Get Involved
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So, you want to get involved in EWB Bristol? Or just find out more!
There are a number of ways that you can get involved with Engineers Without Borders here at the Bristol branch, each with a different level of responsibility and commitment.
If you are a student:
1. Become a member of our society:
- Receive weekly emails informing you of all the talks and events going on in Bristol and across the UK.
- Find out about and go on training courses such as the Water Weekend and the Clare Farm course.
- Apply to the EWB UK placements scheme.
- Apply for EWB UK bursaries for research projects, conferences and placements.
- Above all, join a vibrant community, have fun and put your degree to a great cause!.
All this and more for just £2 for your entire university career! Sign up at FRESH or, if you miss us there, come to one of our events throughout the term and ask a committee member.
2. Join the committee:
- We always welcome new people onto the committee. Committee Meetings are every Monday lunchtime from 1-2pm in the Vice Chancellor's Room, Queen's Building.
- This coming year there is lots to do including running the highly successful SHA - LA: a charity band night at Thekla aimed at raising money to set up various projects in the developing world and organise training events for students in the UK.
- When joining the committee you can get involved as much or as little as you want. From applying for positions at our annual AGM in November to helping out the Outreach and Training Teams when you have time, there is something for everyone.
3. Join a team working on a real engineering project with our partner University, CUJAE in Havana Cuba, or through the EWB-UK Research Scheme.
We have a number of projects that we are working on in collaboration with our partners at CUJAE. Previous projects include:
The Havana Water Project:
The problem was that Havana has a water network that has been under funded for many years. As a result pipes were not mapped and up to 50% of the water pumped from source did not reach the consumers taps. The project was entered into the Mondialogo Engineering Award 2005 and was one of the winning projects: Optimisation and Control of Cuban Urban Electric and Water Supplies. The project continued and gained support from the Vice Chancellor and Registrar of Bristol University who funded 4 team members to visit the University in Havana over the summer of 2006. The trip was aimed at gathering information and building relationships.Rice Husk Management:
In Cuba rice is part of the staple diet. Researchers and students from CUJAE looked at the bi-product of rice production and looked for an economically viable solution. The found by burning the rice husk under certain conditions the ash produced could be added to cement to improve its properties. The burning of the rice husk could also provide a source of power. This project was entered into the Mondialogo Engineering Award 2007 and was one of the winning projects. A member of the Bristol team is accompanying a student from CUJAE out to the award synopsis in Mumbi, India in December 2007 where they will meet other project winners and collect the prize money that will be used as seed funding for the project.
CUJAE has presented a number of other projects that they would like to collaborate with. The aim is to enter some of the projects into the Mondialogo Engineering Award 2009. Projects include:
Sustainable development for a semi-urban farming cooperative in Havana This project integrates engineers and architects in the design of a plan for sustainable development of a semi-urban farming cooperative in Havana. We have looked at sustainable housing solutions using techniques developed at CUJAE to generate building materials with the resources in the cooperative, such as stabilised soil bricks. Further CUJAE are intending to implement the use of renewable energy sources such as bio-digesters, wind-pumps, and solar thermal applications solving the energy demand of the cooperative and the pollution problems to the water table from animal excreta. Finally CUJAE are proposing the design of a sustainable multi-purpose kitchen to serve as the base of an agro-industry for this community.
Adapting already built buildings to assimilate the technologies for using renewable energy resources, saving energy and water:This project is part of an initiative to modernize the Center for the Study of Renewable Energy Technologies (CETER) at CUJAE. It seeks to generate an experimental, didactic and demonstrative facility of what can be done in Cuba and other developing countries (especially in tropical climates) in the direction of using more sustainably our existing infrastructure. CUJAE are studying the use of urban anaerobic digesters, hybrid solar-micro turbine systems, LED lighting and off-course all the passive ventilation and lighting techniques to create more comfortable and economic environments through the incremental improvement of our existing facilities.
Sustainable Building Design for Economy Housing: Here architects, engineering academics and a government contractor are working on the design of a sustainable apartment building, providing a demonstrative project for future experiences in the country. This is very relevant as the housing and construction industry in Cuba is very centrally planned. Here CUJAE are looking at passive lighting and ventilation techniques (including appropriate window design and solar protection), rain water harvesting, grey-water treatment, and LED lighting, to create more overall economic and comfortable housing at affordable costs.
Solar Concentration Technology for Rural Communities in Developing Countries: CUJAE are working with a Canadian initiative to promote solar concentration technology that is appropriate to rural developing countries applications. They are working on solar toasters, cookers and pasteurizers amongst other applications that can be built with common materials and which construction knowledge can be easily transferred between people. The idea is help alleviate the demand for high grade heat energy in the places were solar radiation is sufficient to consider concentration technology and option.
All of the above projects are looking for students to get involved. If you are a 3rd or 4th year then please ask your tutor if they are interested in taking on one aspect of the above projects. We are also looking for 1st and 2nd year students to support the 3rd and 4th years who are completing part of the project as their dissertations.
Other projects, such as last year's designing a boat winch for a health clinic in rural Nigeria, are open to members through the EWB UK Research Scheme.
If you have left University and would like to get involved then please look at joining our Professional Network.
If you have any queries about the information above or would like to get more involved then please contact us here.