UPDATES FOR OCTOBER
UPDATES FOR OCTOBER
Welcome to this month's EWBNZ update. In this month's update you will find updates from the chapters, a EWB in Schools update, information about the EWB Australia conference, and some great upcoming Biomimicry and CID events.
Good luck to all the students currently finishing exams. Thanks to everyone who has contributed to this update! Happy reading!
Auckland Professionals Chapter Update
Touching base with communities
Volunteers from the EWB Auckland student and professional chapters met with Frank Bilau from RTDA, a grassroots community development organization in Small Malaita, Solomon Islands, and Christina Reymer from Mahitahi Catholic Overseas Volunteers. Apart from getting to know each other's organizations, discussions included community issues existing in small Malaita such as deforestation, sanitation, as well as local energy infrastructure and its impact on the fishing industry and education. EWB was impressed with the community initiatives organized by RTDA to address these issues and look forward to developing our relationship.
If you or someone you know is working with developing or disadvantaged communities to help achieve their self-identified needs, and require engineering or technical assistance/advice, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us. For more information visit www.ewb.org.nz
Positions Vacant
The Auckland Professionals Chapter is looking for passionate, energetic volunteers who are able to make the required time commitment (this is small, yet regular), preferably but not essentially with an engineering back ground and prior development experience to help manage the EWBNZ Auckland professional chapter in 2012. The positions that are currently vacant are:
Chapter President
Responsibilities include overall coordination of Auckland Professionals chapter, reporting & liaison with the National group, networking and public speaking (EWB events, sponsor, volunteer recruitment etc.).
Chapter Vice President
Responsibilities include assisting the chapter president with above tasks.
If interested please contact Sebestian at sebastian.regber@gmail.com.
Auckland Students Chapter Update
October was a big month for Auckland Students; just before everyone dive into their busy exam schedules.
Odyssey Design Challenge Prize-Giving
After a 5 month "odyssey", this year's challenge drew the completion at the Prize Giving, which was held on the night of 20th of October at SKM. This year, a total of five teams survived all the stages of the challenge, which was centred on the needs at Carlson School for Cerebral Palsy. The judges were extremely impressed by the dedication shown by each team, as well as the final design solutions proposed. This had made the judging exceptionally difficult.
After thorough consideration, the winning teams that came 3rd, 2nd and 1st, as decided by the overall scores the teams have achieved throughout the year, were chosen as follows;
3rd place: Team CFW (Ashwin Sashi and Kathryn Carr) for their improved sensory room switch design.
2nd place: Team OMSK (Oliver Hinder, Michael McDonald, Siwei Tracy Chen and Kejia Wang) for their motorised wheelchair design.
1st place: Team A+ (Jonathan Cheng and Anita Walbran) for their excellent designs on improvements for both mobility and sensory for not just the students at Carlson, but also other people suffering from cerebral palsy without access to a special school.
Congratulations to all the winners, and all other participants for making it through the challenge!
Committee 2012
After elections have taken place, the Auckland Students Chapter 2011 is proud to announce the Committee 2012. The members of this committee, as well as their roles, are:
EWB Aucklands Students Chapter 2012
| Name | Role |
| Elliot Hurst | President |
| Daniel Fitzpatrick | Ops Manager |
| Nathaniel Burbery | Events Manager |
| Deveshoan Michael | Events Manager |
| katy Carr | Design Challenge Manager |
| Roxanne Bartlett | Design Challenge Manager |
| Nick Lee | Conference Manager |
| Matthew Davison | Conference Manager |
| Zabin Farishta | Project Manager |
| Amber Chen | Schools Manager |
| Christopher Jarrett | Schools Manager |
| Sobia Mughal | Marketing Manager |
| Tina Sidhu | Communications Manager |
Many of them have had extensive experience with EWB in the past, so we have no doubt that our Chapter will be in capable hands next year!
Canterbury Students Chapter Update
The University year is coming to an end so the Chapter is wrapping up for this year, and preparing for the next. Over the coming weeks, the 2012 committee is getting together for a couple of 'visioning and planning' days in preparation for next year. Hot on the cards for discussion are the 2012 events calender, goals for 2012 and beyond, and local community involvement. If you have input into where you want to see our chapter go, or any bright ideas for events and community involvement you want to see, drop an email to raf61@uclive.ac.nz.
There is however still one last event on the calender for this year: The EWB Canterbury and Engenerate (young IPENZ professionals) Canterbury Combined Quiz Night. This event is put on for members of both organisations and the funds raised are going toward the Ambae School Waste Water Project. Details are:
Date: Wednesday 16th of November 2011
Time: 7:00 pm (for a 7:30pm start) till 9:00pm
Location: Pegasus Arms Bar and Restaurant, 14 Oxford Tce, Christchurch
Teams: Maximum of five per team. Get a team sorted beforehand, or join one on the night.
Cost: $10 members, $15 non-members
Nibbles and some drinks provided.
If you are free and want a good evening out then come along. All welcome. RSVP to Rohit Singh at Rohit.Singh@beca.com.
I hope all our student members have had successful exams! And have a much deserved break/work experience over the summer. For contact for chapter related matters over the summer break please email Richard Fernando atraf61@uclive.ac.nz.
