My STEP Signature Project was taking part in the Humanitarian Engineering and Culture in Guyana service-learning experience. In this experience, I participated in the course through the autumn and then implemented 10 small-scale photovoltaic systems to connect households with solar energy. From this course and experience, I learned about Guyanese culture; socio-economic, political, and environmental challenges; and the application of humanitarian engineering in the real world.
My project experience started in August and ended in late December, so my transformation has been an ongoing process for many months. From the course itself, my worldview has expanded and evolved to understand more about the world and the various interactions between nations and communities. For example, I didn’t know much, if anything, about Guyana other than it is a country in South America, but now I know traditional dishes, some frequently-used words/phrases, present political issues, and more. From this experience, I found a deep interest and appreciation in humanitarian engineering. I’ve solidified my belief that engineering not only includes a bunch of math and numbers or tests, but also the people and interpersonal relationships that are involved in them. Without pairing the two, the solution isn’t guaranteed to work. I have found more interest in renewable energy, especially having a little more experience in solar. As a part of the course, we discussed solar energy and how its impact can not only aid as an additional power source, but also in a sense of autonomy from the main city grid’s power.
My understanding of myself has increased in what I’m interested in doing as I have found a stronger desire of practicing humanitarian engineering and including the community that is being affected as much as possible. From the implementation of the solar systems and working directly with the families impacted, I realized how much this means and it’s not just a school project. To go from the engineering classroom to implementing brings out original assumptions, biases, or thoughts. While I spent time in the classroom to understand and learn about Guyanese culture and solar energy, implementing the systems and spending time with the community taught me lessons that can’t be taught in the classroom.
The actual implementation phase of the experience took place over 4 days of the time in Guyana (we spend 8 full days in Guyana). The two coastal communities we worked with were Aliki and Lower Bonasika. At the very start, we had to adapt our design to the house as we didn’t have the toolboxes as we had in our original design. This showed how adaptable engineering has to be in order to best fit the community. The first day was mainly figuring out how to adapt the system for the first house, the leader of the community as a pilot setup.
Although we had a slow start, we were able to spend time with the community, specifically 2 families in Aliki. This unplanned experience really brought to light how important it was to include the community that is being impacted. With them, we conducted water tests and learned more about them and their daily life. For example, we learned a little about their schooling system, farming life, and community. These interactions brought to light some of their perspectives of the experience for them as well as giving us more familiarity and understanding of our similarities and differences.
After finalizing the design and installing a pilot setup, we spent the next day gathering supplies for the rest of the setups in Aliki and Lower Bonasika. Some of these supplies included batteries, power strips to plug in devices, and wire to connect components together. The rest of the supplies were left with one of the leaders of the communities when we brought them from the States. Being an active part of the project really made a difference in my own perspective, as it further engaged me in the process. I was able to talk and explain the system to one of the recipients of the project which brought them into the process as well.
During the last workday, we were working in Lower Bonasika, another community off the Essequibo River. We were able to build the systems faster as we all had familiarity with each component. The leader of the Aliki community also helped set up the systems as he installed the solar panels on the roofs. He became remarkably familiar with the setups and was eager to help us put the systems together. Knowing this affirms that he and others in the community will be able to take care of and help troubleshoot if there are any system issues. These experiences have helped me widen my worldview and encouraged me to practice and learn more about the implementation of humanitarian engineering.
This transformation is valuable for my life as I continue on my engineering journey. This field pairs my passion for social justice with my passion for engineering. My goals going into this experience were having a better understanding of the engineering design process with real- world applications, create connections with others in the course and community, help others and make the world more equitable, project management and development, and collaboration experiences. While reflecting on my overall transformation and growth, I’ve found that in academic, personal, and professional goals have all been obtained in some sort of experience between the course and implementation of the project. As mentioned above by working with the communities, learning more about the social aspects which can affect the engineering which goes into projects, and working in collaboration with other students and faculty, I’ve found growth in multiple areas to increase human-centered engineering designs and processes. This transformation and experience are and will continue to be a part of me. My future plans are unclear, but I hope to continue to work with communities in some sort of fashion to better their living conditions in a sustainable, equitable way.
