have to transport it. Is it better to
- Leave the generator there since it would just sit on the lab shelf at the university until you return?
- Negotiate to rent it to the whole village while you are away?
- Decline the offer and take the generator back since it’s university property?
Project Management: Building the Project the Community Really Wants
HUB 108
Peter Sturtevant, PE, CH2M Hill and Member, Puget Sound
Professionals Chapter
Strong technical skills and project enthusiasm are good attributes for an EWB-USA project. But it takes effective project management to get the project "in the ground" in the host community. This workshop will cover basic management elements such as identifying specific objectives, establishing do-able tasks and keeping to schedules. Clos communication with the project sponsor will be discussed. The emphasis will be on practical applications and you'll learn the common pitfalls that can derails an EWB-USA project and how to avoid them. We'll also include an open discussion of the project management experiences of workshop participants, learning from each other.
Measuring the Health Impacts of Engineering Interventions Abroad
HUB 200ABC
Moderator: Donee Alexander, PhD Candidate, Civil Engineering,
University of Washington
Annette Fitzpatrick, PhD, Research Associate Professor,
Epidemiology, University of Washington
Kelly Coleman, Executive Director and President,
Save the Rain
Anne-Marie Amies Oelschlager, MD, Assistant Professor, Obstetrics
and Gynecology, University of Washington, and Water 1st International
Sharon Smith Elsayed, Assistant Director, Education and
Communication, Human Subjects Division, University of Washington
An interesting panel will address several key issues for discussion Questions on the agenda are:
· How would one go about measuring the effects of an engineering solution on the health of a community?
· Are their tools or survey instruments that they could use or develop for use in the above ways to demonstrate the health impacts of their work?
· What should an engineer consider when working in a rural community in looking at the health of its people?
· Who should the engineers partner with in addition to the communities with which they are working?
· When should IRB be involved in these projects? Is the assessment of impact considered research if the information is shared in EWB-USA publications online?
Humanitarian Aid and Development Career Opportunities -
Do you have it what it takes?
HUB 310
Christopher Fahlin, CDM
Daniele Lantagne, PE, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Janelle Rogers, Ph.D., P.E., BCEE, PMP, Vice President, CDM/
Water and Sanitation Specialist for NGOs, USAID, and Millennium
Challenge Corporation
This workshop will be structured as a panel discussion with representatives of several sectors including private, government, non-governmental, Foreign Service and academia. The guests will present their professional history and how they moved into employment within the humanitarian and development sector, and answer questions from the audience.
The common perception by young professionals and students desiring to work in the humanitarian sector is the following:
“If you want to contribute to development and humanitarian work, you have two options:
1. Sell your soul to corporate/big business so that you can eventually can give financial resources back
OR
2. Devote your life to humanitarian or development work by sacrificing the opportunities for family and financial security as defined by our US cultural standards.”
This workshop will address these perceptions and appeal to college undergraduate and graduate students and young professionals regardless of discipline, although with a focus on engineering.
Pre College- Creative Initiatives
HUB 309
Willard Nott, co-chairman, EWB-USA Education
Committee/Pre-College Program
New developments on the EWB - Pre-College Front!!! This last year, EWB-USA in
partnership with JETS ( www.jets.org/ewb ), has implemented four design challenges
based on the needs of the United African Alliance Community Center (UAACC)
( www.uaacc.habari.co.tz). Students from the EWB Westlake High School Chapter
visited the center last summer and helped provide the basis for these challenges.
This activity has been available to pre-college schools around the county. You will
learn about the results of this program. We will also brainstorm for next year's
challenge and other potential programs/partnerships. Your input and suggestions
for the future will be most welcome.
A Holistic Model for Sustainable Engineering Projects
HUB 106B
Spencer Jourdain, Founder, The 1420 Foundation
Richard Powell, AP Capital Partners
Raul Raudales, President CEO of Solar Trade Corporation
William Moeller, Professor Emeritus, University of Massachusetts- Lowell,
Department of Engineering, and Founder, Initiative for Sustainable Infrastructure
Section I: Discussion led by Spencer Jourdain and Richard Powell
Practitioners in developing countries have found that a critical component of creating successful engineering and applied sciences in sustainable projects is implementing engineering activities within holistic sustainable models. The 1420 Foundation has developed and is utilizing a groundbreaking holistic implementation model for global engineering and applied science projects. This model will be the topic of the first section of this workshop. The 1420 Foundation was founded, and has operated upon, the idea that every project in bringing about sustainable development needs to involve interdisciplinary activities within integrated educational/learning structures. The model includes the critical elements of financing, local planning and integration of engineering, all critical factors for sustainability in projects.
Section II: This discussion is led by Raul Raudales and William Moeller
The 1420 Foundation will introduce working illustrations of their holistic “integral" model when applied to sustainable engineering development in Central America: the sustainable deployment of an original MDI engineering designed and manufactured "clean" solar energy powered dryer for newly harvested coffee and other agricultural products. The 1420 Foundation is utilizing education to assist in furthering understanding of the potential of this exciting new clean energy technology and the holistic framework for its sustainable deployment. The discussion will include both engineering technical discussions and exploration of why the interdisciplinary, holistic, integral model is proving so vital, and why the proper preparation and education of the engineering and other interdisciplinary members of the project has proven to be so critical: a plethora of compelling and sometimes amusing examples.
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