Wellington Professionals Chapter Update
Come along to our latest presentation - Lessons learnt from the Christchurch Earthquake Emergency Response by Steve Glassey. It will be on 16 November 2011 at 6:30pm. The CBD venue location is still to be confirmed.
Steve Glassey is the Assistant Director and Tutor at the Joint Centre for Disaster Research at Massey University's School of Psychology. The Centre undertakes multi-disciplinary applied teaching and research aimed at understanding the impacts of disasters on communities, improving risk management and enhancing community preparedness, response and recovery from various hazard events. Steve's presentation will focus on some of the research which has been undertaken into the effects of the emergency response during the earthquake in Christchurch and the lessons that can be applied from it.
Steve is also a volunteer member of the new ADRA New Zealand Emergency Response Team, available to deploy internationally to support ADRA Country Offices abroad in times of disaster. He continues to work part time for the Mercalli Disaster Management Consulting group whose clients have been commended in their responses during the Christchurch earthquake.
This presentation will provide and interesting and different perspective on the aftermath of the Christchurch earthquake.
EWB in Schools Update
The EWB-In-Schools team believes in the power of hands-on learning, and we use it to inspire the next generation of New Zealand engineers to become development experts. We have been running our Clean Water for Life programme in Auckland for 2 years now, and it is with huge excitement that we announce the programme has been officially launched in Christchurch! The Canterbury Chapter held a training event at the beginning of October, attracting a healthy crowd of keen volunteers. The new volunteers got a chance to build and test the sand-based water filters we have students build in class as part of the programme. While adopting a profile of an assigned country, the volunteers used the "EWB money" they were given to purchase the resources they needed to build a fully functioning water filter. Some were more functional than others but thanks to a collaborative effort everyone crossed the finish line!
This was followed the next day by the inaugural Canterbury Chapter school visit to Unlimited: an alternative school that was displaced by the earthquakes and is currently based at Halswell Residential College. Expecting only a handful of students, the EWB-In-Schools coordinator Kate Brooks and her team were surprised when 15 people turned up on the day. The students were fully engaged during the workshop and thrived during the discussions and practical activity. This was a great start and will provide some momentum going in to next year so that we can hit the ground running when our student volunteers return from summer holidays.
The Wellington Chapter is furiously planning a training workshop and school visit for the end of the year so please get in contact if you would like to be involved. All the EWB-In-Schools Chapter teams can be via schools@ewb.org.nz. For more information check out www.ewb.org.nz/education.
EWB Australia Conference
Engineers Australia and Engineers Without Borders are proud to bring you imagineering - the Humanitarian Engineering Conference 2011. The three-day conference will be held at the Etihad Stadium in Melbourne and will include technical workshops, interactive sessions and networking opportunities.
Over the three days of conference, delegates will be taken from the point of understanding the issues surrounding poverty, reconciliation and the role of engineers in attending to these issues to celebrating the current and past activities the engineering sector has undertaken in the areas of disaster management, poverty alleviation and capacity building.
Check out this link (www.ewb.org.au/events/967/10689)for an overview of the program, highlights of some keynotes, and the themes of the conference. Delegates can expect a combination of high quality seminars, workshops and forums surrounding each streams theme, and all building towards the bigger picture of humanitarian engineering, and the humanitarian engineer.
EWB has been very privileged to have had such a spotlight on our mission throughout the year, and we are confident that the final event, the conference, will just mark the beginning of great things to come!
Cost
| Member early bird: | $500 |
| Non-member Early Bird: | $620 |
| Member day early bird: | $300 |
| Non member day early bird: | $350 |
| Student | $300 |
Biomimicry Presentation
For those of you who are interested in appropriate technology, here's a presentation taking it to the next level: A unique public dialogue with Megan Schuknecht, Director of University Education and Relations at the Biomimicry Institute in the USA, supported by colleague Sam Stier, Director of Public Education and Conservation and a diverse and dynamic panel of young New Zealand professionals.
Topic
Growing a rich, sustainable future for our grandchildren using nature and its long proven processes as our design mentor .
When
Thursday 8th Dec 2011 7:00-9:00 pm. Informal follow on till 10pm
Where
University of Auckland (Room details to come).
Please check out the following website for rolling updates; http://www.biomimicry.org.nz/ or email Megan (megz108@gmail.com).
Upcoming CID Events
Is Microenterprise Still the Answer? Workshop
Auckland, November 16, 2011
8.30am - 1pm
This NGO workshop in Auckland on 16 November 2011 is designed to explore a range of approaches for enhancing livelihoods in the varied contexts in which New Zealand-based international NGOs work.
To enroll for this workshop please contact:
Rob Vos rob.vos@worldvision.co.nz or Tel:09 580 7792
'From Great to Good' Workshop
Wellington, November 17, 2011
12.30pm-4.30pm
The Hedgehog Concept, discovered and explained in the book Great to Good by Jim Collins, sets out a framework for identifying what organisations can be truly great at and where they should be focusing their efforts. Hear how Trade Aid has taken practical steps to implement this understanding, and what they have learnt from the process, while participating in an interactive activity that will see CID's opportunity for greatness divulged.
To enroll for this workshop please contact: michelia.ward@tradeaid.org.nz or Tel:03-385-3535
Engineers Without Borders
Nga Kaihanga Kore Here o Aotearoa