Engineers Without Borders founder Dr. Bernard Amadei speaks at UCF

Dr. Bernard Amadei, a professor of civil engineering at the University of Colorado in Boulder and founder of the humanitarian organization Engineers Without Borders (EWB), spoke to a full room at UCF on Monday.

Andrew Ivey, president of UCF's EWB-USA chapter, along with faculty adviser Kaveh Madani, organized the event.

"As one of the largest schools in the nation, we have the mass here and we want to get EWB activated," Madani said.

Amadei's speech, entitled "Engineering for the Developing World: From Crisis to Development", took place at noon in room 101 of the Harris Corporation Engineering Center. Amadei spoke on the need for global engineers who will contribute their skills toward helping provide environmentally and economically stable solutions for impoverished communities.

EWB-USA was founded after a visit to San Pablo, Belize in 2001 where Amadei noticed that instead of attending school, children were spending their days walking to a river to supply water for their families. In addition to the lack of running water, the village had no electricity and was extremely unsanitary—a common occurrence around the world.

"More than 1.2 billion people lack clean water, while 1.6 billion have no electricity and 2.4 billion lack adequate sanitation" Amadei said.

UCF sophomore and industrial engineering major Alexandra Villalobos was moved by the facts.

"I almost wanted to cry at some slides," she said.

Since its formation, EWB-USA's numbers have grown greatly. It contains more than 12,000 participants and holds 225 chapters. With 400 projects in over 45 countries, the EWB-USA's aid has benefitted more than 600,000 people with their basic, sustainable engineering projects. UCF's EWB chapter has also grown substantially.

"We have had a good move reaching more students," Madani said.

The EWB-UCF club jumped from 15 members to 45 members and last May the members went to Haiti and installed 44 water filters. EWB's goal is to stress to engineers that addressing and helping those in poverty is now a duty.

"It's no longer an option for engineers, but an obligation" Amadei said.

"[Engineers] should be an instrument of change," he said.

EWB wants to take local, affordable materials and help create appropriate technologies that will protect the environment, create jobs, and provide a promising future. Projects include building access to essentials such as fresh, pollutant-free water. Amadei has completed such tasks in places like Afghanistan, West Bank, and even nationally, in Montana.

Amadei emphasized that engineers need to mix quick action with creative thinking, also known as Frugal Innovation.

"It's not about charity but empowerment" Amadei said.

It's also a market he advised. There's profit lying in these underdeveloped areas that no one else is helping, those who arrive first, will earn first. At the end of the day however, Amadei completes EWB projects for self-fulfillment.

"A good summary of what I'm doing is for smiles," he said.

Villalobos counts the meeting as a success because she enjoyed Amadei's everyman approach.

"I liked that he didn't just talk about the technical aspects," she said.

Madani booked Amadei to speak in hopes of educating and inspiring students about EWB.

"We wanted inspiration. We wanted to know how a nonprofit organization was so successful," Madani said.

Madani believes Amadei's speech did just that, and he's not the only one.

"I think it was quite inspiring and I got lots of good feedback," he said.