Engineers Without Borders

Board Meeting January 9th

January 14, 2008 at 3:31 pm | In Meeting Minutes | Comments Off

Engineers Without Borders Board Meeting

January 9th , 2009, 7:00pm

Kelly 2057

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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

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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