Helping benefit the health and well being of others is what the Engineers Without Borders, or the EWB, is about. Nick Sayers, a junior mechanical engineering major, is a member of the EWB organization. Sayers was also the main host of the recent engineers game night. He states, “we like to use resources to help those less fortunate in other countries.”
The EWB is not exclusive to the UMBC campus. “There are lots of EWB organizations all around the United States,” says Sayers.
The main mission of the UMBC chapter is to improve the quality of water in other countries. This includes water for drinking, washing and other resourceful purposes. “The EWB organizations around the world consist of different engineering focuses, but ours is specifically focused on water,” said Sayers.
Members of the EWB organization are a small community, persistent to better their environment in some way in order to help the lives of others. They hold meetings in the Information Technology/Engineering building during free hour for students or volunteers that would be willing to lend a hand for their cause, and the event that they held was also not exclusive to just their organization.
Sayers welcomed attendees to the event and invited them to play card games like Uno, allowing members of EWB and non-affiliated attendees to mingle and start a conversation with each other. Students were encouraged to volunteer to be a member of the organization. Becoming a volunteer does not have any major requirements. A student can volunteer to join the organization regardless of their course of study.
In addition to this, attendees do not have to be a major in engineering to join because the mission required many other concentrations and specialties as well. The EWB organization at UMBC is open to partner with other communities as well in order to make it to their goal more efficiently.
Members of the organization are even making an attempt to help the less fortunate communities through fundraising. Through a fundraising campaign, money that has been earned and raised will be contributed towards the water quality of the communities as well.
Problems with water quality are more prevalent to this day. Students that volunteer will take part in collecting the water that a given community has and inspect it in terms of amount, maintenance and water piping. These precautions are performed to ensure that a given water supply in a community is safe.
Not only does the participation of this organization allow for the testing of high water quality, it also provides members the opportunity to travel abroad and fix problems across the globe.
“Making sure that people get the water they need to be provided, these are some of our engineering solutions in the EWB,” stated Sayers.
