Mortenson Center Digest - Q1 2022 |
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Global Engineering Award Winners Announced |
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From left: Nitish Sarker, Thomas Zearley, Avery Bang |
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On March 10, 2022 the Mortenson Center announced the winners of this year's Global Engineering Awards during the Colorado WASH Symposium:
Nitish Ranjan Sarker, Outstanding Student Award
Nitish Ranjan Sarker is a doctoral candidate and a course instructor at the University of Toronto’s Centre for Global Engineering. He volunteers as the Program Director of the International Water Association Young Waters Professional in Canada. His research focuses on technological and systemic innovation of water and clean-energy systems and their appropriate customization for the needs and constraints of the target community.
Thomas Zearley, Outstanding Professional Award
Thomas Zearley is an Engineering Foreign Service Officer at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). Through USAID, Thomas led a housing reconstruction program after the 2015 earthquake in Nepal, led monitoring and evaluation work in Ethiopia, and headed up IT programs in Washington, DC to help increase USAID’s collaborations with higher education institutions.
Avery Bang, Humanitarian Award
Avery Bang is the Vice President of Strategy at Gracon, an industrial construction company offering construction and rehabilitation services to industrial markets. Avery was the President and CEO of Bridges to Prosperity (B2P) for 15 years prior to joining Gracon. Under her leadership, B2P physically connected more than 1.3 million people to essential health care, education and economic opportunities by building footbridges that connect the "rural last mile". She was featured in the film Dream Big: Engineering Our World, awarded the coveted President’s Medal by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) in 2017, and was named one of the Top 25 Newsmakers by Engineering News Record (ENR) in 2012.
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MCGE Launches New Online Certificate |
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The Mortenson Center has recently launched a Global Engineering Certificate that can be obtained online through both synchronous and asynchronous class offerings. Businesses and individuals across the globe now have access to the incredible educational opportunities we offer. Applications are currently being accepted for the summer.
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Karl Linden Receives AAAS Fellowship |
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The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the world's largest general scientific society named Mortenson Center Associate Director Karl Linden a 2021 AAAS Fellow. Karl is acknowledged for his “distinguished contributions to the field of water treatment engineering, particularly using ultraviolet light for pathogen disinfection and abatement of organic contaminants in water reuse.”
Karl’s research investigates novel water and wastewater treatment systems, including innovative UV systems for disinfection and water reuse.
“I am so honored to become a fellow of AAAS - an organization at the forefront of defending the integrity of science, promoting science-based policy and decision making, strengthening diversity in science and advocating for educational and career opportunities in science and technology,” said Karl.
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Alia Khan received her Bachelor of Science in Public Health in Environmental Science and Engineering at the UNC-Chapel Hill Gillings School of Global Public Health in 2009. There, she completed a senior honors thesis titled, Evaluation of Low-cost Methods to Detect E.coli in Rural Cambodian Drinking Water, and conducted field research at Resource Development International in Kean Svay, Cambodia. She also received a travel fellowship to go to her father’s native country of Bangladesh. She worked with the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC) on emergency management and disaster Relief for Cyclone Sidr, which struck the southwest coast of Bangladesh in 2007. Alia wanted to continue similar work in a graduate program, so she decided to attend CU Boulder for its cutting-edge climate research and to study global engineering at the Mortenson Center.
Alia completed her practicum with the Mortenson Center in the Gokyo Valley of the Nepalese Himalayas as part of a USAID funded project, quantifying Contributions to High Asian Run-off from Ice and Snow (CHARIS) across five watersheds in High Mountain Asia. She graduated from CU Boulder with a PhD in Environmental Engineering and a Certificate in Global Engineering from the Mortenson Center. After graduating, she built on her practicum experience by working as a postdoctoral researcher at the National Snow and Ice Data Center within CIRES at CU Boulder.
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Alia is now an Assistant Professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences at Western Washington University where she leads a research group on cryosphere studies and aquatic biogeochemistry. She was recently awarded a five-year, $1.2 million CAREER grant from the National Science Foundation to continue international collaborations with scientists from the Chilean Antarctic Program. This research will evaluate the role of temperature, light absorbing particles and snow-algae growth and their impacts on snow and ice melt in the Western Antarctic Peninsula.
Alia’s advice to MCGE students: Pursue your passion, be kind, have fun, and don’t forget to thank your mentors for their incredible support.
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Are you an alum with a story to share? Inspire current MCGE students!
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Melanie is a fourth year Ph.D. student in Civil Engineering at CU Boulder and working to earn a Certificate in Global Engineering from the Mortenson Center. Her research focuses on improved monitoring and management of water resources in the western United States. She works to address data limitations that may impact the ability of water users to comply with local or regional water policies. She is also interested in improving groundwater data in arid regions, which rely heavily on groundwater for agricultural needs.
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Eliza will graduate with her Masters in Civil Engineering in May, 2022 and will earn the Certificate in Global Engineering from the Mortenson Center. To earn the Certificate, she is completing her Practicum working as a Resettlement Programs Intern at the African Community Center of Denver (ACC) where she helps resettle refugees and humanitarian parolees. Her work includes driving people to social security appointments, enrolling children in school, and helping families file paperwork for government assistance. She also assists with home WIFI installation that results in refugees having increased access to programs such as remote English classes. As an Intern, she has experienced the humanitarian side of processes within the U.S. and learned about the challenges individuals face when navigating them. |
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Jessica Darby is an undergraduate student studying environmental engineering at CU Boulder. As a freshman and sophomore, Jessica was in the Global Engineering Resident Academic Program (RAP), which gave her a sense of belonging in the CU community. This inspired her to become a RAP Assistant this year and create that community for other students.
