Dr. Bernard Amadei conducted an interview with Drexel University after being announced the 2008 Engineer of the Year in celebration of Drexel’s National Engineers Week. He is the distinguished Founding President of Engineers Without Borders-USA , co-founder of the Engineers Without Borders-International and professor of Civil Engineering at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Dr. Amadei answered questions that reflect on worldwide issues as well as problems Engineers Without Borders faces.

Q. Everyday we hear discussion of global warming and how society needs to adapt to minimize the impact of global climate change. Are greenhouse gas emissions and global warming significant concerns for EWB-USA sponsored projects? Are there any EWB projects that have had a negative impact on global warming?

A. That’s a very open question. And I will try to answer it as best as I can. Poverty reduction is strongly related to global warming. With global warming, we especially have an impact on the environment and obviously if we have an impact on the environment, it’s next in line for poor people of the communities and it is going to make it more difficult than it is for them today. So, yes, there is a strong link between global warming and poverty reduction. Now if we can do something about global warming, that’s a different story. It’s a more global picture.

And whether global warming and Engineers Without Borders projects have impacted global warming positively or negatively, that I don’t have a definite answer. All I can give you is an example of a project that we have in Rwanda. In this project in Rwanda, we have been able to develop a water filtration system. It actually prepares and helps people in getting clean water. In the past, people had to boil the water and when they boil the water, they obviously cut the wood. Here in this example, what we did was reduce the CO2 emissions created by the burning of wood since there is no wood necessary to boil the water.  We have a water filtration system that is based on source and filtration.

Essentially, what is happening is that in today’s world, there are some people that feel guilty, especially in Western countries and they buy capital credits. And when you buy capital credits, the credit can go toward resource stations and some other places in the world. In this case, what we have arranged is for some people to buy capital credits that will go towards improving the life of that community and filtering all water.  So, yes, some ways, many of our projects, especially when we come to water filtration which uses water filter treatment instead of using wood and cutting down trees, result in the projects contributing positively to reducing the impact of climate change. 

Another one that crosses my mind right now is a project that we are starting in Afghanistan where we are introducing the concept of briquette which is made up of trash. Essentially paper or anything that they can burn without creating any negative emission.  We are beginning to train some local people to make those briquettes as a replacement for wood because there is not a lot of wood in Afghanistan.  And in fact, that technology that we did not intend to transmit has been around for quite a while. That technology of making briquettes made of trash can be used not only to clean a place and to clean a country, but can also be used to replace wood.  In one way, that’s another practice and purpose of technology that will reduce the amount of CO2 emission. 

Global warming and the nature of global warming are obviously a big problem.  I mean, nobody has a clue even how to approach it.  What we are trying to do, essentially, is to contribute to reducing the amount of CO2 emission on many of our projects.

Q. There are volunteers that spend months and years working in the Peace CORPS and other organizations throughout different countries. The Peace CORPS spend a great amount of time trying to gain an understanding of the politics and culture surrounding the towns and villages. How is it possible for students in EWB to become fully immersed in the politics and culture of a community during one or two week visits to the community while other Peace CORPS volunteers spend months and years?

A. That’s an excellent question.  What we ask our chapters is to make a five year commitment to a community. We never have one or two trips and that’s it. Students work on the project all year long.  For instance, we have a team here of students at the University of Colorado who agreed to go to Nepal with me and one of my colleagues in May and June of this year. We have been working on that project all year long.  The actual visit into the field is only the tip of the iceberg.  There’s a lot of hard work that happens in between site visits.  In fact, we work all year long on the projects, and the site visit is often the last minute implementation phase.  But there’s a lot of design and thinking that takes place before we go to the field.  But again, when a chapter takes a project, that chapter has to make a commitment to five years.  That means a  minimum of two trips per year. That makes ten trips.  Now, in many countries, we also have local Engineers Without Borders.  When we leave, it is often local members of Engineers Without Borders who will take care of projects and will take over. When we are not there, there are always some Engineers Without Borders students and professionals in the country who essentially take the project over.

Q. EWB is known for improving their communities with projects that include building water wells, providing solar ovens, etc. However, how do we ensure that the projects completed by EWB remain effective for 5-10 years when students are no longer engaged in the projects?

