Engineers Without Borders makes a difference during spring break

Most people would not say their favorite moment this spring break was "digging in a sewer," but for Jack Bacon, Ph.D., it was. Or, more accurately, it was when he found what was obscuring the sewer line, making a building in Kenya habitable again after almost 25 years.
 
Bacon is a NASA Orbital Debris Program Office team member and part of the South Houston Professional/Johnson Space Center chapter of Engineers Without Borders (EWB-JSC), a nonprofit humanitarian organization that partners with developing communities worldwide to help improve their quality of life by designing and implementing engineering solutions.
 
This spring break, EWB-JSC traveled to Kenya to build systems for running water and electricity, as well to Thailand to implement a water solution for the dry season. This was the first time EWB-JSC has had two thriving community partnerships at once.
 
While the groups' trips were successful, it was not always easy building.
 
The team in Kenya first arrived at their site after more than 24 hours of traveling, took one look at their working area—and then spent the night redesigning their plans before building the next day.
 
In Thailand, building materials changed from wood to bamboo, and leveling was added to the workload.
 
"You just work around it and do what you can," said Mana Vautier, a systems integration analyst for the International Space Station Program Office and one of the members of the Kenya team.
 
It was the work the teams did before their expeditions that helped them adapt.
 
"You actually come up with several different ideas for the design to solve their [the community’s] problems and break [the design] down into a number of criteria," said Tom Bryan, a software engineer working for Cimarron on the Training Systems 21 project and a member of the Thailand expedition. "Say, technical feasibility, community acceptable, financial sustainability …"
 
EWB-JSC also made sure to develop and hone the skills they needed beforehand. During "work days" before the trips, group members got together to practice everything from pipe threading to using ferrocement, a building process where cement is sculpted over a rebar and metal mesh framework.
 
While the on-site work was hard, the experience was successful on all fronts.
 
"To see the environment [the community] was living in," Vautier said, "and then to have that realization that what you're doing is potentially going to make a very real difference, not just in their current situation, but potentially frame a new direction for their entire life ..."
 
"Being involved in EWB takes me out of myself—takes me into the lives of other people," said EWB-JSC President James Mireles, also a business and data analyst for Wyle. He was part of the Kenya expedition.

In Kenya, the team received names in the local language, Kimeru, and in Thailand there was a community-wide potluck dinner.
 
The teams will return to the same communities after the rainy season ends. The relationships between EWB-JSC and these communities are at least a five-year commitment, helping to ensure that the implemented designs are working properly and that the community has improved because of them.
 
EWB-JSC has at least three trips planned to Kenya and Thailand in the coming months, and additional work will be done at JSC in a joint biogas-development project with the Clear Creek Independent School District Longhorn Project. (To keep up with the progress, follow EWB-JSC on Facebook and their official website.)
 
If you're interested in joining EWB-JSC, contact Mireles or stop by the Gilruth on the first Wednesday of each month from noon to 1 p.m. You do not need to be a JSC team member or travel to be a part of EWB-JSC.


Megan Krause
NASA Johnson Space Center