Organization:Engineers Without Borders

Contents

Overview

Engineers Without Borders (EWB) started in 2002 with 8 students and 1 faculty member that shared the same vision of supplying sustainable basic human needs to underveloped communities worldwide. Since the their vision has grown to over 13,000 members across 180 campuses with 250 chapters. EWB-USA strives to create transformative experiences and responsible leaders by empowering members to find community solutions for water supply, sanitation, energy, agriculture, civil works, structures and information systems.

From gathering information, designing a thorough solution and implementing that design, members of Engineers Without Borders have impacted more than 2.5 million lives.

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Purpose

• To provide community-driven development
  

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• To supply clean drinking water, adequate sanitation and reliable passage to local markets to communities in need of basic necessities
• To assess, design, implement, monitor and evaluate appropriate engineering solutions for these needs
• To create transformative experiences that enrich global perspectives while creating responsible leaders

Distinct Differences From Other Offerings

Through Engineers Without Borders, students will learn to:

• Manage international engineering projects
• Understand a different culture and how to respect it
• Escape from behind the desk and apply what was learned through this experience to real world problems
  

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• Lead or follow a project and watch the design become reality
• Develop a 5-year commitment where members must continue their work through incoming students
• Manage an organization - finances, fundraising, and relationships with faculty and donors

Impact Achieved For Students and Campus

With over 180 Universities involved in EWB-USA, the impact students have made is far reaching.

Texas A&M

Texas A&M's EWB-TAMU chapter won the EWB-USAs "Premier Chapter" recognition for going above and beyond the mission of Engineers Without Borders. Texas A&M students visited Costa Rica multiple times to gather information about the communities needs in which they would be working. While back at Texas A&M, they spent a year assessing and designing solutions for those needs with other students and professional engineers. After that year, they went back to Costa Rica to implement and fulfill their design solutions. When construction was finsihed they had built a computer education center for children and made the communities water supply drinkable, while simultaneously providing 100 households with access to water. Read more about there experience here. You can also check out EWB-TAMU's chapter on their webiste.

University of Maine

The University of Maine (EWB-UMaine) is also well known for their professional work. Not only do they have strong student involvement, EWB-UMaine also has many professional engineers within the state working closely with students. EWB-UMaine is working on a portable water project for the village of Dorgobom, Ghana, to make water more accessible and safer to drink.

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EWB-UMaine has been quite creative in funding this project. They hold many raffles, bi-annual yard sales, bowling events and even a beer and wine tasting. Perhaps their most innovative fundraiser, making jewelry from Ghanaian beads, provided students with the ability to get a closer look of where their time and effort was going. You can read more about EWB-UMaine's projects and reach out to the student team on their website.

Steps Required To Bring Resource to Campus

Chances are a chapter already exists on your campus. To find out, or connect with your chapter, check out chapters near you here. Otherwise, start your own chapter with a four-step application. Download the application here.

Step 1

• Recruit passionate members from various backgrounds
• Commit to a 5-year partnership
• Recruit a qualified professional lead mentor (generally a professor)

Step 2

• Complete a new program application. Applications are reviewed bi-annually with deadlines on January 1 and June 1 of each year.

Step 3

• Upon approval, a Chapter Agreement will be sent to your chapter. For your chapter to become official, you must sign and return the agreement to EWB-USA.

Step 4

• Provide EWB-USA with your chapter's officers and their contact information and pay the annual fee.

University Innovation Fellow schools 2014

School	EWB	Website	Email
Arizona State University at the Polytechnic Campus
Berea College
Cal Poly State University, San Luis Obispo
Clark Atlanta University
Colorado School of Mines
Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art
Fayetteville State University
Florida State University
Future Partners(Furman University)
Georgia Institute of Technology-Main Campus
Hampton University
Howard University
Jackson State University
James Madison University
Kettering University
Michigan State University
Michigan Technological University
Morehouse College
Morgan State University
North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University
North Carolina State University, Raleigh
Northern Illinois University
Norwich University
Ohio University
Prairie View A & M University
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Tennessee Technological University
Texas A & M University
Tulane University
Tuskegee University
University of Massachusetts, Lowell
Union College
University of California, Merced
University of Colorado, Denver
University of Maryland, College Park
University of Maryland, Eastern Shore
University of Massachusetts, Lowell
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
University of Oklahoma
University of Oregon
University of Portland
University of the Virgin Islands
University of Virginia
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Villanova University
Virginia State University
Washington State University
Western New England University
Xavier University Of Louisiana
Yale University

Contact Information

The best way to contact EWB-USA is through their website.