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Mortenson Center Quarterly Digest - Q2 2020
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The Mortenson Center engages in global engineering and combines education, research, and partnerships to positively impact vulnerable people and their environment by improving development tools and practice. Our vision is a world where everyone has safe water, sanitation, energy, food, shelter, and infrastructure. Learn more about the center on our website,
http://www.colorado.edu/mcedc
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Congratulations Graduates!
Big
congratulations
to all our spring graduates:
Matthew Burke
- Professional Master's in Global Environmental Engineering
Katie Claar - Professional Master's in Environmental Engineering
Caleb Cor
d - MS in Environmental Engineering, continuing on to earn his PhD
Sally Gerster - BS in Architectural Engineering & MS in Civil Engineering
Annie Huang - BS & MS in Civil Engineering
Katherine Junglen - Professional Master's in Global Engineering
Ryan Keliher - MS in Environmental Engineering
Shaye Palagi - PhD in Civil Systems, Civil Engineering
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College Actions
A commitment from the Mortenson Center went out from representatives of the student, staff and faculty community standing in solidarity with all those speaking out against racial injustice and police brutality.
Read what Interim Dean, Keith Molenaar and representatives in other departments in the College of Engineering and Applied Science are saying.
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Reducing Drought Emergencies in the Horn of Africa
Mortenson Center Director Dr. Evan Thomas and Associate Director Dr. Karl Linden are two of the authors of a
new paper published in Science of the Total Environment.
Drought-driven humanitarian emergencies are becoming more frequent in the Horn of Africa where millions of people in this arid region face chronic water and food insecurity. In the paper, they present an evidence-supported case that drought emergencies can be mitigated by investing in resilience efforts that make safe water reliably available at strategic groundwater abstraction locations during cycles of water stress.
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New Article Published in
Sustainability
In this new article MCGE students Emily Bedell and Taylor Sharpe, Director Evan Thomas along with Timothy Purvis and Joe Brown describe the development and testing of a novel device for the measurement of tryptophan-like fluorescence making use of recent advances in deep-ultraviolet light emitting diodes and sensitive semiconductor photodiodes and photomulitpliers.
Read the article in the open source journal.
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Research Updates
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Sustainable WASH Systems (SWS) journal articles to date in 2020:
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Pugel, K., Javernick-Will, A., Koschmann, M., Peaabody, S., and Linden, K. (2020). "Adapting Collaborative Approaches for Service Provision to Low-Income Countries: Expert Panel Results".
Sustainability
. 12(7), 2612;
10.3390/su12072612
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Valcourt, N., Walters, J., Javernick-Will, A., Linden, K., Hailegiorgis, B. (2020). "Understanding Rural Water Services as a Complex System: An assessment of key factors as potential leverage points for improved service sustainability."
Sustainability.12(3), 1243;
10.3390/su12031243.
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Valcourt, N., Javernick-Will, A., Walters, J., Linden, K. (2020). "Systems Approaches to Water, Sanitation and Hygiene: A Systematic Literature Review".
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 17(3), 702;
10.3390/ijerph17030702.
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Introducing Kelsey Reeves - New MCGE Student Representative
Congratulations to Kelsey Reeves who was recently elected as the new Mortenson Center Graduate Student Representative.
Kelsey is a fourth-year PhD student in environmental engineering, with emphases on hydrologic science, global engineering, and data analysis. The Mortenson Center's Global Engineering program is what attracted her to apply to CU Boulder.
While at CU, Kelsey has taught a graduate/undergraduate course, has served as a graduate peer mentor and worked with students to improve their NSF GRFP applications. She also served as the Program Committee Chair and a volunteer of the CO WASH Symposium.
During this time of the COVID-19 pandemic, Kelsey is especially concerned about both the mental and physical health of her colleagues. As Student Representative, Kelsey will explore student interest for hosting events that will foster a sense of community among graduate colleagues while also expanding their knowledge of global engineering. Some of her ideas include a book club, volunteering events, world news discussion dinners and movie nights. Kelsey would also like to facilitate skill-building activities for CU students, such as workshops on creating personal websites, building resumes, and writing fellowship and grant applications.
Kelsey believes that she and her fellow students need to stay committed to opposing racism and heightening their understanding of systemic issues. She is collaborating with a group of students to create an intentional space for student discussions on racism, activism, and privilege.
Welcome Kelsey!
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Congratulations James Harper & Casie Venable!
James Harper published a paper on FSM in Cambodia with IDE:
Harper, J.,
Bielefeldt, A.,
Javernick-Will, A.,
Veasna, T., Nicoletti, C. (2020). "Context and Intentions: Practical Associations for Fecal Sludge Management in Rural Low-income Cambodia".
Journal of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene for Development
;
10.2166/washdev.2020.103
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Casie Venable received rave reviews for the work she presented from her USAID/OFDA fellowship to Interaction and USAID/OFDA, entitled "Household Perceptions of Shelter Safety: Six Years After Yolanda."
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Congratulations Sally Gerster!
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| Sally Working on Sensor Project in Rwanda |
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Mortenson Center student Sally Gerster is the winner of the CU Boulder Outstanding Graduate for International Engagement Award. Sally's was nominated for the award largely because of her research during her MCGE practicum where she was placed with Bridges to Prosperity (B2P), a US based non-profit, global leader in rural infrastructure in low and middle income countries (LMICs). Sally's research and practicum work involved implementing a sensor system to count the number of crossings over B2P constructed pedestrian footbridges in rural Rwanda. Sally developed project goals, managed the budget and schedule and made most of the technical design and implementation decisions e.g. choosing the best trail camera to use as the sensor, designing sensor housing units; and working with local steel fabricators.
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Culture Shift
Diversity in Action has a new article on the American Society of Engineering Education's LGBTQ+ Advocacy in STEM program. The program assists faculty, administrators, staff and graduate students in promoting inclusion through its Virtual Community of Practice for sharing ideas and resources and its Safe Zone Ally Training Workshops. "If we look at engineering culture, there is this notion that diversity and inclusion may be important, but it's separate from engineering work. People have this idea that when we talk about issues around social justice and inclusion, they are political and not relevant to what we call 'real' engineering work," said Dr. Stephanie Farrell, the project's PI.
Read the article.
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Kenya Resilient Arid Lands Partnership for Resilient Arid Lands Partnership for Integrated Development (Kenya RAPID)
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Watch this short movie IBM Research produced on MCGE's collaboration with them, the Millennium Water Alliance and others under the USAID/SDC Kenya RAPID program. This work is the partial basis of our Drought Resilience Impact Platform (DRIP) concept.
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Do you have program questions, comments, or want to change the frequency of which you are contacted by the Mortenson Center?
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