222 Palisades Creek Drive
Richardson, TX 75080
Phone: 972-952-9393
Fax: 972-952-9435
Email: [email protected]
Project: Water Distribution System in El Tesoro, Guatemala
Marquette University
Opus College of Engineering
Participants
Students: Abby McGill, Jordan Gatsos, Claire Connelly, Jessica Calteux, Ben Craighead, Patrick O’Brien, Serena Determan, Mia Ketelhohn, Tim Lawder, Veronica Bevan, DJ Lenius, Molly Denten, Patrick Sanders, Zach Swanson, John Donahue, Colton Herbert, Evan Routhieaux, Patrick Hynes, and Naomi Voglewede
Faculty: Mark Federle, PhD, P.E., F.ASCE; Brooke Mayer, PhD., P.E.; Michael Paddock P.E., P.L.S. (Adjunct); Mary Sizemore (Adjunct); and Paige Peters
What value does a real-world project bring to students?
Allows students to see how engineering principles and theories apply to real world applications. The “messiness” of the real world means that everything doesn’t behave like the formulas say they will or should.
How do you decide what projects to work on?
The EWB chapter works with EWB-USA and EWB-Guatemala to identify projects with the most impact.
How did this project prepare students for professional practice?
The student team recruited a team of incredibly knowledgeable mentors that included professional engineers and faculty members. Every mentor had an important role to play in guiding the students through this learning experience of designing the project. In addition to the guidance of mentors, students had to pull from knowledge they gained in classes, work experiences, and self-directed research. The project team also drew on the expertise of the Guatemalan engineers and builders from EWB-Guatemala; these team members played a crucial role on the project team.
To have a successful project, the team had to assess design constraints different than those normally considered in the United States. One major constraint was material type and availability. In rural Guatemala, there is no easy access to large machinery, and there is limited access to some of the common construction materials in the United States. Due to this, materials had to be selected that would keep the project cost low, be readily available in rural Guatemala, and be familiar to the Guatemalans that would build and maintain the system. To accomplish this, the design team worked closely with the surveyors whose knowledge helped to inform the design and the Guatemalan builders who have decades of experience in building and maintaining similar water systems.
What advice do you have for other programs wanting to add similar collaborative projects to their curriculum?
The student team recruited a team of incredibly knowledgeable mentors that included professional engineers and faculty members. Every mentor had an important role to play in guiding the students through this learning experience of designing the project.