Jessica also conducts research with the Mortenson Center as an Undergraduate Research Assistant. She works alongside other MCGE students who are developing a low-cost fluorescence sensor for bacterial enumeration in water distribution systems in low- and middle-income countries.
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New MCGE Authored Publications |
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Research Underscores Importance of Borehole Maintenance |
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In East Africa, communities increasingly rely on deep, mechanized boreholes for water supply; but, inadequate and inconsistent funding for maintenance and repair leaves boreholes unusable for long periods of time. As a result, the last ten years have seen a shift of focus in the rural water sector from delivery of infrastructure to the delivery of services.
Mortenson Center in Global Engineering Founding Director and Distinguished Professor Bernard Amadei, MCGE student Anna Libey, MCGE alumni Pranav Chintalapati and MCGE Fellow Styvers Kathuni examine, in their newly published paper, the relationship between borehole repair and maintenance resources and future functionality of boreholes. The paper titled, Turn up the Dial: System Dynamics Modeling of Resource Allocations toward Rural Water Supply Maintenance in East Africa was published in the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Journal of Environmental Engineering.
Research was conducted in the Afar Region of Ethiopia and Turkana County in Kenya. To the authors' knowledge, their presented work is a new and possibly first application in the WASH sector of this kind of system dynamics modeling.
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The Power of Cryptography |
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Mortenson Center alum Tejovan Parker (pictured) is a contributor to a recently published Engineering For Change article. The concepts presented in the article arose through research Tejovan conducted with Dr. Joseph Hughes at Drexel University as part of his MCGE Practicum. This work further extended into an independent study with Mortenson Center Teaching Assistant Professor Carlo Salvinelli.
The article explores a hypothetical service called Sipesa and what could be achieved by creating a persistent digital identity that can be proven anywhere, anytime. If "self-sovereign identity" (SSI) were built on standardized or unified crypto-enhanced databased sensors, there would be significant benefits and implications. One area of use explored in the article is the impact an SSI would have for refugees.
Tejovan graduated from CU Boulder in 2021 with a BS & Professional MS in Mechanical Engineering and a Certificate in Global Engineering.
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Successful Paths To Rural Water Maintenance |
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Mortenson Center Associate Directors Amy Javernick-Will and Karl Linden, and MCGE student Caleb Cord recently published a paper in which they investigate what makes professionalized services for water systems successful in Uganda. The paper, titled Pathways to consumer demand and payment for professional rural water infrastructure maintenance across low-income contexts, was published in Science of the Total Environment.
In collaboration with service providers, the researchers evaluated 22 cases across Uganda by measuring the proportion of remaining professional service contracts after a three-year period. The results identified that successful pathways relied primarily on consistent expansion and local government participation to achieve contract retention. Other important factors included coordinated sector aid, large user communities, and ease of access. Natural conditions, particularly deep water sources, did not have significant influence compared to other factors.
The conclusions from this study could provoke WASH collaborators and development players to consider their “domains of influence” in fulfilling the operational, social, and political factors for successful implementation of WASH solutions.
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Use of Rural Drinking Water Systems |
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Mortenson Center Associate Director Karl Linden, along with Mortenson Center alumni Simón Mostafa and Ryan B. Mahoney had their paper recently published in The Journal of Development Studies. The paper titled, If you Build it, will they come? explores what causes people in the Peruvian Amazon, who have access to clean drinking water systems, not to use them. Their research focused on non-use of clean water systems as well as inconsistent use, which is a common phenomenon across the globe.
Results of the study show that the top factors influencing use of clean water are community meeting attendance, distance of residence to drinking water system and level of education.
When water programs better understand why people do not use clean drinking water systems, they can address these factors and ensure that communities are receiving the benefits of WASH services. The results of this study provide insight for planning and design of future programs looking to implement drinking water systems.
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Conference on World Affairs |
April 6-9, 2022
Live & on Zoom
Highlights of this CU Boulder event featuring world class speakers include:
April 6
- 4:00pm - Fringe Innovations
April 7
- 9:00am - Forced Out: A Conversation Around Human Displacement
- Noon - Climate Change: Is an Answer in the Soil Beneath Our Feet?
- 3:00pm - Back to the Future: Regenerating Indigenous & Traditional Farming
April 8
- Noon - All Speech is Free, Some More than Others
- 3:00pm - Social Entrepreneurship
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May 2, 2022 - Deadline for Abstract Submissions
The Water Institute at University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (UNC) is accepting proposals for abstracts for the 2022 UNC Water and Health Conference: Science, Policy, and Practice. The Water Institute is partnering with the Journal of Water, Sanitation, Hygiene & Development and the best abstract submissions for the conference will be invited to provide a full submission for a special edition of the journal.
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Job & Funding Opportunities |
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CEO
Denver, CO
Apply A.S.A.P.
The Chief Executive Officer with Engineers Without Borders will develop an intentional strategy detailing short and long-term goals, funding strategies and action steps for developing partnerships. Frequent travel required.
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Water Program Director
Denver, CO
Apply ASAP
Groundwork Denver seeks a Water Program Director to oversee the urban waters program, including water quality testing, watershed improvements, youth employee engagement, and community education. The position reports to the Associate Director and participates in collaborative efforts related to urban waters, representing Groundwork Denver in external partnerships.
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Mortenson Center in Global Engineering | University of Colorado Boulder |
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