My STEP Signature Project was working with the Global Capstone program to help the Marwa Village in Tanzania have access to clean water sources. The project, working with Kilimanjaro Hope Organization and the people of Marwa, brought together engineers of other disciplines around OSU to design a flow sensor for the recently constructed rainwater harvesting tanks in the village, in order to have a better understanding of the tanks’ usage patterns. The device would be controlled by an Arduino board, with a flow sensor to analyze the speed of the water and the total amount of outflow and would come in a full assembly that could attach directly to the outlet pipe of the tank to the pump that is used to collect the water. The other engineers and I worked on designing and coding a sensor that can easily attach to the tank, with relatively little needs for maintenance or additional operation. Thanks to partnering with STEP on this project, we were able to go above and beyond the expectations on this project and make some real progress within the first semester, having an initial prototype by the end and expanding our scope to cover other issues in the community.
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I think the main transformations that occurred during my project was gaining a better understanding of what global humanitarian engineering was. While I had read several articles and heard plenty of professors discussing the topic, I had only an idealized notion of what it all entailed. I had only heard about different programs and organizations, learning about their efforts from afar. But this doesn’t teach someone about the problem-solving process, nor all the cultural struggles faced in the engineering work. And so Global Capstone program provided that opportunity to participate in a hands-on humanitarian engineering project. Through each portion of the program, I faced both expected and unexpected challenges form working a global context. Understanding the values and culture of the Marwa people, deciding in what ways the project benefited the Tanzanian people and in what ways it benefited the OSU partners running the project, and designing in regard to the degree of integration to the Marwa village. Working on our prototype design guided my thinking from more high-tech, high-cost solutions that are typical in places like America and Europe, to a focus on working with the Marwa culture and technology. And being able to not only meet all of the necessary criteria of the capstone but go even further and think of further solutions to problems showed me how to think in the bigger picture for these communities. I was finally starting to see how I, as an engineer, can take the lessons and subjects from my education and put that into a real-life context to improve the world and pass on these lessons to others. And so, the Global Capstone project helped me not just become a mechanical engineer, but a humanitarian engineer as well.
The other main transformation was understanding how to think and work in a global context. The in-lecture discussions taught more of the soft skills of engineering across national borders. Communication, conflict resolution, understanding cultural biases, presenting information, learning about the rules and traditions of other people, and effective coping methods were all discussed in length throughout the semester. While these are skills taught through other courses and experiences, these focused much more on interactions across countries, religions, and just cultures in general. They were meant to help us tackle the challenges that engineering on a global scale would bring, especially in interacting with people. These lessons forced us to broaden our thinking, to both think and understand of our place in the world while also effectively bridging the gaps with other people that have vastly different lives than our own. Through this work, I feel much more confident in my ability to work globally, and much more inspired to tackle these challenges. Because while thinking global goes much beyond the comfortable sphere we typically surround ourselves in on a daily basis, this course opened my eyes to the ways to achieve this and the rich benefits this could bring to all.
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The specific instances that brought about this transformation were primarily the interactions that I had with the professors and other speakers involved in the capstone.
We had weekly meetings with the professors, Patrick Sours and Michael Hagenberger, to discuss the progress of our work and to clarify any concerns or issues we had encountered. Each of these meetings were very eye-opening, as the professors had years of experience in academia and out in the field with humanitarian engineering, having traveled to the Marwa Village several times and establishing the project we were working on. So, they provided insight into a people and community that COVID and lack of internet or cellular service has prevented us from interacting with. So many times, while we were working and thinking we were focusing on the right designs or considering a specific technology to use, the professors would remind us of who the people were that we were actually designing for. They would teach us about aspects of the region and the Marwa culture to better understand what our project can achieve, and what are the challenges in not only finishing the project but designing something that can be implemented in long-term development there. This really came into play as we went outside the initial goals of the project, bringing in new idea proposals to see what issues we could solve with our flow sensor prototype.
A prime example of this was deciding how to transmit data from the sensor and how to power the flow sensor. As previously mentioned, the Marwa village lacks internet service and cellular connection is shoddy. So, the other engineers and I initially tried thinking of ways through 2G cellular signals to transmit the data over text, as well as having an SD card to store data and utilize a special function for the Arduino board called EEPROM to write data to the board itself. These were all meant to be ways to efficiently store and transmit the data, as well as hold onto data in the case of a power outage. I specifically was figuring out how to properly code the system to both store data and send it out periodically. But the professors brought us back to reality, reminding us that this EEPROM function could wear out the board overtime, and could only store a small amount of data in the case of power loss. And with the exact status of 2G signal in Marwa still unknown, it would be inefficient to spend extra time and money on that system at this moment. We ended up just keeping the SD card, in order to allow for long-term storage of data that can be accessed when necessary, and I focused on making sure that worked properly. And when it came to power, we initially were set on batteries or power lines, depending on if the latter was fully constructed in the village. But the professors brought to light their interactions with the Marwa people, and how they took pride in solar-powered systems and felt more comfortable maintaining them. So, we switched our focus to adding solar panels and finding the necessary power draw to operate the system. Both were expanded functions and properties of the flow sensor that were not initially detailed to us, considering long-term integration in a much larger system. As we knew that eventually Marwa hoped to build more RWH tanks as well as ones siphoning water from the nearby Pangani River and were in the process of constructing power lines, we wanted to create a more modular prototype. Something that could be integrated to their new power system, even with solar, and could be adapted to consistently transmit accurate data from distinct tanks. And as cellular coverage expands, could encourage direct communication between Marwa and OSU, improving relations further. Through my research I learned how to make these systems work, so I would be able to adapt the system further when the professors felt ready to expand the project further. And these ideas were guided by the knowledge and experience of the professors. While we were stuck in the though-process of our typical schooling, the teachers helped reformat our thinking to real-world, humanitarian contexts.
