February 9, 2010 News

You don’t need a degree to be an engineer

Engineers Without Borders: New mandate, new mission, everyone’s invited to pitch in

by Clare Raspopow

Members of Engineers Without Borders in front of a simulated picturesque background. PHOTO CAROLIN CHAN

The Engineers Without Borders workshop on Feb. 2 had little to do with engineering in the classical sense. In fact, the entire organization has little to do with engineering these days, according to Concordia chapter president Rob Austen.

“It’s engineering in the broader sense of the word,” he explained.

The small group of people who came to find out more about EWB’s agricultural efforts in Burkina Faso spent the hour-long meeting learning about the administrative and social problems that keep the largely agrarian country impoverished.

The workshop was just a small part of the massive educational outreach program EWB has undertaken to teach everyone from high school students to university administrators about the complex problems people in developing nations face. Everything from the effects of introducing genetically modified seeds to the difficulties of allocating resources in a country that doesn’t know who needs what.

The holistic and analytical approach fits the new mandate the organization recently adopted. In January 2009, the EWB’s Board of Governors literally burned its old mandate—“simple technology, dramatic results”—in front of 800 delegates at the national conference in Mississauga, Ont.

During the following six months, members from chapters all across Canada provided input as to what direction the EWB should take in the future.

“We realized that we really had to analyze everything to do with the situation,” said Austen. “It’s not going to take one silver bullet [to solve their problems.]”
Last summer Austen spent four months in Burkina Faso working with local unions, rural organizations and farmers to develop and share long-term farming strategies.

Farah Haddad, EWB Concordia’s VP Education, spent that summer in Ghana working with the government’s district planning offices, setting up data analysis and collection tools to promote “evidence based decision making” when it comes to the country’s resource distribution.
Austen explained that the EWB wants to help the people in the countries they work with come up with lasting and sustainable solutions to their problems.

The help EWB members provide rarely falls into the realm of engineering anymore and organizers for the Concordia chapter are eager to get students of all backgrounds involved.
“We love non-engineers,” said Adam Spilka, EWB Concordia’s Director of Curriculum Enhancement who ran last Tuesday’s workshop.

“There’s a position for everyone whether you want to commit a lot or commit a bit,” Austen said, adding that one of the students who went abroad last summer was a Concordia drama student.

But despite the new mandate and a growing membership, the EWB still has problems, one of which is how it’s viewed by the public.

“I think the problem with the EWB is that it’s going to take a lot of time to do what we want to do,” admitted Austin.

He said the incremental progress of the organization is one of the biggest challenges it faces as the public doesn’t get a sense of the work being done. Unlike organizations such as Médecins sans frontières that provide immediate and visible relief after a disaster, the help contributed by the EWB is neither so instantaneous nor so obvious.

Austen also said he believes that the group’s work is hindered by North American misconceptions about what life is actually like in the countries they work in. People incorrectly assume that people in Africa are either helpless tragedy-stricken victims, or simply not capable enough to solve their own problems.

“Life there is just like here, it’s just not as comfortable,” he said. “And by that I mean it’s a little more human.”

Upcoming EWB events

• Be My Fair Valentine Event, in the Hall Building until Friday

• Screening of the movie Earth Keepers in collaboration with Cinema Politica on Feb. 15

• EWB’s Work In Ghana Workshop, Thursday Feb. 18

• Night Without Borders. A workshop held as part of Nuit Blanche, highlighting cultural diversity on Feb. 27