Engineering lecture stresses aiding the less fortunate

Founding President of Engineers Without Borders Bernard Amadei spoke to student engineers on Friday about the challenges, opportunities and importance of utilizing an engineering education to ameliorate the lives of disadvantaged people around the world.

"My job as a professor is to develop a new generation of engineers," said Amadei. "What we are looking for is a new group of engineers that are interested in sustainable development, social and economic change, capacity building and appropriate technology."

In his speech Amadei revealed staggering statistics: 1.2 billion people lack clean water, 1.6 billion have no access to electricity, 2.4 billion are at risk of getting malaria and 29,000 children die of hunger every day.

"With all of the innovations in all the corners of the world, people still don't have access to basic needs," Amadei said. "As engineers it is no longer an option for us to address those needs, it is an obligation."

Amadei attempted to inspire the students to work toward making improvements in the world by evoking a sense of urgency.

"Are we dealing with emergencies? You bet," Amadei said. "Earthquakes are not going to stop. Climate change is not going to stop. This is a globalized world. You need to think across disciplines, you need to think across borders."

It was a little girl from the dense forests of Belize that struck Amadei and inspired him to help communities like hers around the world.

"Her job was to carry water from the river to the village, and as a result that little girl could not go to school," Amadei said.

The solution seemed simple: build a pump in this region that allowed these girls the opportunity to go to school instead of continuously carry water to the village.

The seemingly elementary task soon got muddied and complicated. There was no electricity, and getting to the village was a difficult task even without large amounts of basic supplies.

However, the pump, which relies on the local energy of moving water, was installed and that little girl now goes to school.

"I was accustomed to big projects," Amadei said. "It was somewhat of an epiphany that I could spend $14,000 and do something that can help people. It was a mid-life awakening, not a mid-life crisis."

Encouraged by the excitement of his students, he took on more projects to demonstrate the humanistic practicality of engineering.

"It's engineering that puts human beings at the center of the problem," Amadei said.

Eight years, 12,000 members and 295 chapters later, Engineers Without Borders now has 365 projects being undertaken by students and facilitators in 48 countries.

There are members in Yanamono erecting tele-education technology that allows indigenous people to speak to a doctor without traveling 50 kilometers to the hospital.

In Muramba, Rwandan members are installing solar panels for hospitals. The local workers had never delivered babies at night in the light before. The project improved sanitation and newborn care.

"You start with natural capital, human capital," Amadei said. "You start with the resources that are available. It's a technology with a human face. Ultimately it's empowering a person so they can solve their problems in their own way with their own talents."

"It's really important to help communities develop stronger and more sustainable economies," said 1st-semester environmental engineering major and Engineers Without Borders member, David Levitz. "Engineering students are a great resource to help promote that."

Amadei is also involved with the Mortenson Center of Engineering for Developing Communities at the University of Colorado. The center revolves around Amadei's belief that educational systems must stress the idea that helping others in times of emergency is imperative to avoid exploitation and promote the survival of entire populations.

"I see engineers as social entrepreneurs, community builders and peace makers," Amadei said.

Amadei is a professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder and winner of the Heinz award for his contribution to environmental engineering. UConn engineering students of all years were in attendance, as well as some engineering students visiting from the University of New Haven.

"There's a big world out there, beyond the comforts that you are familiar with," Amadei said. "This is a call to action to make a difference not only in your region, but in the global community."