The Ecuador project is now in its final stage. Students Brittany Wright, Julia Green and Amy Piscopo traveled with Tufts EWB alumnus Jonathan Crocker to El Cristal, Ecuador in January 2008 in order to perform water quality tests on two of the main water systems and provide the results to the community.
Over winter break, a team of six Tufts EWB members traveled with Professor Durant to El Salvador to continue work in Arada Vieja. The team included seniors Jonathan Zack and Sara Jackson, juniors Russell Hyatt, Jon Gregorowicz, and Kate Siegel, and sophomore Lauren Morris.
During the winter 2008 trip to San Jose Villanueva, El Salvador, Tufts Engineers Without Borders learned of the need for a bridge in an area of town where the road is prone to flooding and impassable by pedestrians and vehicles during the rainy season.
EWB-Tufts students presented their projects to the Technical Advisory Committee of Engineers Without
Borders-USA for review and approval to carry out the project. A team of engineers and advisors commented
on the proposed plans and gave suggestions on how to improve designs. Both teams were approved to
travel.
Students presented proposed objectives and designs for their upcoming project trips to their faculty advisers.
The faculty were encouraged to use their professional opinions and assist in the final designs to ensure all
goals were met and no problems were visible.
Students from the El Salvador project team began work to rebuild last year's slow sand filter prototype. The
goal of the prototype is to get students acquainted with the technology to prepare them for future trips, as
well as to model the filters in order to get data on flow rate and other variables that could be changed in the
field to increase effectiveness.