Member Article

Advice as students prepare for Borneo trip

Twenty students from the School of Civil Engineering and Geosciences at Newcastle University who are planning and taking part in a project to improve clean water supplies to communities in rural Borneo have been taking advice from one of the UK’s top industry experts.

Paul Jowitt, past president of the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) gave an insightful lecture at Newcastle University to an audience including the graduates & students (G&S) committee of ICE North East.

The lecture given by Professor Jowitt, winner of the ICE’s 1987 Trevithick Premium for work on water supply networks, launched the ‘Engineer’s Toolkit for a Developing World’, which draws upon experiences from experts and professional bodies in eight countries worldwide.

He said: “During my year as ICE President, I worked with 12 young engineers from around the world to develop an engineer’s toolkit for international development.

“This is a first in the civil engineering field as an open-source set of materials and ideas to help engineers plan and deliver infrastructure for international development, poverty alleviation and the UN Millennium Delivery Goals.”

Students studying on the Civil Engineering and Civil and Structural Engineering courses from Newcastle University will be able to implement this knowledge first hand when they take part in a new module incorporating hands-on engineering in a challenging overseas environment.

The project sees 20 final year MEng undergraduate students design and build gravity feed water systems for two small communities in the Sabah region of Borneo. This experience will enable them to use their academic skills in order to gain real life engineering experience whilst improving the lives of those in the community.

Module leader Dr Jean Hall, said: “The future of engineering is being framed by a variety of global challenges which transcend national boundaries. Engineering education must tackle this head on and at Newcastle University we have embraced the challenge of global engineering with the development of this design and build challenge module, in partnership with Raleigh International. The lecture from Paul Jowitt enabled students to think about the stages of a project which asks key questions focussed on policy planning and operation of a scheme in a developing country. This prior planning will ensure that their skills are fit for purpose when they take part in the ‘hands on’ elements in Borneo”.

To support this project please visit CEGs Group Fundraising page http://www.justgiving.com/Jean-Hall

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Penny Marshall .