After a long week of sleepless nights spent prepping materials and brushing up on all the details of their project, a small representation from the CU-EWB Uganda team boarded a 4am Greyhound bus and headed to Washington DC for the 5th Annual EPA P3 (People, Prosperity, and the Planet) Award. Students Matt Basinger (Graduate SEAS), Janelle Heslop (SEAS’10), Sara del Fierro (CC’10), Jennifer Wang (SEAS’10), Jin Wang (SEAS’10), Lacey Gleason (CC’12), and Watue Sowaprux (SEAS’12) were nervous but excited as they set up their exhibit under the large white tents on the National Mall, with the Capitol Building just in the distance.

43 teams came together from all corners of the country to present their innovative projects to a panel of 16 judges from various engineering and science backgrounds and compete for the second phase award of $75,000.  Teams not only displayed the results they achieved during Phase I with the initial $10,000 award, but they also laid out their visions for the second phase of their projects.  From local water collection systems and public educational websites to solar-powered cook stoves and waste management plans, student projects ranged from all sectors of human and environmental sustainability in the developed and developing world.

Columbia’s EWB Uganda team first applied to P3’s Phase I competition during the fall semester of 2007.  The team’s innovative program to increase access to affordable energy in rural communities fit perfectly with P3’s focus to benefit people, promote prosperity, and protect the planet through designs that address our world’s challenges to sustainability.  Essentially, CU-EWB Uganda’s project seeks to install multifunctional energy platforms (that is, a stationary diesel engine that can be attached to various agro-processing equipment) within an established farming cooperative network in rural Soroti, Uganda.  The project was born out of a need for increased mechanization of agricultural processing that was identified by the Soroti community, a community that has been devastated by conflict, natural disaster and, subsequently, internal displacement for the past 25 years.

An innovative modification of the MFP’s diesel engine allows it to run off more viscous straight plant oils that would be readily available in Soroti.  In particularly, the team is hoping to pair their MFPs with oil from the locally grown Jatropha, which is increasingly earning recognition as a promising biofuel feedstock due to its hardiness and high yield.
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Hi everybody! As you can tell, CU-EWB got a new website redesign, and I could not be more excited about this! Working on the website has been a really productive collaboration, and it’s been great working with others who, like me, were incredibly enthusiastic about this. With that said, many, many thanks go out (in alphabetical order) to Clay Dahlman, Seth Davidovits, Sara Del Fierro, Kaitlyn Gaynor, Sarah Glazer, Mikhail Klassen, Hannah Moore, Jason Pflueger, Allison Schoeneck, Mark Stothers, Anthony Yim, and everybody involved, for this website would still be “in progress” without all the wonderful input and contributions.

We’d love to maintain this collaborative effort, which is why we’re encouraging everybody to register! Trust me, it’s really easy to do so; you just need a username and an email. Not to mention, any active CU-EWB member who wants to take a bigger role in this website (such as blogging, editing, writing content, etc.) can request privileges by emailing me or commenting on this post. We’ve got a lot of great ideas (like summer travel blogs) planned for this website, but they can only be implemented with your help and input!

Here’s another reminder to register. And remember that suggestions and feedback are always appreciated. We really want to hear what you think!

With that said, enjoy the website and be sure to check back often for more updates!

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