Community service driven student senior project and back to community for implementation

Abstract

After the devastating earthquake of January 2010 destroyed most of Port-Au-Prince, Haiti, and killed hundreds of thousands of people, many international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) descended on the Caribbean island nation to help not only in search and rescue but also in the reconstruction. The author took with him three architectural engineering (ARCE) undergraduate students from California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly) to Haiti to help in the reconstruction efforts for one week. The students were so much motivated to volunteer their services to the community that three summer internships were organized for the students through one of the many NGOs in Haiti. The students spent most of the summer out in the community and were able to focus on what the community was lacking in order to move forward with safe repairs of damaged buildings and construction of new safe and sustainable earthquake resistant buildings. By the end of the summer internships, two of the students had each identified a problem that needed to be addressed which in turn became their respective senior projects. This paper reports on the two senior projects that were driven by the community service. The scope of the first project was to manufacture and test applicability of a device that may be used to accurately determine the compressive strength of concrete masonry block in the field. The device had to be easy to transport, easy to use for unskilled operators and was able to give test results on the spot that were easy to interpret. The second project's scope was to design and test a training device for building professionals to demonstrate the behavior of confined masonry buildings under a cyclic (earthquake) loading. Simulation of earthquake loading by shaking the table and removal of some building elements made it easier to communicate the design concepts during the trainings. Upon graduation, the two students were offered employment by two different NGOs in Haiti where they are currently implementing the results of their senior projects back in the community. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2013.