Engineers Without Borders

General Meeting, January 30th, 2008

January 30th, 2008, 7:00pm

Kelley 1001

I. Project Applications for March Due

Due Friday Feb 1. Several applications received, all are welcome to apply!

II.International conference

Great opportunity to learn about EWB’s efforts, as well as some excellent opportunities. 3 days, end of spring break, Seattle. We are seeking to completely offset the cost of the trip with COE funding.

- Sign-up sheet with David Mandrell. Stay after to talk and plan. Anyone can go!

III. Looking for new Membership Coordinator

Nick Taylor has a time conflict with meetings this term, is asking for someone to fill his shoes.

Involves taking attendance, collect annual dues, report to the board 1x/month, and filling out forms nationally.

Birdie will perform Membership Coordinator duties for all Wednesday meetings.

Membership dues are $15, allow you to vote, plus you get a free EWB bracelet! (Stop by Doug’s office if you want one.)

IV. BioDiesel Initiative

• Seeking to sustainably solve the problem of limited petroleum fuels worldwide.
• Method: meet the needs of current generation without compromising the needs of future generations.
• Test case for system: Narukunibua, Fiji
  • Current PCV in the village is a former member of the Biodiesel Initiative at OSU.
  • Currently have diesel generator for cooking, lights internet; generator is only local course of electricity.
• Idea is to use local crops, already-available land, local labor, and adapt biodiesel technology.
• By-products of biodiesel production include soap, fuel for heat, biodiesel, animal feed, compost.
• Technical issues:
  • obtain oil feedstock (high quality)
  • determine catalyst
  • obtain high purity alcohol
• High-quality produced fuel meeting ASTM standards
  • Sustainable methods
  • Village accepts solution to problem
  • System produces reliably and in sufficient quantity
• Letters of support from Peace Corps, village already received
• Mentor is Dr. David Hackleman
• Groups:
  • Assessment group
    • engineering conditions
    • cultural impacts
    • environmental impacts
    • available resources
  • Research group
  • Oversight
  • Travel team
• Schedule
  • Current goal (Winter) is to complete environmental impact assessment
    • Is biodiesel the BEST solution for the community? What other technologies could be applicable?
    • If biodiesel is, then exact process and raw materials must be determined, technology decided.
  • Spring Term:
    • design, build, test prototype
    • acquire funding
  • Summer: go to Fiji and build
• OSU Biodiesel Initiative: http://biodiesel.oregonstate.edu
• P3 Program web site: http://es.epa.gov/ncer/p3/
• Questions:
  • How big of a generator?
    • Depends on fuel demands, exact technological process. Likely a small room.
  • How robust is the process/equipment? Will the village be able to maintain/not destroy the equipment?
    • Technically simple process that villagers should be able to perform with little difficulty. Simple maintenance, yes. Mixing, washing, and some cleaning are the typical user operations that are required.
  • Have biodiesel generators been installed in similar situations in the past?
    • Several systems particularly in India have been installed and continue to function. There is even another project on a similar island near Fiji.
  • Has there been discussion of go/no-go points in the process?
    • Determining that the technology is not the best solution, or that there are significant negative cultural or environmental impacts would be the type of problem that would stop us. That should all be determined by spring break with the env assessment.
  • How much crop is needed?
    • Fuel usage is currently low, and it depends on the fuel type. Cutting down forests or using existing food sources is not an acceptable source. Growth-times are being taken into account for the various crops as well.
  • Sometimes coconuts have difficulty with lites(?) that go through and kill the entire grove. Diversifying could be very important.
    • We certainly need to determine a backup source or alternative in case of low annual yield anomalies. Village located close to national capital and therefor used vegetable oil sources.
  • What if something breaks down significantly?
    • The system is able to be deconstructed back to the current diesel generator status.
  • How much crop oil for the biodiesel?
    • Abt 1 gallon for 1 gallon.
• Partnership Agreement
  • Membership vote will proceed online to decide on whether to join the diesel initiative formally with a partnership.

Minutes prepared by: Evan Miles, Janurary 30th, 2008

1-23-07 Board Meeting

January 23rd, 2008, 7:00pm

Kelley 2057

I.Travel Team Selection - Jessica

Feburary 4 or 5th evening selection. Jessica will be checking with the advisors to determine which date. We will be deciding which board members will be on the committee next week.

II. Review of Expense report from December El Salvador Trip

We spent a little under $10,000 for travel and implementation.

