Engineers without Borders and Travel Grant Winners
As part of its Doing a World of Good campaign, the AIChE Foundation funded two global engagement programs for student leaders at the Annual Student Conference in San Francisco last fall. The 2015 and 2016 Engineers without Borders Grant Recipients are from the Illinois Institute of Technology and Mississippi State University respectively.
AIChE Fellow and Co-Chair of the AIChE Global Societal Initiatives Committee, John Cirucci, interviewed the teams to learn more about their projects (in Nicaragua and Zambia), the most challenging aspects of working with their respective communities and how their projects changed communities and changed them.
Both programs are in their fourth year. After assessment trips, Mississippi State students have installed nine water wells in the community and hope to install more next year. After their original plans for a bridge project proved unsustainable, the Illinois Institute of Technology students have instead built the community’s second need: a sanitation system, including latrines and hand washing stations.
I loved meeting them because we have such different cultures but at the end we’re studying the same thing and we want the same thing too – we want a better world and we’re working towards it.
- Elo Contreras
Eight students from around the world were recipients of an International Student Chapter Leadership Development Travel Grant to attend the 2016 Annual Student Conference. This grant afforded most of the students the first opportunity to leave their home countries and interact with other young chemical engineers, develop leadership skills and gain access to an audience of high-level professionals.
John Vasko, AIChE’s Content, Community and Web Director, sat down with all eight grant winners to talk about their individual conference experiences and takeaways. The winners represented Indonesia, Pakistan, Colombia, Honduras, Malaysia, Kazakhstan and China.
These initiatives are important steps that AIChE is taking to support Research and Innovation and Attract the Best and the Brightest two of five Doing a World of Good campaign priorities that will advance the chemical engineering profession for decades to come. Listen to their experience.
Interview: 2016 International Travel Grant Winners (Part 1)
In this interview hear from student travel grant winners from Xiangtan University, China; Universidad Nacional de Colombia-Sede Bogotá, Colombia; and Universiti Teknologi Petronas, Malaysia.
Interview: 2016 International Travel Grant Winners (Part 2)
In this interview hear from student travel grant winners from Dawood University of Engineering and Technology, Karachi, Pakistan; Institut Teknologi Bandung, Indonesia; Nazarbayev University, Kazakhstan; and National Autonomous University of Hondoras, Honduras.
Interview: Engineers Without Borders Grant Winners Discuss Their Projects
The 2015 and 2016 EWB Grant Recipients are from the Illinois Institute of Technology and Mississippi State University respectively. AIChE Fellow John Cirucci interviewed the teams to learn more about their projects (in Nicaragua and Zambia), the most challenging aspects of working with their respective communities, how their projects changed communities and changed them.
Imagine what all of us can do.
A Remarkable Year of Empowering Good
In 2016, the AIChE Foundation advanced its mission to make the world a better and safer place through chemical engineering. Thanks to our generous supporters we are demonstrating our dedication to doing
a world of good.