Engineering a Better Tomorrow: EWB-Guatemala’s Impact on El Pericón Chuacorral Sector II
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May 2024 - In the heart of UW-Madison, a group of passionate individuals makes a difference in communities far beyond Wisconsin. The UW-Madison chapter of Engineers Without Borders (EWB) aims to build a better world by teaching engineering students international responsibility. At the forefront of their initiatives is the Guatemala Project, particularly the El Pericón Chuacorral Sector II water project.
Aiden Gort and Mia LaRico, project managers of EWB-Guatemala, explain the central mission of EWB. “We embody the Wisconsin Idea by providing engineering and social services in Wisconsin and in underserved communities around the globe,” they explain. “Education should influence people’s lives beyond the classroom.” The key belief guiding EWB’s efforts is that true partnership with host communities coupled with active community participation is essential for success. |
EWB brings hands-on design experience with Ugandan project
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Feb 2023 - The Uganda group has designed two schoolhouses for Bunangwe Buyobo, a rural community in eastern Uganda. Anna Janicek, a senior studying materials science and engineering and a project manager for the Uganda team, says the students are partnering with the Good Shepherd Community Development Association to see the project through. The project has been in the works since 2019, and after several delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic, construction was expected to finally begin in January 2023.
“Right now, the community has a school,” Janicek says. “It’s a wooden structure with a sheet metal roof. In the past, they’ve had problems with termites and the roof has blown off. So we want to help them build a more complete, secure structure that’s completely enclosed.” |
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Engineers Without Borders Returns to Puerto Rico
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June 2022 - In the wake of Hurricane Maria — the Category 5 hurricane that devastated much of the northeastern Caribbean in 2017 — the remote community of Benítez, Puerto Rico remained heavily isolated. In addition to ongoing mudslides, residents went seven months without electricity and two months without water in the aftermath of the storm.
To prepare the community for potential natural disasters in the future, the team’s Community Resilience Center project implements a 15kW solar photovoltaic (PV) microgrid system to provide power for refrigerators, medical machines, and phone charging stations during extended power outages. |
Engineers Without Borders Delivers Microgrid for Children’s Home in Puerto Rico
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October 2021 - A collaborative project to provide energy resiliency has been completed at a Puerto Rican home for neglected children.The three-year effort includes work and equipment from ASCO Power Technologies, Affiliated Engineers, Engineers without Borders, and Schneider Electric. The microgrid delivers energy security for the Hogar Albergue para Niños Jesús de Nazaret children’s home in Puerto Rico.
The project components include 96 Hanwha Q+ 340-watt solar photovoltaic panels and four Blue Ion 2.0 50-Vdc lithium-ion batteries, rated at 16 kWh each. Schneider provided two 6.8-kW and two 5.5-kW Context XW+ inverters. |
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Documentary chronicles engineers’ partnership in Guatemalan quest for water
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April 2021 - In fall 2020, members of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Engineers Without Borders (EWB-UW) student chapter concluded a project that brought clean water to 130 homes in the rural community of Zapote, Guatemala; the largest water distribution project ever undertaken by an EWB student chapter.
Now, a full-length documentary film, El Proyecto La Dignidad, chronicles the UW-Madison student chapter’s strong and equal partnership with residents of Zapote as they together strove to solve the community’s water challenges. |
Engineers Without Borders brings water and solar to people in need
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April 2021 - The people of Zapote, Guatemala, now have reliable access to clean water thanks to the work of the University of Wisconsin-Madison student chapter of Engineers Without Borders (EWB). The project concluded in fall 2020 and is the culmination of an effort that started in 2017. More than 100 UW-Madison students and townspeople created a water system in Zapote with about 130 house connections and two distribution tanks.
In addition to its work in Guatemala, the UW-Madison EWB chapter concluded work on a project at the Hogar Albergue de Niños Jesús de Nazaret children’s shelter in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico. It’s the chapter’s first project in Puerto Rico after establishing connections on the island in 2018. |
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Engineers Without Borders needs help, hosts virtual fundraising event
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April 2021 - "Typically we host an in-person annual fundraising banquet, but due to the ongoing pandemic, we are hosting a virtual fundraising campaign, EWBeUnited. Our goal this year is to raise $10,000 to support our four projects, ranging from providing clean water to generating solar energy," said Ryan Docter, President of the EWB UW-Madison Chapter. "As a non-profit and student organization, we rely on the generosity from the local community to continue to advocate for communities in need abroad."
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CALCULATED CHANGE - MAPC MEMBER CREATES PODCAST THAT INSPIRES
MICHAEL PADDOCK'S BRIDGING BARRIERS
Engineers Without Borders and Blue Planet Energy Bring Reliable and Affordable Electricity to Children’s Shelter in Puerto Rico
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Oct. 2020 - Rebuilding Puerto Rico after the devastation of Hurricane Maria in 2017 has remained a key initiative of Blue Planet Energy, and supplying reliable power has taken shape in many forms: including job training, disaster relief partnerships and, most recently, equipment donations.
On a mission to provide relief to those who have the greatest need, EWB-UW Puerto Rico collected donations to install a solar-plus-battery system at Hogar Albergue para Niños Jesús de Nazaret, a children's shelter in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico. |
Grad student helping organize PPE production, COVID response in developing countries
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July 2020 - Rebecca Alcock is playing a leading role in a large-scale, United Nations-backed effort to mobilize production of personal protective equipment (PPE) and more in developing countries around the world amid the COVID-19 pandemic. She is leading a small team that’s consulting with government officials, healthcare systems leaders and local manufacturers in developing countries around the world on design and production of PPE like face shields and masks, medical equipment such as ventilators, and water, sanitation and hygiene infrastructure.
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Engineering With Heart: It Started With a Pinky Swear
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June 2020 - Mike Paddock, Jess Thayer and Rebecca Alcock lead a team to manufacture personal protective equipment in Guatemala during the COVID-19 response. It is a joint program between Engineers Without Borders USA and the Guatemala Rotary. In only five weeks, the team of a dozen biomedical volunteers developed, prototyped, approved, produced and shipped hundreds of thousands of PPE to the hospitals before the anticipated peak of caseloads arrived.
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Making a difference: Madison makers build safety equipment for frontlines of COVID-19 fight
Engineers Without Borders Travel to Puerto Rico 2020
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March 2020 - In January 2020, MAPC members Alberto Cordero and Amanda Pustis traveled to Puerto Rico with the University of Wisconsin (UW) EWB students. This was the second assessment trip to Puerto Rico for the organization and project, and while they were on the island, they experienced the start of the earthquake swarms that have been shaking the island for weeks.
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Water Supply and Distribution in Guatemala: We Have the Responsibility to Impact Others (TEDx Talk)
ACS Attends EWB UW-Madison 2019 Banquet
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April 2019 - MAPC member Steve Klick and his colleagues, Matt Thiel (MAPC member), Daryl Rothamer, Randy Rozema and Bob Roth, represented ACS at the 2019 EWB annual fundraising banquet which was held at the UW-Madison Memorial Union. They listened to the amazing work that the EWB students accomplished in the last year and their future goals.
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Engineers Without Borders Visits Puerto Rico
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March 2019 - The UW-Madison EWB chapter, with the help of MAPC mentors, is designing a photovoltaic solar array for a children’s shelter, Hogar Albergue para Niños Jesús de Nazaret, in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico. This shelter offers housing, food, transportation, education, social, and psychological services to children up to the age of 11, who are victims of abuse or neglect.
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