CECS Students Helping to Engineer a Better World
Students and Challenge partners
Forty teams of ANU students from the course 'Discovering Engineering' took part in the competition, with three teams being selected for the national round of judging. A team of four students was then invited, along with five other teams from Australian and New Zealand universities, to compete in the finals in Melbourne last December. The ANU team of Ed Kearney, Shaun Gooneratne, Tegan Williams-Blaich and Rob Withers put in an excellent performance in presenting their solar cooking solution, receiving an honourable mention and also winning first prize in the poster section.
The EWB Challenge gives first-year engineering students a good introduction into the wider issues faced by engineers, as well as giving students the opportunity to gain invaluable skills in project management, reporting and presenting. The EWB Challenge will be on again in 2008, this year focused on EWB's work in rural Cambodia, with our first year engineering students once again taking part.
At the other end of the undergraduate program two final year Engineering students presented their work at the EWB national conference, also in Melbourne, in November. Natasha Crossman and Kris Robinson were part of a pilot EWB program in 2007 that provides opportunities for undergraduates focused on challenges identified by EWB and its community partners. These are real-world problems, beyond the resources or expertise of local communities and organisations. Natasha and Kris spent their final year honours research working on a project, and their outcomes, in the form of presentations and final thesis, have been feed into EWB's programs to be applied and transferred back to the communities through volunteer placements.
Being involved in the program and presenting at the conference has also inspired Kris and Natasha to apply their engineering skills directly. Kris worked on developing and assessing designs for a solar powered water pumping system for a village in remote Nepal.
"What a great conference. Everyone had so much enthusiasm and energy. I felt like going back home, packing my bags and heading over to a country like Vietnam or Nepal to work and live in a poor community. I am proud to be an engineer, this conference really changed what I want to do as an engineer," said Kris.
He hopes to be able to apply his work directly by spending time in Nepal, possibly implementing some of his designs.
Natasha's views were similar.
"I found the EWB conference very exciting. It was really good to be able to hear about different organisations and see all the different job opportunities. There is so much out there! Also, being around like-minded and motivating people was very encouraging," she said.
Since then Natasha has arranged to spend part of her work experience in remote WA and the NT, from contacts she made at the conference.
The EWB Challenge, Undergraduate Research Program and the national conference are all annual initiatives of EWB's Education, Research and Training unit.
