EWB Gears Up for a Busy Year

The University of Arkansas chapter of Engineers Without Borders has a lot on their proverbial plate this year! Members met last week to discuss the following year of fundraising, international projects, conferences, and local service opportunities.

About EWB
Engineers Without Borders is a non-profit organization that uses engineering skills to improve quality of life in communities around the world. Their projects range from building water towers in other countries to cleaning creek areas in Washington county. Where they see a need, they step up to help.

“EWB is the touchy, feely side of engineering, if there is one,” said EWB President Jenny Doyle.

2011-2012 Events
This year, UA EWB hopes to establish the student chapter as a long-lasting, effective group in Northwest Arkansas. Members attend two conferences each school year. The national conference will take place in November, and officers strongly encourage students to attend. There, they can take advantage of networking and engineering workshops that help the group projects to go more smoothly.

“At the international conference you get a broader perspective and a chance to see what other universities doing,” Doyle said. “Some are working with women’s organizations and other non-profit organizations."

The group has successfully completed international trips and projects in the past, but this year they plan to adopt an official EWB-USA approved international project.

“We’ll also continue work on our local projects, such as Make a Difference Day (October 29); Regional Conference is November 11-13 and the International Conference will take place in Las Vegas during Spring Break, March 22-25,” Doyle said. “We’re also looking for members to man the booth at the RSO information fair on September 30.”

Join us!
The group is looking for fundraisers, resources and contacts. Members are not required to be engineers because they are looking for all skill sets.

To become an official, national member, visit the national website to pay membership dues (discounted for students). The chapter will meet every other Wednesday at 6 p.m., locations will vary, so they will be posted on Facebook.

Next EWB trip Dec 17-23
Goals for the next international project in Belize are to build a water tower for the community, dig a well, dig trenches and run pipes, continue water quality testing and conduct health surveys. For this reason, members are encouraged to recruit nursing students and other health majors.

Residents “still have to pump their water by hand,” said International Project Chair, Ben Marts. “We eventually want to get running water into homes.”