project name: 2004-2005 san pablo, belize, engineers
TRANSCRIPT
Project Name: 2004-2005 San Pablo, Belize, Engineers Without Borders
Project
Project Client: Bill Farr; Crissie Ferrara; Ricardo Thompson
Contact Client@ [email protected]; [email protected];
Anticipated Student Team:
Mechanical Engineers - 4
Civil Engineers - 0
Electrical Engineers - 3
Environmental Engineers - 1
Others - 1
Project Description:
Problem description – For the past two years, teams of students have traveled during Spring Break to San Pablo, a small Mayan village in southern Belize. The teams have installed solar powered lighting for the school, church, and woman’s center (2002 – 2003), and solar powered water pumping and a water distribution system (2003-2004). Although both teams were successful,
sustainability in a 3rd world country is an ongoing process. This years San Pablo Team will be broken into three main subgroups: Sub team 1: Fix and Repair: During the summer Julie VanLaanen received a letter from Juan Ishim, the village Chairman. He wrote to tell me that although the water system was working well, lightning had taken out the light system. This team’s goal will be to learn both systems inside and out, travel to Belize and repair all systems. Along with the repair, the team is to design and install a ‘charging station’ that allows the villagers to use the electrical system to recharge 12 volt batteries from phone and lantern systems. Sub team 2: Irrigation Foot Pump Although the villagers now have clean water flowing in their village, irrigating their fields is still an issue. Several different designs of hand and foot pumps exist. This team’s job will be to design a low cost (less then $15 US) foot pump design that can easily be manufactured by local villagers. The design must use local materials, be easy to reproduce and run, and be durable. Ricardo Thompson from the Belize department of agriculture will be a consultant for this project.
Sub team 3: Home Cooking Stove Women in San Pablo wash their clothes and children in the nearby river, gather firewood from the nearby jungle, and cook over open stoves. Cooking over an open stove causes severe burns during cooking accidents, results in repertory problems from inhaling smoke, and consumes natural resources at an alarming rate. Studies show that a simple enclosed cooking stove can eliminate the first two issues and result in over a 60% increase in burn efficiency. This team will have the difficult issue of designing an ‘in home’ cooking stove that is affordable (less then $15 US), easily reproducible from local materials, and acceptable to village women. Crissie, a Peace Corp rep living in southern Belize, will be the major contact for this project.
Student Contacts:
Keith Kranker [email protected] or [email protected]
Ryan Smith [email protected]