Mathematical concepts… scientific principles… steel and cement. These are the fundamentals upon which the mind of an engineer is built. They work in the concrete world, creating structures that are made to be durable and practical.
A group of individuals around the country, and a small sub-entity at UNH are now taking those lines, those structures and applying them to places where modernity and convention are foreign concepts. Meet Engineers without Borders.
The national organization is parent to Students without Borders (SWB), the UNH branch comprised mainly of engineers whose goal is to create, "sustainable technical projects in disadvantaged communities nationally and internationally."
The group, who is currently working on an irrigation project in Niger, Africa and also partnering locally with the UNH Organic Garden Club, is an important part of UNH's ongoing efforts in sustainability.
Students without Borders has a similar task as the well-known group Doctors without Borders, but instead of bringing medicine and first aid equipment to third world countries, they are equipped with the tools to build.
"Participating in SWB is a challenging way to apply what one has learned in the classroom to the operations of a volunteer-based service organization," former officer Matt Polzin said.
Despite their promising work, Students without Borders often goes under the radar of those not in the engineering department. Vice-president Jeremy Blanchard, however, made it clear the group was not disappearing.
"Our group is still active and we have some upcoming projects," Blanchard said.
The current international focus of SWB is a collaboration with Rain for the Sahel and Sahara Inc. to construct a groundwater extraction and storage system that will provide irrigation to the school gardens of Niger's semi-nomadic Tuareg people. The first part of the project began with an implementation trip in January 2007.
"Success of this trip will mean that more low-tech rope and washer pumps can be replicated in other community school gardens allowing for a more sustainable and economical solution to the problems facing the citizens of this impoverished nation," Polzin said.
The Tuareg people are not the only ones who benefit from the SWB visit. The university students themselves reap the rewards of the program.
"Travel and work such as this brings an awareness, not only of environmental problems [and] issues, but of how people in other countries live," faculty advisor Dr. Jenna Jambeck said. "This awareness can change people forever, giving them a new perspective of the world."
Polzin, who was on the trip last January, is an example of the effect working with another culture can have on Americans.
"One of the more exciting experiences from the whole trip happened early one morning when myself and another person from Niger were working on an upgrade to the project together," Polzin said. "The translators weren't present at the time so we had no way of speaking to each other, but through non-verbal communication we were able to share a few laughs with each other while completing the task."
Locally, an ongoing initiative between SWB and the Organic Garden Club utilizes the organic farm on Spinney Lane to "create and construct examples of sustainable solutions." So far, the two groups have constructed a barn out of lumber from left over trees that had been cut down around campus and have installed solar panels to provide the barn with electricity.
When asked why the group was important to the university as a whole, Jambeck explained that "it gives students an opportunity to learn important lessons outside of the classroom."
Jambeck isn't talking about engineering students alone, the club extends membership to any UNH student interested.
"Although SWB is affiliated with Engineers without Borders-USA, it is not limited to engineering students," Polzin said. "Anyone who has the desire to utilize his or her talents or skills to a real, sustainability oriented, problem solving organization is highly encouraged to join."
With many opporutunities both nationally and internationally to promote the benefit of sustainable solutions, the club's future moves include a follow-up trip to Niger, a stop at Thailand for continuation of a previous "water related project" and continued local efforts with the Organic Garden Club to "enhance the sustainable agriculture practices."
"The group is always open for new project proposals," Polzin said, "whether they be large scale or small, local or abroad."
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