Civil Engineering Students Launch Volunteer Chapter

Submitted by Jessica
Phone: (907) 474-7330
08/25/03

UAF has a new student chapter, thanks to senior Civil Engineering students Peter Brown and Andrew Eklund the 13th chapter of Engineers without Frontiers (EWF) will be looking for new members this fall.

The program will be housed in the Civil and Environmental Engineering department under the guidance of Environmental Engineering Assistant Professor Paras Trivedi.

EWF-USA grew from the Engineers without Borders, a Canadian volunteer organization, which was started in 1999 by a group of engineering students at the University of Waterloo. EWB and EWF are based on the same principles as the Nobel-prize winning Doctors without Borders aid program, except rather than Doctors, engineers and interns form partnerships with community members in developing countries, where they work together to identify and solve technology-based challenges. EWF-USA has more than 300 members at twenty universities across the United States.

EWF encourages students to work on interdisplinary projects with a multitude of different departments. EWF presents undergraduate and graduate students with vast opportunities in furthering research and civic duties. EWF is ideal for students who want to further their technical knowledge with practical application. Assistant Professor Trivedi looks forward to his duties as faculty advisor, "what I would really like to see come out of this program is for students to grow beyond academia."

Brown and Eklund hope to attend EWF-USA first national conference, "Bridging the Divide" to be hosted by Cornell University, in Ithaca, NY, from September 17-20.

"Ideally this conference will teach us the secrets of running a successful chapter." said Peter Brown., "which will enable us to make the UAF chapter one that participates at the same level as chapters like M.I.T and Cornell."

For more information on Engineers without Frontiers please visit the main website www.EWF-USA.org or contact Peter or Andrew at 474-5054.