Throughout the semesters, a speaker representing AFS Intercultural Programs came in to discuss the different lessons of the Global Competence Certificate that we worked on. Combined with our project work, we took an online course focused on helping people think and operate on a global context, encouraging personal growth and communication with those of other cultures. And for several of our weekly lectures, a speaker would come in to discuss the topics we covered in the online modules. The online course itself was very engaging, including videos, real-life situations, and discussion posts to help you think more the subject and put your own thoughts and experiences regarding the subject into words. One could even see the posts of other users, so the thoughts of those from all corners of the world and walks of life could be easily read in every module. And then the in-class talks were even more engaging, as the speaker hit on many more examples from the real world and her own life, while asking us to share what we think to the entire class or to our groups. As our class included a variety of students from different majors and backgrounds, these classes reinforced the videos and articles we had read, facilitating our advancement into global citizens. I even took these lessons outside of the scope of the classroom, using them to help interact with the Global Engagement events at OSU that I participate in, as they’re meant to be places for international and domestic students to interact. This entire Global Competence Certificate program, which I didn’t even know about prior to joining Global Capstone, made me feel like I was becoming a more globally minded individual, not just an engineer.
And working in the lab put a lot of those ideas into the actual engineering work. Research and coding went from very broad ideas with expensive equipment to focusing on the essentials and designing for function over form. Plus, since we wanted to challenge ourselves and see what other functions were possible with our prototype, we spent a lot of time researching and testing all options for the ideas we came up with. We tried to work with the mindset “What do they need, and what can they make it with?”
A great example of this was when it came to implementing a tank level sensor, as it’s almost impossible to see inside the tank at any given time. The initial concepts we threw around were pretty high tech, such as using ultrasonic wave emitters to bounce off the water’s surface or using load cells at the bottom of the tank to measure the water’s weight, which were my own suggestions. I delved into a lot of different options, but wasn’t sure which would be the best to focus on. Thanks to the help of the professors, we realized that these would just complicate the design, and since this would be in everyday use by the people of Marwa, ease of use would be paramount. So, we focused on a design that is simple to understand, affordable, and only requires materials that a simple hardware store would have. This taught all of us more practical knowledge about water systems, learning how to utilize materials like PVC and plumber’s tape to create our water level sensor. Our final design is shown in the full prototype picture, with the bobber at one end raising with the water and moving a weight attached to it by a string on the other end. This idea originated in thinking of what would encourage the Marwa people to utilize these devices in the long term, even outside what we can accomplish within this academic year. While work like this was well ahead of the pace typical of the Global Capstone, the team and I had developed a passion for this project and wanted to see how much we were capable of achieving before graduation. I wanted to not only do the best I could on this project, but also learn as much as I can about other humanitarian engineering projects around the world, and how they solved the same problems that I faced. Moments like these were lessons in adapting our more theoretical engineering lessons to actual application, bridging that gap that usually exists in actual jobs between office and field, and helping us become better engineers.
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This experience has changed me, both as an engineer and as a person, for the better. It has provided me with my first experience as a humanitarian engineer, and on an international scale at that. It has given me a taste of what service-focused projects and engineering projects as a whole are like, and how I should conduct myself during them. It taught me how to work as a team, especially with people of different fields and specializations. The program showed me different crises facing struggling communities around the world, and the many groups and organizations trying to fix them. It taught more about several aspects of engineering, including Arduino coding, wiring, water filtration, and 3D-printing. Plus, it showed me how to properly conduct research as well as more hands-on, practical building skills. It helped me see beyond the scope of a project, considering all that’s available to me to see how I can enhance it or set it up for success in the future. It taught me to look beyond deliverables and due dates, to what can really create a lasting impact. And most important of all, this experience has made me more comfortable thinking about my future in a global context. I can better see myself fitting into this worldwide effort to solve our humanitarian issues while helping technology grow and develop further in these marginalized groups. I feel ready to step into positions that allow me to work with foreign groups and work towards a common goal together. And I feel prepared to embrace challenging situations that force me to expand my thinking and understanding of not only engineering, but people as well.