Professor Chuck Hawkins, Daniel Garcia, Janus Herrera, Jeannette Moore from UNM and Jonathan Begay from Sacred Power Corporation are part of a group of UNM students in Electrical & Computer Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and the School of Architecture & Planning who spent a day on the Navajo reservation installing solar-powered electrical systems. This was the first project for the new UNM Chapter of Engineers Without Borders.
Electrical engineering senior Jeannette Moore spent a couple of years planning this chapter, and last year she and a handful of students and advisors made it happen.
Ten members of the fledgling chapter undertook installation of solar-powered electricity generators for two homes at the Navajo Nation's Ramah Chapter. These were homes that, up to then, had been without electricity.
The equipment was assembled and provided by Sacred Power Corp., a Native-American-owned business in Albuquerque. The firm had earlier helped the Ramah Chapter submit an application to the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture to gain funding for the systems, which include solar panels with batteries and a backup propane-powered generator that kicks in if needed. Also included with each system is a new, energy efficient, direct-current refrigerator, which is provided because older refrigerators are major power hogs.
Late on a freezing cold Friday, Feb. 2, eight UNM students traveled from campus northwest to Ramah, N.M., so they could start work on their project by dawn the next day. They were accompanied by two friends who are professional civil engineers along with four employees of Sacred Power and both of the EWB-UNM chapter's faculty advisors -- Electrical & Computer Engineering Prof. Chuck Hawkins and Civil Engineering Prof. Walter Gerstle.
Not Your Typical Research Lab
The ominous weather forecast for that Saturday proved at least partly accurate. The soil was so packed with ice and snow that the trench-digging portion of the work was an even more arduous task than it might otherwise have been for a group of students more accustomed to pushing mechanical pencils.
What do trench digging and inclement weather have to do with engineering?
A lot, it turns out. The students wanted to learn how projects like this work, as they have a goal of doing this kind of work for needy families in other countries. They learned a lot on this day.
Besides the logistics involved in providing a functioning solution for a real-world problem, they learned a great deal from Sacred Power's installation team. Sacred Power has undertaken this kind of work for years on many of the reservations and pueblos in the Southwest, and approximately half of Sacred Power's projects involve getting electricity into rural homes.
Work began at dawn and ended after sunset. There was one experienced technician for each of three crews -- one crew for each house. Throughout the day, the technicians let the students do most of the work while they served primarily as backup and counsel. They also supervised the work so that it complied with all of Sacred Power's specifications and quality and safety standards.
As the tired, muddy crews put finishing touches on their work after sunset, there was a moment of anticipation, and then celebration, as the first light went on inside each house.
Engineering Is For Problem Solvers
The new chapter's members believe that there are significant opportunities for UNM engineering students to provide needed help through Engineers Without Borders. As Moore said, "there is a lot more to engineering than just making money."
Moore also believes that the chapter can give UNM engineering students opportunities to complete their senior project. These projects require that students find a relevant problem to solve, then design and build an innovative solution for it. Moore sees EWB as an avenue for directing that considerable problem-solving energy toward pressing community needs.
Media Contact: Frances Strong, (505) 277-3156; e-mail: fstrong@unm.edu
Posted by scarr at February 28, 2007 05:19 PM