Mortenson Center Digest - Q4 2022 |
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Groundbreaking E. coli Research Featured on ABC News |
“I’ve been working on this for six years now, during my PhD, banging my head against the lab bench for months on end,” said Emily Bedell, a mechanical and environmental engineer and lead researcher on the project. “Poop in drinking water is a huge problem worldwide.”
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Nominations Open - Deadline Extended |
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The Mortenson Center hosts the annual Global Engineering Awards to recognize one professional and one student whose work aligns with the Mortenson Center’s mission and vision.
These awards seek to highlight the work of individuals who contribute to global engineering and resilience. This encompasses not only those students and professionals in traditional engineering disciplines, with a focus on positive impact in low-resource settings, but also those who are in related disciplines that take a solutions-oriented approach to the same challenges - water, sanitation, energy, food, shelter, and infrastructure. These related disciplines include global health, environmental science, atmospheric science, agricultural science, geography, governance, policy and community advocacy.
Nominations are now open for the 5th Annual Global Engineering Awards. The awards will take place during the Colorado WASH Symposium, a student-led, hybrid event that will take place on March 9-10, 2023.
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Congratulations Graduates! |
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Photo credit: Sarah Goodroad |
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A Round of Applause for Our Fall Graduates!
Sara Everhart - Professional Master's in Environmental Engineering
Ryan Gomez - Professional Master's in Global Environmental Engineering
Caroline Kavanaugh - Professional Master's in Global Engineering
Zeenath Khan - Professional Master's in Environmental Engineering
Hailey Meisburger - Professional Masters in Global Engineering
Miranda Mello - Professional Master's in Global Environmental Engineering
Anthony Pimentel - Research-Based Master's in Environmental Engineering
Helena Pliszka - Research-Based Master's in Environmental Engineering
Jennifer Turk - Master's in Environmental Engineering
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As a member of the Climate Innovation Collaboratory in partnership with Deloitte Consulting, the Mortenson Center participated in many events during the three-day Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Summit. This included a booth at the Expo where visitors had the opportunity to plant a succulent in a 3-D printed pot that was designed by Kevin Lacjak, one of our Global Engineering Residential Academic Program undergraduate students. |
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Claire Meyer received her bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering with minors in Spanish and Global Engineering from CU Boulder where she also found a passion for global engineering through Engineers Without Borders and the Mortenson Center courses. The fascinating classes, supportive community, and life in Boulder motivated Claire to continue on and earn a Professional Master’s in Global Engineering.
In the summer of 2022, Claire completed her Mortenson Center Practicum with iDE Ghana in Tamale, Northern Ghana. She worked with the WASH team on a variety of projects including process flow development for the Shit Master service where she learned about the power of market-based approaches and the importance of having access to financing.
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When she graduated, Claire accepted a position with iDE Cambodia as a WASH Fellow and will soon be based out of Phnom Penh. She found the position through the Mortenson Center email digest. The Mortenson Center taught Claire to look at global development through a critical lens and proactively address inherent flaws in the sector to create a more equitable and effective system.
(Right: Clare conducting fieldwork with iDE Ghana)
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Are you an alumni with a story to share?
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Grady Colgan is a master’s student from Aurora, Colorado. He completed his bachelor’s degree in environmental engineering at CU Boulder and is currently enrolled in the Professional Master’s program in Global Environmental Engineering.
Grady participated as an undergraduate research assistant on a project investigating the correlation between oil and gas extraction sites and surrounding groundwater sampling locations showing unsafe levels of BTEX (benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene) and other volatile organic compounds. The research was in collaboration with the Colorado School of Public Health and Johns Hopkins University. Through this research, Grady gained technical skills in GIS processing that he now finds applicable to his global engineering studies.
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The intersection of global engineering with environmental engineering provides the perfect context for Grady’s interest in engineering and desire to help people. He wants to apply his experience in water and wastewater treatment to the global development field. He is intrigued by container-based sanitation and wastewater disposal sectors and hopes to find a practicum experience next year that aligns with this interest.
Grady enjoys the tight-knit community of the Mortenson Center and the many events that bring everyone together.
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Ryan Gomez grew up outside of Los Angeles in San Dimas, California. He completed his undergraduate degree in Environmental Engineering with a minor in Engineering Management at the University of Colorado Boulder and graduated this past fall with a Professional Master's degree in Global Environmental Engineering. He chose his master's program after taking a course in Environmental Policy and completing an internship with the Colorado State Senate. He wanted to pursue a people-focused discipline that combined his technical and personal skills and wanted to achieve outcomes that had greater impact. Ryan also appreciates the focus global engineering has on addressing systemic inequalities through technical projects.
Last summer, he completed his Mortenson Center Practicum with the humanitarian organization Movement on the Ground in their refugee camp operation in Lesvos, Greece.
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He served as a team lead for their community volunteer technical team and he also assisted with administrative camp operations and WASH and construction projects such as creating shading infrastructure and community spaces.
Ryan has enjoyed the friendships and connections he made at the Mortenson Center and the ability to share perspectives in a way that encourages learning.
Ryan is pictured above with the Movement on the Ground construction team in Lesvos, Greece.
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Save the Date: CO WASH 2023 Symposium |
March 9-10, 2023
Hybrid
The symposium will feature informational events on the current state of WASH in a variety of fields. Abstract submission and registration deadlines, theme announcements, keynote speakers and more can be found on the site.
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Mortenson Center's Taylor Sharpe as first author, Chantal Iribagiza and Evan Thomas are among the authors of the new paper published in Development Engineering titled: Electronic sensors to monitor functionality and usage trends of rural water infrastructure in Plateau State, Nigeria. Over 12 months, 397 groundwater pumps were observed in Plateau State. The study examined the operating characteristics and trends of different kinds of water pumps and asked: (1) if water-point functionality can be predicted with electronic sensors and (2) does the instrumented water-point sample accurately represent average water-system functionality across the region?
The conclusion suggests that this technology could be used to to support sample-based monitoring of overall water pump operation and water delivery. However, the poor performance of the system in distinguishing between broken and unused pumps will limit the ability to use these technologies to trigger repairs at individual pumps.
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Spotted: Columbia & Italy |
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Mortenson Center student Paula Perez was recently in El Tobal, Santander, Colombia teaching students about water quality and testing water samples at different locations. She is pictured here in her shirt (above far right) at the nearby Aguascalientes spring.
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Mortenson Center Student Assistant Zeenath Khan spent a week in Italy over fall break visiting cities and towns in the northern part of the country. She is pictured here in her shirt at the Milan Duomo enjoying Milano Music Week events. Zeenath graduated Fall 2022.
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Mortenson Center student Ilham Siddiq sits atop the Geurutee Hills in Aceh Jaya, Indonesia, overlooking the Indian Ocean. On this day, he was collecting data for his PhD research on the fate of the 140,000+ post-tsunami houses built with local and international aid in Aceh during the course of 2005 to 2009.
Where is Your Shirt?
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Stay up-to-date with all the latest news by following us on LinkedIn. |
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Mortenson Center in Global Engineering | University of Colorado Boulder |
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