A lot of Connecticut residents plan to spend part of their summer vacation near water—a week at the beach, inland, or coastal kayaking. It’s only natural.
Anna Smith, a 1999 graduate of Lyme-Old Lyme High School , plans to be around water in August. But it will be in a village in India , in the mountains about 30 miles south of New Delhi . If all goes as planned, cool water will be running out of a water tank spigot.
Smith, 26, the daughter of Jim and Annette Smith, is a member of Engineers Without Borders (EWB-USA). The nonprofit humanitarian organization was established to partner with developing communities worldwide to improve their quality of life. Chapters seek to implement sustainable engineering projects while involving and training internationally responsible engineers and engineering students. The emphasis is on adequate sanitation, safe drinking water, and related resources.
EWB has been around for about five years, Smith said. It has formed more than 100 professional chapters, even more student chapters, and taken on more than 240 projects involving engineers, scientists, and health professionals. The projects are close to home and around the world.
In Connecticut, the Hartford chapter has worked with Habitat for Humanity and is mentoring with the Connecticut Pre-Engineer Program and others at the Connect Invention Convention for students in May. Members are also working with an organization in the north end of Hartford to better that area, Smith said.
EWB chapters around the country are also assisting with the post-Hurricane Katrina recovery efforts and infrastructure repair in New Orleans, assisting the local EWB chapter and others in that region. The Hartford chapter got involved in that last summer, too.
In India , Smith and other volunteers will continue work on a well installed by the University of Hartford EWB chapter last winter. When the professional chapter had to postpone plans for a project in Kenya due to political unrest in the country, it decided on this joint project with the student chapter. There is also a student chapter of EWB at the University of Connecticut .
“Our goal is for the people of town to be able to get cool water,” Smith said. “We’ll be setting up a simple water system, installing above-ground tanks with spigots. We won’t be installing plumbing in anyone’s homes.”
EWB isn’t just a bunch of technology geeks parachuting in to design and fix engineering projects wherever they see fit.
“Part of EWB is that we don’t go help a community unless we are asked,” she said. “You have to have someone on the ground in these locations, who comes to EWB and asks for help. We didn’t just go to India and say, ‘We think you need some water and let’s fix it.’”
The EWB volunteers will also perform a health assessment and provide education on clean water and sanitary practices for the community.
“A lot of times E. coli and other bacteria will get passed because people don’t realize they are contaminating everyone’s water supply by dumping water from one dirty bucket into a clean water supply,” she said.
People don’t have to be engineers to join EWB or participate in their projects, Smith said. She encourages anyone interested in the larger cause to get involved.
“Wherever we go, EWB requires that we bring a health professional. That could be an EMT, a doctor, a registered nurse,” she said. “EWB also requires us to do an assessment of what we’re doing, and if it is benefiting the community or not.”
It is also beneficial to have a medical professional on hand in the event anyone needs medical assistance, she said.
“EWB requires chapters to commit long-term to their projects, too, so we’ll be with this community about five years,” she said. “We’ll be assessing what we’ve done and to see if it’s worked, and if it hasn’t, what can we do better.”
Part of the challenge of the projects is figuring out the best solution, designing it, and then implementing it in the real world, she said. The lines blur between engineering design and hands-on repair work.
“A lot of what we do is come up with a solution, and when you get on the ground, you may find that yours was not the best one. So you definitely have to be able to think on your feet, be able to purchase supplies in the local economy, and communicate with people there,” she said.
As volunteers, EWB members also raise funds and donations for project travel and supplies. Smith is busy with that too; two weeks ago she was driving around, picking up donated items for an EWB tag sale fund-raiser in Vernon .
Smith is a geologist by training. After graduating from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York , she went to work for Kleinfelder Associates, a nationwide environmental engineering and geotechnical engineering firm, with offices in Windsor , Conn. A corporate sponsor of EWB, the company encourages all of its employees to get involved with their local chapters.
She credits her science classes in Old Lyme, in eighth grade and the earth class she took her freshman year, for helping her realize her interests in geology.
“My parents said, ‘Hey, you’re going to school, study something you really enjoy, that you’ll get a lot out of. You can go into any career later in life,’” she said. “So I tried a bunch of different classes. I knew I just liked science; that came naturally. The geology part of it—that’s our foundation. We live for our Earth. The different processes are just fabulous, so I got very in-depth with it and I enjoyed myself.”
Her father, Jim, worked at Electric Boat for many years and her mother, Annette, is a seamstress. Two younger brothers, also LOLHS graduates, are pursuing careers involving engineering. Peter, a 2003 graduate, earned his degree in electrical power engineering from RPI in 2007 and is working on his MBA there. Jimmy graduated from high school in 2005 and is studying engineering at Purdue.
Smith was also a pioneering member of the Lyme-Old Lyme Techno-Ticks robotics team, which she, her father, and brothers still actively mentor. Every year, student teams from around the world design and build robots to compete, first locally, then regionally and nationally in the FIRST Robotics.
FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics was founded in 1989 by inventor, physicist, and entrepreneur Dean Kamen, the inventor of medical devices including the HomeChoice dialysis machine, and the Segway Human Transporter, the stand-on two-wheeler designed for short-distance travel. One of his newest projects is a water purification system to help provide clean drinking water to the estimated 1.1 billion people in the world who lack access to clean water.
“Dean Kamen’s position in life is to just do things to better ourselves and our whole humanity,” Smith said. “He found that science and technology were really lacking, kids didn’t think it was cool, they didn’t think it was fun to do. This sport really makes it fun, makes it cool to go into science and technology.”
The mission of FIRST is to inspire young people to enjoy science and technology. Students work side by side with adult mentors, many with technical and engineering backgrounds and careers, to design, build, and operate computers that can run through obstacle courses, both individually and collaboratively with other robots.
“It’s meant to be a sport for your mind,” Smith explained. She came back for the Lyme-Old Lyme Techno Ticks Robot Rally earlier this year, to send the team off to regional and then national competition. “It’s just like a pep rally for a football team. It’s amazing how the students really get into it.”
In mid-March, the Techno-Ticks won the regional Chairman’s award for the sixth time, and went on to place 50th in their bracket, a very respectable finish, at the national FIRST championship in April in Atlanta .
Tammy Noyes, technology support specialist for Lyme-Old Lyme public schools, also a member of the EWB professionals chapter, told Kamen about the EWB water project earlier this year at a FIRST Robotics New Hampshire regional competitions. Kamen’s firm, DEKA Research, is helping Smith and others on this project, Noyes said, and may deploy prototypes of the water purifier his company is perfecting for the chapter’s projects in India and Kenya .
Smith is accustomed to working in fields where women are in the minority. When she attended RPI, she said, the ratio of males to females was 80:20. But she said she grew up in a house full of boys, and is passionate about her interests, so she can handle it.
She has advice for girls considering going into science and technology fields.
“Just do it. Sometimes it may be a little daunting and a little scary,” said Smith. “As long as you can hold your own, and be proud that you’re a woman and you’re doing the science and engineering, you’ll be better for it.”
She’s also looking forward to packing her bags—no doubt with equipment and supplies—for the upcoming trip to India .
“I just really enjoy helping people, and giving back to my community, because it has been able to give me so much,” she said of her EWB activities. “It’s just a wonderful experience, and an opportunity to meet people who also want to give back.”
Anyone interested in EWB activities or to help Smith’s efforts can contact her at Kleinfelder East in Windsor at 860-683-4200, ext. 129. For more information, see www.ewb-usa.org and www.ewb-hpc.org.