Mississippi State in spotlight as Engineers Without Borders-USA receives award
October 15, 2014
From L-R: Katie Bryant, Dennis Truax, Laura Wilson, Matthew Blair, Sally White, Kristen Sauceda, and Liz Rayfield
STARKVILLE, Miss. – The Mississippi State chapter of Engineers Without Borders captured national attention when its parent organization earned an award for its humanitarian work across the globe.
Engineers Without Borders-USA received the Engineering and Construction Contracting Association’s 2014 Spirit Award at a ceremony in Orlando, Florida. The presentation singled out the Mississippi State chapter citing its water project in Zambia as an example of work with far-reaching effects but fraught with logistical challenges.
Chapter president Laura Wilson was on hand to represent Mississippi State. She knew the Zambia project had helped secure Engineers Without Borders-USA’s award, but said she was surprised when the Bulldog team earned special recognition and she was asked to speak about her experiences.
“Everyone at the conference was very interested in our project and the organization in general,” Wilson said. “It was great to share our story and raise awareness about the problems plaguing so many countries around the world. EWB has really changed my life and I was glad to be able to show why the organization deserved this award.”
Wilson, a junior in civil engineering, was one of six Mississippi State students who spent two weeks in Zambia completing the first of eight wells they plan to install in the Simwatachela Chiefdom. This was the second year of the chapter’s five-year project, which will bring potable water to thousands of people whose current water supply consists largely of polluted, stagnant pools.
“This project has the potential to improve the lives of thousands of people living in villages throughout Simwatachela,” explained Dennis Truax, the MSU chapter’s adviser. “But installing wells in rural, sub-Saharan Africa is not as easy as drilling them in Mississippi.”
The team experienced many of the difficulties associated with working in remote African villages during this summer’s trip, which included seven days of living in tents in a village with no power, sanitation or running water. In addition to the difficulties the students experienced adjusting to life in Simwatachela, they also had to learn to think on their feet and overcome technical obstacles that arise on remote worksites: flat tires, broken drill rigs, impassable roads, and missing tools.
“If there’s one thing that this project teaches our students, it’s how to be engineers who think on their feet and can solve problems using just the resources on hand,” Truax said. “It’s a kind of in-the-world experience that most students don’t get, and it’s just one of the things that makes this such a great opportunity for personal growth for our students.”
Along with Truax, head of the civil and environmental engineering department, and Bill Mitchell, an MSU alumnus and the chapter’s technical adviser, the students who traveled to Zambia this summer are:
CLEAR SPRING, Md. – Matthew Blair, a senior in civil engineering
COFFEEVILLE, Ala. – Sally White, a junior in microbiology and vice president of the Mississippi State chapter
DIAMONDHEAD, Miss. – Laura Wilson, a junior in civil engineering and Mississippi State’s Engineers Without Borders president
JACKSON, Miss. – Mary “Katie” Bryant, a senior in civil engineering
STARKVILLE, Miss. – Kristen Sauceda, a senior in civil engineering
VICKSBURG, Miss. — Elizabeth “Liz” Rayfield, a senior in chemical engineering
The Mississippi State chapter of Engineers Without Borders was formed in 2011. It is open to all majors and has more than 100 members. The Simwatachela water project, the first for MSU’s chapter, will be completed in 2017. Engineers Without Borders-USA consists of 14,700 people in 286 chapters and it includes 684 community development projects in 39 countries.
For more information about Engineers Without Borders-USA, visit www.ewb-usa.org.
Additional information about the Engineering and Construction Contracting Association can be found at www.ecc-conference.org.
By: Susan Lassetter