Engineering Without Borders

In 2002, when Jordan Spatz was an aerospace engineering student at the University of Colorado, he heard about a campus project bringing solar-powered lights to a hospital's emergency and operating room in Rwanda. His friend was working on the project and it sounded interesting, so Spatz helped with design and fundraising. The hospital's electrical power was unreliable and often failed and the working surgeon had only one backup for lighting during operations: a battery-powered headlamp.

Spatz describes what happened after the solar panels were installed. "The next day they had a power outage. The doctor was doing surgery on a gentleman's arm and he was able to use our lights, like right away." He has been dedicated to the group ever since. "That's what got me hooked," Spatz says. "A small group of people can definitely make a huge difference in a person's life."

A quiet revolution is changing the professional fields that students are striving to join, and the way those professions select their eager new members. Coupled with accomplished professionals, students at colleges and universities around the world are signing up for projects that allow them to practice what they learn in class while helping some of the world's most underdeveloped communities.

Today, Spatz is a Ph.D. candidate at MIT and is leading an Engineers Without Borders project in northwest Thailand. He believes that it was his work with EWB that helped him get into the graduate program of his choice. The projects gave him direct skills in leadership, fundraising, networking, and sustainable engineering.

"I was applying for grad school, and when I went for my interviews at MIT and Harvard they didn't really want to talk to me about specifics about any technical subjects. Because everyone is smart, right? They really wanted to talk to me about the Thailand project." Spatz explains.

Groups like EWB focus on using technology to improve the lives of the world's poorest while allowing students to hone their skills. From teaching computer skills to installing solar power systems, these organizations are uniquely able to offer technological solutions that were not available a decade ago.

Often using what we consider low tech solutions, these projects in developing countries mean leaps forward in quality of life for local residents. Students and student organizations working with these groups perform essential business functions in fulfilling their missions. Through this work, students get real-world experience in leadership, project design, management, communications, and fundraising.

Bart Forman, a 4th year Ph.D. candidate at the UCLA student chapter of EWB, believes that students can gain skills that they can translate directly into the workplace as well as a greater appreciation for what they have here in the United States. "We offer real-world experience in a cultural exchange," he says. "A lot of students are very bright and capable, but they only have text-book experience. And what you learn in the text book is not always exactly how it works out in the real world… They get to see what it's like to procure materials, what the project is like in terms of logistics, and what sort of project management and communication is necessary to see the project through. It's one thing to come up with a design, but it's a whole different set of skills necessary to implement the design."

"A lot of the direct skills that I had to use for my project I wouldn't have otherwise learned at all," Spatz says. "Like civil engineering, architecture, fundraising, and a lot of connections that I've made."

Forman is leading a water project for a farming community in Guatemala, but the group works with many different student organizations. "We have recently been approached by a lot of different student organizations," Forman says, "They have good ideas and want to see good things happen, but they often don't have the technical skills necessary to complete the project." These partnership projects include work with business, pre-med and nursing schools.

Fullerton College students can obtain career-related training through groups like EWB and through the school's Community Service Learning Department in the Office of Special Programs.

Service Learning involves working with a local non-profit organization to add credits to a student transcript. These programs can be valuable for providing early field work credit for teaching, sociology, social working, public relations, law enforcement, and political science students. This work can also earn students a National Service Award, which is granted by the office of the President.

Non-profit organizations and professional associations are using small-scale, socially oriented projects to quietly shift the paradigms of entire professions toward sustainable development. EWB has chapters for professionals and students, and uses marketing, medical, business, language, and-of course-engineering students.

The UCLA and CSULB student chapters of EWB are always looking for partnerships with students and new student chapters that can help out. "We'll take all the help we can," Forman says, "Just so long as they're bright, they're motivated, and willing to work pro bono."

Mukul Khairatkar, president of the CSULB student chapter, is looking for projects that would help educate and bring medical assistance to villagers in 3rd world rural areas. They plan to partner with UC San Diego and UC Irvine in upcoming projects. They are looking for art students, communications and English majors, biomedical and nursing students, as well as mechanical, electrical, and computer engineers.

"It's an eye-opening experience for a lot of our engineers, when they come back with real-world experience, a greater appreciation, and also enhanced cultural background and exchange through interaction with local populations." Forman says. "It's nice to see your work at the end of the day, to see smiles on the people's faces that get these things. It's very rewarding." T