Engineers Without Borders Gears up for Thailand Trip
by Sarah Arscott ’09
Engineers Without Borders is an international, non-profit organization that partners with communities worldwide to improve their quality of life. Utilizing the skills of both professional and student engineers, EWB designs and builds sustainable engineering projects in developing regions. The Villanova University chapter of EWB has been working over the past year and a half specifically on a project in a remote village in Thailand.
After a successful first trip in summer 2007, Villanova University’s Engineers Without Borders is set to go on a second trip to Thailand this May. A group of eleven Villanova students and two professionals, including faculty advisor, Bridget Wadzuk, were selected to go on the trip. The team plans on traveling to the same small village visited in 2007. It is many miles away from a fresh water source. The EWB team will install a water piping and treatment system with hopes of bettering the quality of life for the villagers. Students Ean Mulligan ’09, Eric Baker ’10, John Gunn ’10 and faculty members Jordan Ermilio traveled on the first visit to Thailand. In addition, many other members are helping in the design and planning process. Project manager Ean Mulligan was able to plan for this year’s trip during the first visit. Now knowing more about both the land and the lifestyle of the villagers themselves, Ean and his process team were better able to design the currently approved pump system.
Recently Engineers Without Borders decided to get involved with a huge on-campus 5K event called Walk for Water. Due to the similarities in goals of both EWB and a group called Water for Waslala, the two organizations teamed up to produce one big fund-raising event. Due to the success of the walk, a large portion of the proceeds went to EWB and the upcoming Thailand trip.
The current Thailand trip design was approved in March 2008. Now all that is left for the team is finalizing travel arrangements and materials for construction.
To learn more about EWB, please see the Web site: