Mortenson Center Digest - Q2 2022 |
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Global Engineering Curriculum Revolutionized |
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The publication comes after the center hosted over 100 participants from universities, donors, government agencies and industry partners for a virtual workshop series as part of a National Science Foundation grant to advance engineering education. Together, that group established a comprehensive global engineering body of knowledge and the paper Aligning learning objectives and approaches in global engineering graduate programs: Review and recommendations by an interdisciplinary working group, was recently published in Development Engineering.
Mortenson Center Managing Director Laura MacDonald is the lead author. She comments on this first-of-its-kind paper saying, “The role of engineers must evolve and account for structural and systemic barriers to global development and equity. Engineering education must change to support this evolution. What we present in the paper ensures that global engineers have the technical skills they need to succeed, but also the transversal and interdisciplinary skills that are required to work across sectors, with the ultimate goal being global poverty reduction.”
Laura added, "We’re seeing more students entering our program who want to engage in domestic work and improve the livelihoods of people in the United States. I anticipate that the global engineering curriculum we’ve developed will increasingly be applied in domestic contexts."
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Climate Innovation Collaboratory Launches |
Deloitte and the University of Colorado Boulder launched the Climate Innovation Collaboratory to translate cutting-edge climate research and data into meaningful climate solutions for federal, state and local government agencies and communities.
The Collaboratory, hosted by the Mortenson Center in Global Engineering, will focus on a wide range of climate priorities including, but not limited to, building public-private innovation and entrepreneurship capacity, expanding the deployment of technologies, enhancing organizational decision-making with robust earth science data, improving the analysis of energy systems and advancing climate equity and environmental justice.
The Collaboratory will start with two research and technology development projects addressing environmental challenges in the United States, including one project on wildfire risk assessments and another project on drought mitigation.
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Sustainable WASH Systems: Project Report |
The Sustainable WASH Systems Learning Partnership was organized and managed through the Mortenson Center in Global Engineering beginning in 2016. Professors Amy Javernick-Will and Karl Linden, both Associate Directors of the Mortenson Center and co-principal investigators for the project, said this final report serves as a cap to an incredibly productive and valuable research project.
The final report summarizes the work and shows how a systems-level understanding and engagement approach can help providers navigate challenges to service sustainability. It also shows how incentivizing preventive maintenance and fast repair times can improve rural water services and describes how collective action platforms can bring about policy change.
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New Sensor Predicts Water Contamination |
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As many as two billion people worldwide use a drinking water source that is contaminated with feces. Diarrheal diseases are the fifth leading cause of death for people of all ages and the third leading cause for children under nine years old. At least 40 million people in the United States use wells for their drinking water that are not regulated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
In both academic research and professional practice, estimates of contamination are mostly based on infrequent point measurements with small sample sizes. The high cost for testing samples, the training requirements and time it takes to receive results can lead to water service providers and drinking water consumers missing the contamination.
One specific fluorescence parameter capable of detecting microbial contamination is tryptophan-like-fluorescence (TLF). Several sensitive, portable TLF sensors are available, but they are not designed or marketed for autonomous, in-situ, continuous operation.
But now, Mortenson Center alumni Emily Bedell and Olivia Harmon, student Katie Fankhauser and Director Evan Thomas along with Zack Shivers have designed and validated an in-situ, near-time, remotely reporting TLF sensor system for the detection of fecal contamination risk in surface water. Their paper was just published in Water Research.
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Design work has begun to advance the technology from prototype (pictured) to product for people who drink well water. The new home sensor this team is developing will also have a cleaning function that allows the user to inject cleaning solution through the sensor. The sensor’s data will be sent through the user’s WIFI to an online database and a mobile app will be developed to alert the homeowner if contamination is detected.
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Sarah Welsh-Huggins grew up in Ohio and from an early age became fascinated with geological hazards and their interaction with human life. She has been pursuing a career around the intersection of the built environment, natural hazards, and human society ever since.
Sarah completed a dual undergraduate degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering and International Studies at Lafayette College. While there, she participated in Engineers Without Borders and initiated a student chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council. Her undergraduate research experience at the Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center and an independent study on the 2010 Haiti earthquake in Port-au-Prince connected her research to her interest in working in underserved communities. Sarah decided to attend CU Boulder after a mentor suggested she reach out to Mortenson Center Affiliate Faculty, Professor Abie Liel.
Sarah graduated from CU Boulder in 2016 with an MS in Structural Engineering, a PhD in Civil Systems, and a Global Engineering Certificate from the Mortenson Center. After graduating, Sarah worked for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) supporting Hurricane Irma recovery. She later received a Science and Technology Policy Fellowship through the American Association for the Advancement of Science and was placed with the USAID’s Office of Food for Peace to support rural infrastructure projects in Zimbabwe and Ethiopia. (Sarah is pictured above on a USAID field visit to Ethiopia in 2019.)
Sarah now works in USAID’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (BHA) as the Infrastructure and Engineering Advisor and the acting team lead for BHA’s Infrastructure Natural and Water Resources Management team. She leads the planning and implementing of physical infrastructure and nature-based solutions that enhance food security, expand agricultural productivity and support market recovery and resilience.
Sarah believes her time at the Mortenson Center was foundational in shaping her approach to humanitarian engineering. She learned how different international development organizations fit together to support various populations.
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Adam Collins grew up in Aurora, CO and attributes his interest in global engineering to the value of giving his family instilled in him. He carried that value with him during frequent trips to El Paso, TX and Juarez, Mexico with Casa Por Cristo to build homes for families in need.
Adam earned a B.S. in Architectural Engineering with a minor in Electrical and Computer Engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. After graduating, Adam gained experience through the Navy ROTC, a mobile library project in Albania, and a sustainability group at Los Alamos National Lab, where he still works. Adam said he found the Mortenson Center through pure luck after coming across a class in the online course catalog that met all his interests: Household Energy Systems in the Global South.
Adam is now an Architectural Engineering master’s student at CU Boulder and is focusing on Building Systems Engineering. He is currently completing a remote practicum through the Mortenson Center with Pivot Clean Energy Co. He will focus on establishing a market case for the production, manufacturing, and distribution of bioethanol fuel, a cleaner and healthier alternative to conventional cooking fuels.
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Homegrown Community Engagement |
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Mortenson Center student Britta Bergstrom was originally going to complete her Practicum in Tanzania, but with COVID-19 and the uncertainty of international travel, she pivoted to an internship with the International Association for Refugees (IAFR). She worked in Fort Morgan, CO helping the diverse migrant communities there start a community garden in which to grow their own organic produce.
Britta received one of 16 Community Impact Grants awarded by CU Boulder's Office for Outreach and Engagement in 2021-22. That helped her to make an impact at the community level using her research with the Mortenson Center. The grant allowed for the creation of the garden and also sparked a third-grade teacher to start the Pioneer Elementary School Garden Club.
“When I think about making an impact as an engineer, there’s a lot of power and real changes in these types of grassroots, community efforts,” said Britta.
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Student Awarded Prestigious Fellowship |
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Mortenson Center student Ilham Siddiq was the oldest member of his family to survive the devastating 2004 Indian Ocean Earthquake and Tsunami. He is now using his firsthand disaster knowledge to evaluate the effectiveness of recovery policies.
Ilham has earned a prestigious United States Agency for International Development / Habitat for Humanity fellowship to investigate the effectiveness of long-term recovery initiatives with a focus on the 2004 disaster, which took the lives of more than 200,000 people.
“My whole village was wiped clean by the tsunami. There was nothing left to see, just flat clean ground. This research is very important to the humanitarian shelter and settlement sector because billions of dollars were invested into the humanitarian and recovery efforts. To go back and know what worked and what was not effective is really important," said Ilham.
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Women's Perspectives: Resilient Housing Design |
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Mortenson Center Affiliate Faculty member Professor Abbie Liel has become increasingly convinced of the vital importance of engineering more resilient housing and the central role women play in that process. Her new research argues that the underrepresentation of women and women of color in the building industry may be why, despite decades of advances, houses still remain vulnerable to damage from earthquakes, hurricanes, floods and other hazards.
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Earthquakes & What the Public Believes |
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The central U.S. has had an increase in the frequency and magnitude of human-induced earthquakes. This includes states such as Colorado, Oklahoma and Ohio that have little to no history of seismic events. Over time, scientists have determined that the earthquakes in this region are mostly caused by deep fluid injection of "wastewater," a byproduct of oil and gas development. But despite the fact that there is near unanimous agreement among scientists as to the cause, there is uncertainty and disagreement in the public.
A new study based on household surveys was conducted by Andrew Tracy, Mortenson Center Associate Director Amy Javernick-Will and Mortenson Center Affiliate Faculty Abbie Liel. They found that the more individuals experienced negative effects from earthquakes, the more they agreed that they were caused by the injection of wastewater from oil and gas production. Individuals with more positive perceptions of the oil and gas industry more strongly believed that the earthquakes are caused by nature.
Understanding what the public believes to be the cause of earthquakes is important because it can impact policy and the actions a person might take to mitigate risk. In addition, the public can expect differences in litigation and insurance if incidents are an act of God versus the responsibility of an industry.
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Photo credit: John Sperling |
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Environmental Engineering Professor Fernando Rosario-Ortiz and Mortenson Center Affiliate Faculty and Assistant Professor Ben Livneh are conducting research on fire's effect on water and the environment.
Fernando and his research team have been collecting samples from burn scars to better understand how ash can affect watersheds as it creates and spreads a wide range of potentially harmful organic compounds.
Ben Livneh, a physical hydrologist, and his research group are exploring how climate and landscape changes affect how much water is available in an area and when. His work also examines how fires and rain can influence landslide risk.
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Mortenson Center Managing Director Laura MacDonald traveled to Rwanda to help Amazi Yego staff prepare to begin new data collection activities. The work is part of a four-year, $3M impact evaluation of trailbridges constructed by Bridges to Prosperity.
As part of her trip, Laura traveled with Amazi Yego Assistant Research Manager Gisele Manirabaruta and Finance Manager Diane Kayitesi to the Rulindo and Gakenke Districts of Rwanda. While there, they shadowed Amazi Yego enumerators conducting household surveys, and posed for a picture in their Mortenson Center shirts on the Kwiterambere Suspension Bridge. This bridge was completed in the Gakenke District by Bridges to Prosperity in June 2021.
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Junior Consultant
Remote (Global)
July 15, 2022 - Deadline to Apply
The Junior Consultant will support the Secretariat at Agenda For Change with administrative and communications functions. Duties will include developing a communication strategy for the Women in WASH Mentorship Program, leading, planning and facilitating events, preparing and editing presentation and monitoring and updating website and social media analytics.
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Mortenson Center in Global Engineering | University of Colorado Boulder |
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