Penn State engineers address poverty, sustainability through ESW

Courtesy of Khanjan Mehta Penn State researcher Khanjan Mehta was joined on Dec. 25, 2005, by members of the Kochia Development Group and villagers at the project site in Kenya's Central Kochia for the groundbreaking of a weather station pole as part of a Penn State ESW project to develop a hybrid power system for the village.

University Park, Pa. -- For Thomas Colledge, Penn State assistant professor of engineering design, an education in engineering means more than learning the math and science that go into technical design. It also means understanding how those efforts can be used for the betterment of the world.

So more than five years ago he worked to create Penn State's Engineers for a Sustainable World (ESW), an effort to bring Penn State undergraduates together with the idea of developing engineered solutions in developing communities around the world.

"I don't think anything brings home the educational process more than students seeing what they are doing having a positive impact on people's lives," Colledge said.

The Penn State endeavor is part of the national ESW, a nonprofit organization with a network of more than 3,000 professionals and students working to reduce poverty and improve global sustainability.

Students in ESW are able to schedule courses that consist of small, faculty-mentored teams that research and design technologies and entrepreneurial opportunities to address problems in developing communities. Those initiatives have taken place in such far-flung locations ranging from Kenya to Jamaica to the Appalachian Mountains of Kentucky.

Before any research into solutions can begin, however, ESW first must undertake what Colledge said is a critical component of the efforts -- building relationships in the host communities. Colledge explained that first a long-term relationship is established with educational institutions -- or at times NGOs, churches and foundations -- in the community. That leads to a relationship with the community.

"In order to create the environment for the engineers to do what they need to do, we work with the host university to develop an outreach program in the country, to begin developing relationships with surrounding communities," Colledge said "The entire effort is relationship-driven, not project-driven. The goal has become to create long-term partnerships with an entity on the ground in the host communities so that six months after the project is completed, the villagers have some resource when it breaks, or if something goes wrong."

Meanwhile, at Penn State, students work with faculty mentors to design and build the needed technology. Another track involved students may take is on the entrepreneurial front, where they develop business models to implement in the host communities.

"That to me is one of the most exciting things, to get students involved not only through design and research but to bring them to life through entrepreneurship and empower people in the host communities to make a living," Colledge said.

Through their work, students become immersed in the cultures of developing and poor regions.

"The cross-cultural perspective is, I think, the biggest thing any student involved in these projects can gain," said Greg Rybka, Penn State student president of ESW. "In various dialogues we're really focusing on trust and making sure everyone is being respected. We learn how to be more sensitive in our approach."

One project Rybka has been involved with involves creating an environmentally sound alternative energy source in Jamaica -- one of several projects there. While the island is heavily dependent on tourism, a large part of Jamaica's coral reef has been destroyed by fertilizer runoff from the agricultural business there. Additionally, all energy must be imported to the island, resulting in high prices for kilowatt-hours for farmers.

Led by mentor Robert Cameron, a Penn State researcher and longtime environmental scientist, a team of Penn State students has been working on a project that would feed animal waste to an anaerobic digester that produces methane to be burned in generators for heat and electricity -- thus lowering the cost of energy for farmers and eliminating waste from the water. Colledge worked to establish a relationship in Jamaica, and Cameron has traveled there with students to report on the research, visit the farm where the digester first will be deployed and meet with the Jamaican students at the University of Technology they had been working with long-distance. The project has been completed on the bench-top level and students now are working on a field application.

Cameron added that a strong business plan is integral to the success of any of these projects.

"In industry, a system will not be built unless the profitability can be demonstrated," he said. "Students must learn how to balance design with sound business."

In Segundo Montes, El Salvador, water quality is an issue, as there is virtually no treatment system that would provide a properly clean water supply -- and very little comprehension that water quality and hygiene directly impact health. An ESW team traveled there in the winter to perform a community assessment and give the people there a voice in the process. Colledge noted that a group of Penn State elementary education majors are working with teachers there to develop lessons for children on the necessity of hygiene and water quality issues. For adult education, a team of communications students is looking to work with a radio station to develop programming that will get the word out about water quality. Engineering students are developing a prototype water treatment system to be used in homes, medical clinics and schools.

"Engineers go in and rapidly see the problems are large," Colledge said. "It's not just a technical solution. It involves engaging in the sociology and understanding the history."

In Kenya, Penn State ESW is working with the University of Nairobi and the Hope Springs Foundation on several projects. One of those, led by Penn State researcher Khanjan Mehta, addresses the need for a power system in villages on the shores of Lake Victoria, extremely poor regions ravaged by hunger and AIDS where people have no means to irrigate their land.

In collaboration with students at Bowling Green State University, the University of Nairobi and Kochia Development Group, a Kenyan community-based organization, Penn State students are working to build a sustainable hybrid power system for rural communities that would provide electricity for irrigation, with an objective to build it in Kenya, using Kenyan resources and set up a profit-driven business around it to ensure economic sustainability.

Mehta said the project involves building strong relationships among all the involved parties and incorporates multidisciplinary engineering design, business development, finance and logistics, public policy studies, training and capacity building and curricular development.

Mehta has traveled to Kenya for community assessment, research and government clearances, and the design already has been completed. In the fall, the team will begin constructing a prototype for State College conditions, and then will refine the system for Kenyan conditions. Construction on site in Kenya is planned for next summer, and a business plan is being developed.

"Successful projects like these will allow and encourage the United States Agency for International Development (a government agency that provides economic and humanitarian assistance worldwide) and other large aid organizations to help countries modernize their education systems and develop business incubators," Mehta said.

Closer to home, a team working with the University of Kentucky has designed a low-cost water treatment system to overcome the challenges of topography and pollution in the area. The business plan will make the treatment system more affordable than a septic system, which also sends effluent directly into streams. The team was awarded first prize at the Appalachian Ideas Network at the University of Kentucky for its design.

Penn State's ESW, which lists about 300 members, also has worked on projects in Nigeria and Nicaragua and plans are under way for projects in Belize and Malawi. Colledge added that while maintaining quality, long-term relationships, he also would like to see ESW work in China and India.

He has also developed the International Journal for Service Learning in Engineering as a means for undergraduate students, graduate students, researchers and faculty to have recognized their engineering research, design and entrepreneurial efforts which are focused on the poor in developing communities. The journal provides faculty-reviewed articles and is available at http://www.engr.psu.edu/IJSLE online.

Additionally, a certificate program in Community Service Engineering is being developed to acknowledge students who gain proficiency in these areas, with a variety of requirements and options. Collaboration with and travel to host communities are an integral part of the program.

"My personal goal is to engage students early in their academic career here," Colledge said. "I think they come away with an appreciation of what they have and a sense of responsibility of what they should be doing."

Added Mehta, "I have realized that there is a phenomenal profit in nonprofit activities, albeit the mode of payment is a little different."

For more information on ESW, visit http://www.clubs.psu.edu/up/esw/index.html online.