| Type | NGO |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2001 |
| Location | Merced, California |
| Key people | Dr. E. Daniel Hirleman, acting Executive Director |
| Focus | Sustainability, environmental protection, education |
| Mission | ESW mobilizes students and professional through education, technical projects and collaborative action to impact local and global sustainability challenges. |
| Method | Student-led technical projects |
| Employees | 6 |
| Members | 4000[1] |
| Formerly called | Engineers Without Frontiers - USA |
| Website | eswusa.org |
Engineers for a Sustainable World (ESW) is a national not-for-profit based in Merced, California. ESW is an umbrella organization with chapters established at twenty-seven colleges and universities located primarily in the United States[2]. ESW chapters work on technical engineering projects that have a focus on sustainability and environmental issues. Projects can be located either in the vicinity of the university or internationally. Chapters are made up of students, and are semi-autonomous.
ESW was known as Engineers Without Frontiers USA (EWF-USA) through 2004. ESW was established in 2001 in Ithaca, New York at Cornell University. ESW was based at Cornell from 2001 through August 30, 2007, when it moved its headquarters to Oakland, California. In July 2011, ESW moved its headquarters again, this time to Merced, California to be housed by the University of California, Merced.
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ESW has six officers who comprise its national team. They include the executive director, office manager, director of community, director of education and projects, and two directors of chapter relations. The executive director, Dr. E. Daniel Hirleman, and office manager, Rosalina Aranda, are full-time employees of UC-Merced. The remaining officers are student members of university chapters.
| Name | Position | University Affiliation |
|---|---|---|
| Dr. E. Daniel Hirleman | Acting Executive Director | University of California, Merced |
| Rosalina Aranda | Office Manager | University of California, Merced |
| Alexander Dale | Director of Community | University of Pittsburgh |
| Rob Best | Director of Education and Projects | Stanford University |
| Johnny Sompholphardy | Director of Chapter Relations - West | University of Texas at Austin |
| Alexandre David | Director of Chapter Relations - East | University of Rochester |
ESW also has an advisory board with members from academia and corporations.
| Name | Affiliation |
|---|---|
| Dr. E. Daniel Hirleman (chair) | University of California, Merced |
| Rob Best | Stanford University |
| Roger Caldwell | MEMC Electronic Materials |
| Dr. Moira Gunn | National Public Radio |
| Dr. James Jensen | University at Buffalo |
| Dr. Craig Just | University of Iowa |
| Christopher Llop | Analysis Group |
On its official website, ESW defines its vision as the following[3]:
A world in which engineering fosters environmental, social and economic sustainability to improve both the quality of life and the condition of our planet.
ESW defines its mission as:
ESW mobilizes students and professionals through education, technical projects and collaborative action to impact local and global sustainability challenges.
ESW defines its goals as:
In support of the mission, ESW's primary goals are to:
- Stimulate and foster an increased, and more diverse community of engineers;
- Bring together students and professionals of various disciplines to create lasting solutions with immediate impacts;
- Infuse sustainability into the practice and studies of every engineer;
- Encourage innovative ideas that promote environmental, economic, and social sustainability;
- Increase community participation in sustainable engineering and development worldwide.
While earning an engineering masters degree at Cornell University, Regina Clewlow began developing the vision for Engineers Without Frontiers USA (EWF-USA) in early 2001. Working with her friend and mentor, Krishna Athreya, Regina began to develop the framework for EWF-USA’s national organization. As a part of a master’s degree course at Cornell, she developed the business plan for EWF-USA and secured a partnership with a non-profit incubator based at Cornell called the Center for Transformative Action[4]. EWF-USA was then officially established, with Regina Clewlow as its first executive director.
In the spring of 2002, the first collegiate chapters were formed at Cornell and Pennsylvania State University. By December 2002, chapters had formed at other universities across the United States, including Stanford, Northwestern, Caltech, and UC-Berkeley.
In March 2004, EWF-USA changed its name to Engineers for a Sustainable World following a dispute with Engineers Without Borders - USA over the similarity between the two names.