A. There is a five year commitment. Also, it’s important to make sure that you have others in the country who have been trained to maintain and monitor the project with the change of circumstances is important. At the same time, we have to understand that part of the engineering in the developing world is a different approach than the process of engineering in the Western world.  I think often for a lot of NGO’s and Engineers Without Borders chapters, it’s five steps forwards and two steps backwards.  It’s more often the case than not because of many non-technical issues that we don’t have any control of: quality control issues, local issues, corruption issues. So to think that all projects are going to be successful is very naïve.  Projects are successful to a certain level to the extent that it is possible for projects to be successful.

Q. What are examples of successful EWB projects that have been effective long term?

A. I can mention the project in Rwanda that I am actually working on.  This is a project where we have been in that community now for four years, and it has consisted of the installation of panels, clinics in two different communities, the installation of flowing water systems and many of the school buildings in one community. The installation of the water filtration system we have been working on for the past two years provides 5,000 liters of clean water per day. This is an example of a project that has been extremely successful.  But they have been successful because we have Engineers Without Borders in Rwanda and also three teams of Engineers Without Borders: one team from the University of Colorado at Boulder, one team from the University of Wisconsin, and one team from NASA in Houston.  Those teams rotate and we always have a continuous presence there. It is actually the most successful project. If we were to show up there once in a great while, you see, it is likely the project would fail.  We don’t do that.  We want to make sure there’s a five year commitment.

Q. Trying to find an even balance is difficult for humanitarian organizations. As you know, installing pumps in Bangladesh to reduce bacterial contamination of drinking water has led to a crisis of chronic arsenic poisoning. It is a crisis that continues even when the community is informed about which wells are contaminated. How does EWB-USA and in particular teams of students new to these sorts of projects, avoid solving one problem to create another?

A. That’s a good question.  There is no way that we could be genius enough to see the big picture.  That is not possible in my opinion.  The reasoning is that we are dealing with systems.  We are dealing with systems of systems.  And, our way of practicing engineering in our Western countries has been very linear- looking at one system at a time. We are not trained as professional engineers to look at the interaction between systems.  Somehow we are not wired in our heads to look at the interaction between this phenomenon and  that phenomenon.  Actually, the answer to your question is somewhat of an indirect answer.  In essence, as we do a project continuously, we need to ask the questions, not rely on questions that were asked years ago.  It’s pretty much learn as you go.

Q. EWB usually has limited funds. If funds are limited for EWB, how does EWB decide where they should help?

A. Well, that’s a difficult question to answer.  It’s really a long process when the community is interested in applying for a project or asking us for a project.  They send an invitation, the invitation is then reviewed by some professional engineers who make an intelligent decision whether to take that project or not.  Then, it’s really up to the chapter to raise the money—not Engineer’s Without Borders headquarters.  Some Engineers Without Borders chapters in the United States will resonate more with projects in Nepal or in Africa. Others wish to work in Central and South America.  Some parts of America are much cheaper just in terms of doing projects. It’s  just a matter of practicality.  If you want to travel to Central America, it’s about $500.00 round trip.  South America is about $1,000.00.  Africa, and the rest of the world, is about $3,000.00 round trip.  It really depends on how much money has been raised by the chapter and also what kind of an interest they have in doing one region or another.

Q. What would be a better use of funds? Would it be better to send EWB to travel and complete the work? Or, would it be better to give the funds to an NGO that’s already engaged or active in the region?

A. You know, I have been tormented by that question.  But at the same time, we are in the business here of poverty reduction, international development and engineering education. Part of the component for Engineers Without Borders is really training the new generation of engineers who are more aware of the needs of the rest of the world besides the United States.  Yes, I could give the money to someone say in Africa and that person may or may not with a limited amount of knowledge put it together.  In some cases, the money may disappear entirely.  But here, we have full control of the funding that we combine with an engineering education.  So, now, that’s the answer to your question.

Q. How do you envision sustainability within undergraduate education? What models are successful and unsuccessful?

A. Oh, those professors are tough on me!  There’s greats school that have started a new program on sustainability. Nobody has a clue of what sustainable engineering is about, but they all want to do it.  It’s a really difficult question.  I think it’s too early to answer that question.  There are some really interesting experiments that are being done right now in the United States. There are some schools in Europe also that have studied programs with sustainability and sustainable involvement in engineering.  It’s  kind of in the years to come will show some very good success stories, but also some lessons learned. So, it’s kind of early on that one.

Q. With the issue arising of poverty spreading outward in the cities of the U.S., should the work by EWB be directed nationally instead of internationally?

A. Yes, we do both actually. There are about 35 million poor people in the United States and why go around the world when we have programs in our back yard?  Many Native American communities have very high unemployment, very high drop out rate, not enough jobs, and so it makes sense to help communities in our own country.