III. Semi-Annual Newsletter

Kelly will be organizing a newslett

IV. Fundraising

• Banquet is scheduled for October 24th ( the 6th friday of the term) in the ballroom.
  • THey are looking into getting items from fair trade stores and from El Salvador for the silent auction.
  • For a speaker have Dr. Williamson from the CBEE .
  • FOr an event hae coolshoes and a salsa event.
• Poker night: they are thinking the may 9th of 16ths. Spirit mountain has given cards for it being a non-profit fundraiser.
  • We may have to fill out paperwork to take in money from a gambling event. Patricia Lacey ( ASOSU council) has run a poker
  • IT will likely be an event were people pay a cover charge and get chips, cash in chips to raffle tickets to win prizes.
  • Ideas:
    • Get great prizes
    • RA’s get in free with 10 students?
    • MOney to go to generalclub funds.

V. Bio-diesel Memorandum

They are currently looking into which paperwork they will fill out with national. THey are speaking at next weeks meeting. We will go from there as to whether we want to support them with an informal MOU or go into adopting it as a project and put that to the chapter for a vote.

It seems that their method for solving this project is very different than EWB’s format and they are rushed to meet the requirements for the grant money they have.

At this point the board is interested in forming a committee of EWBer’s to help with the bio-diesel.

IV. Corrupt files on Stak

Evan has several photos on his home computer that are corrupt on the Stak file. Kelly has them on her external hard-drive.

IIV WIKI

Nick should have it fleshed out somewhere. He should be coming back from belize in the next week or two. Evan and David will be mounting a mission to find him in belize.

IIX. El Salvador Project

• Potters for Peace distribution
  • They left the peace corps with the information to arrange for a new PfP distribution. We currently have around $1200 set aside for PfP. Aparna will be contacting the PC volunteer to find out definate numbers of how many.
• Fonaes
  • They are a non-profit organization who are interested in putting up rainwater catchment systems. They want access to the data we’ve collected from the community (GPS and photos). Potentially we would sent a representative with their projects.

General Meeting, January 16th, 2008

January 16th, 2008, 7:00pm

Kelley 1001

I.Elections

Towards the end of this term, we will be holding elections for our four elected board positions of President, Vice President, Secretary and Treasurer. Also the unelected positions will be open for reassignment.

II. International Confernce

The national conference will be held in Seattle March 28 thru 30. Find more info on www.ewb-usa.org.

There is a rather large registration fee. We need to fill out a proposal for funds from the college of engineering and the engineering departments. This would be a great option for helping out with the clubs fund raising opportunities.

III. T-shirts

If you have recieved a polo and haven’t paid for it please pay Evan.
If you don’t have a polo and are looking to do presentations or would just like one.

IV. Habitat

They shoveled gravel and dug trenches in the mud. There are more opportunities every Wednesday and Saturday from 9 - 3.

V. Bio-diesel club trip to Figi

Look for upcoming information about this potential new EWB project that will be constructing a village-scale bio-diesel plant in Figi.

VI. Speaker - Aparna Shrivastana - El Salvador Water Project

Project goals are to provide safer water and make it more accessible. Currently EWB-OSU has currently facilitated the implementation of the Potters for Peace Filtration Units which uses colloidial silver(March 2007).

The December 2007 trip saw several goals tackled. A rain water catchment system was constructed on a primary school in La Cumbre. A seperate team of students collected a lot more health and GPS data, mapping each house in the community and notes on each house’s roof for future water catchment system implementaion.

Upcoming Goals

• Develop a map that will include all houses and structures for future water delivery system analysis.

• Design other solutions to water delivery
  • gravity-fed systems
  • spring-box construction

There is a trip coming up this next spring break to El Salvador. Their meetings are Monday at 7pm. Aparna will be bringing chocolate for the upcoming meeting.

Minutes prepared by: Kelly Wilson, January 16th, 2008

Partnership Brewing with OSU Biodiesel Initiative

A possible partnership is in the works between EWB-OSU and the OSU Biodiesel Initiative. The Biodiesel Initiative is currently working on a plan to design and implement a small-scale, sustainable biodiesel production facility for the residents of Narukunibua, Fiji. A recent proposal from the Biodiesel Initiative would form a partnership that would involve members from both clubs participating in the research, design, and implementation of the plant in Narukunibua.

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Board Meeting January 9th

Engineers Without Borders Board Meeting

January 9th , 2009, 7:00pm

Kelly 2057

Members attending in person:

Jesse Boudart , Jessica Varin, Kendra Seniow, Evan Miles, Carl Moen, Brad Eagleson, Kelly Wilson, Rob Hess, Douglas Van Bossuyt, Evan Miles, Brad Eagleson, Adriane Jones, Katie Bruce, Lyndsey Crogonal, Advisor Kevin Boston

Guests: Tyler Backman and Nikhil Prem from Biodiesel Iniative

1. Profesor in Africa

Zimbawian profesor- looking for help to rebuild their university. At this point, he has been referred to the national to begin a project through that procedure. The most we should help with at this point is potentiallyaiding on filling out paper work for TAC.

2. Meeting Scheduling

Next weeks meeting is Wed 7pm in room KEC 1001. Adriane will put up flyers for project times/places. Nexts weeks meeting will cover the El Salvador project and touch on updates like upcoming elections…

Other ideas would be to have a presentation from Portland Professionals (Jesse will contact Aaron), Permaculture, Biodiesel project (meeting after next). Any more ideas, please forward them to Jesse.

3. Biofuel Project Tyler Backman ( president of OSU biodiesel Iniative) and Nikhil Prem – Their project is Sustained

The objective of their project is two fold: to identify and investigate obstacles of renewable fuels in undeveloped regions and then apply their information in building a small scale Biodiesel plant in Narukunibua, Fiji. There is a Peace Corps volunteer in Narukunibua that has facilitated the request from the village for help with this issue. Peace Corps has made a commitment to continue a peace corps volunteer in the community. The only source of electricity in the village is a diesel generator. They currently use ~50 gallons of diesel a month to power a few lights and a computer lab. The generator would need to be adapted to Biodiesel.

Dr. Hackleman and the Biodiesel club have a process designed for the Willamette valley that could easily be adapted to Fiji. It seems coconut or potentially jatropha could be feed stock for oil (there is potentially an unused coconut orchard near). For the project to be successful: fuel must meet ASTM quality standards, process must be sustainable, the village must accept the system as a viable solution, and the system must produce enough fuel reliably. Peace corps has already provided a letter of support and volunteer time. The EPA has provided a P3 grant and the community has said they would support a project.

If EWB-OSU joined with The Biodiesel Initiative, this project would proceed as a project in both organizations. There would be a research group, assessment group and implementation group. They would like to submit to EWB TAC prior to their next meeting, obtain approvals for spring, complete environmental impact assessment, travel to Wash DC for grant moneys, complete engineering design and testing, and pass TAC’s site assessment review. They would be looking to travel after the term is over. They currently have $10,000 which will be enough to put their plan together and send them to Washington. Funding options would be to look at national EWB grants, contacting Rotary in Fiji, and Australia and New Zealand Aid.

To form a partnership, we would need to have a vote on this at a general meeting. We will plan on having this paper work for the next board meeting. Kendra and Kelly will help Nikhil. Then plan on presenting to the group for approval the 2^nd group meeting. Their website is Biodiesel.oregonstate.edu

4. National Conference – Last weekend in Spring Break

Three members from the project team had a paper accepted that they will be presenting. People who would be interested in going: Rob, Jessica, Doug, Adriane, Kelly Wilson, Aparna, Violet, Kay and Kelly Volkman.

A grant proposal will need to be submitted. A new person who would go and fill out the grant proposal will have their way paid.

5. El Salvador Project
   • December 2007 Trip

Doug and Evan arrived early on site to purchase materials and set up connections. The team was split into two teams, construction and health and land survey. The construction was set back by not having reliable supplies delivery. Connections now have been established with more reliable sources. The initial plan was adjusted for the site, including an attachment foundation for the 10,000 L tank. The peace corps volunteer just reported that system survived a wind storm.

The health and land survey was accompanied by the peace corps volunteer. They had meetings with the different community areas the night before going house to house in that area. The survey consisted of health/demographic information. They also tried to do a structural survey looking at height of drip line and feasibility of attaching future water projects. Also organized data was collected like building size, sketches of house and photo.

Isamundo, the nonprofit from Canada, visited the community the last day EWB volunteers were on site. They will be presenting the info they gathered to their board, and potentially linking us to grants and supplies. Joseph from EWB-Cal Poly came and helped out for 2 days translating on the construction site.

Things that The project trip would like to accomplish at this point: Have interactive map designed that you can click on house location to find out about the house and what design type (rain catchment, gravit-fed, or spring box), and health data. This will help with funding as we will be able to break down how much each house would cost.
The time line would be to build one system over spring break, two systems over summer break, two systems over winter break, and a wrap-up project spring break 2009.

5. • Funding

Currently there is around $10,000 in project accounts. The spring break trip will likely cost less than $3500 (not including air fare for ~5 members).

-Barometer and Oregonian press releases

- OSU Alum magazine

- Rotary - Solid Rotary Connections between here and El Salvador.

- Poker Night spring term – Katie Bruce and Lyndsey

Spring Break Travel Application

We are currently seeking applicants from all majors to travel to El Salvador during Spring Break 2008. Selected applicants will be responsible for the continued implementation of a sustainable water delivery system in El Salvador. We are looking for individuals who are ready to work alongside community members and spend time in a developing country.

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