In 2007, the ESW national office relocated from Ithaca, New York, to Oakland, California.
In September 2008, Regina Clewlow stepped down as executive director to be replaced by Julie Chow. This marked the first time in ESW’s history that someone other than Ms. Clewlow would be directing the organization.
On July 1, 2011, Julie Chow stepped down as executive director, concurrent with ESW’s national headquarters relocating to the University of California, Merced[5]. She was replaced by Dr. E. Daniel Hirleman as acting executive director. Dr. Hirleman holds this position in addition to being the dean of the school of engineering at UC-Merced.
In June 2011, a team of ESW-University of California, San Diego won a $10,900 grant to develop a portable solar tree. The team will be working with the UCSD chapter of the American Solar Energy Society to develop the project.[6]
Along with Iowa Rotary International district 6000, a team from the University of Iowa worked on providing clean water access to the citizens of Xicotepec, Mexico. The first trip to Xicotepec occurred in 2003. Since then, the project has helped build and supply two school libraries and treated thousands of children for intestinal parasites. Since 2007, a multidisciplinary course called “International Perspectives: Xicotepec” has been offered at Iowa during the spring semester. During spring break, students in the class travel to Xicotepec to continue the work started by ESW and Rotary International.[7]
From 2009 through 2011, members of ESW’s Northwestern chapter worked on a plan to install a 17 kilowatt solar photovoltaic system on the roof of the Ford Motor Company Engineering Design Center on Northwestern’s Evanston, Illinois campus. The system was named “Centennial Solar Panel System (CSPS)” in honor of the Robert R. McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science’s 100th anniversary in 2009.
The final construction was completed on April 21, 2011. In collaboration with the Northwestern Sustainability Fund, ESW team members raised $117,000 over the project’s two-year history. The largest contribution came from the Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundation, which donated $65,083.[8]
Conceived as a part of the small house movement, a team of ESW-Northwestern students designed and began to construct the Tiny House, a 128 square foot off-the-grid home. The team's goal is to demonstrate the minimization of a person's footprint on the environment. The Tiny House has solar energy and water collection systems. Construction is slated to be completed in fall 2011.[9]
In fall 2008, Dr. E. Daniel Hirleman (then the chair of the mechanical engineering department at Purdue) traveled to Rwanda to meet with the Dean of Applied Sciences and Agriculture at the National University of Rwanda (NUR) in Butare, Rwanda. The two agreed to move forward on a collaborative project. In the spring of 2009, a senior design course at Purdue focused on the design of an irrigation system, calling themselves the Global Team for Irrigation in Africa (GTIA). The team has made several trips to NUR to collaborate with Rwandan students on the irrigation system, and has started a chapter of ESW there.[10][11]
The Stanford University chapter of ESW has been collaborating with Geohazards International (GHI) to study the earthquake and tsunami readiness of Padang, Indonesia. The project began in 2009 as a part of ESW-Stanford’s “Design for a Sustainable World” class. Padang is located close to a tectonic plate boundary, which makes the danger of earthquakes and tsunamis high. The region was affected by the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami in addition to a 7.6 magnitude earthquake in 2009.[12] The Stanford team traveled to Padang in the summers of 2009 and 2010 to conduct research and work on implementing strategies for tsunami safety.[13][14]
In 2009, the Stanford chapter of ESW received a 10,000 euro Mondialogo Engineering Award from UNESCO and Daimler AG for its work on this project.[15]
Students from the University of Texas at Austin chapter of ESW designed and installed a 190 watt grid-tie solar system for the Perrin-Whitt Consolidated Independent School District. This system incorporates remote monitoring technology that gathers statistics on the panel and its energy production. This information is made available to students and teachers; the school intends to incorporate data from the panel into its math and science curricula.[16]
In collaboration with the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the National Science Foundation (NSF)[17], ESW has developed curriculum on the topic of sustainable design at the university level. This curriculum is offered at 9 universities in the United States: