UA’s Engineers Without Borders Treks to Peru

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – While many University of Alabama students were enjoying the relaxation of a summer vacation, a group of five students and two faculty members traveled to Peru as part of UA’s Engineers Without Borders international service learning project.

This is the group’s third successful trip to Peru.

The primary objective of the July 2008 Peru trip was to install solar panels and lighting in three different villages on the Tahuayo River, a tributary of the Amazon River. The team installed six light systems in each of the three remote villages of Ayacucho, San Juan de Yanayacu, and Nuevo Hunin.

Their work is impacting the daily lives or more than 85 families. These communities welcomed the travelers and helped with project installations. The breakfast club of Rotary Tuscaloosa was the main funding source for the solar panels and village school supplies.

In addition to the service work, the team experienced the Amazonian city of Iquitos, the largest city in the world without any road leading to it, explored the Incan capital city of Cuzco, and studied the engineering marvel of Machu Picchu.

The group also trekked and camped for three days through the Sacred Valley toward Machu Picchu in the Andes, reaching an altitude of more than 15,100 feet. During the group’s exploration of Machu Picchu, members analyzed the city planning, the water sources and distribution systems, construction methods, problems, and failures, and terracing techniques for agriculture and solar warming.

Machu Picchu, which was constructed about 1460 by the Incans, was recently named one of the seven new wonders of the world.

The UA Engineers Without Border team was led by Drs. Pauline and Philip Johnson, both associate professors in civil, construction and environmental engineering, and included:

• Bettie Aruwajoye, an engineering graduate student from Northport
• Hannah Beatty, an engineering graduate student from Bethany, La.
• Will Black, a junior majoring in civil engineering from Lacey Springs, Ala.
• Cole Burkhalter, a junior majoring in civil engineering from Northport
• Kendrick Gibson, an engineering graduate student from Tuscaloosa

The graduate students are conducting research related to Sustainable Energy Systems funded by UA’s NSF-GK12 project.

In June 2006 and 2007, members of EWB spent two weeks in Iquitos, Peru, completing two service projects in the area. The group performed soil and water tests in two villages and installed a generator and a wastewater system for one village. Members also made assessments for a bird watching tower in the Allpahuayo Mishana Reserve to promote ecotourism.

EWB is planning a service trip to Vietnam to build a bridge in one of the villages in the Mekong Delta region for summer 2009.

In 1837, The University of Alabama became one of the first five universities in the nation to offer engineering classes. Today, UA’s fully accredited College of Engineering has about 2,300 students and more than 100 faculty. In the last seven years, students in the College have been named USA Today All-USA College Academic Team members, Goldwater scholars, Hollings scholars and Portz scholars.