News and updates

VOLLEYBALL TOURNAMENT

2009-06-11T11:25:00.000-07:00

Rules and Regulations:

What to bring on the day:

$18 per team
Any volleyballs you would like to contribute to the game
Protective wear from the sun
Sunscreen

Need volunteers for Black & Veatch - Workday on this Saturday, Oct. 25

2008-10-21T15:16:00.000-07:00

Hey guys,

Here is a cool volunteering opportunity. It could also be a good networking opportunity if you are interested in working for Black and Veatch. Contact Bill Buckner (contact info below) directly if you want to go.

Chris
-------
Chris & Akeem, Black & Veatch Corp. in Cary is supporting the Adopt-A-Stream program with the City of Raleigh. We have a Workday coming up this Saturday. We are in need of about 15 additional volunteers to help with the stream clean up from 8:00 AM to 12:00 Noon on Saturday. This is very physical work and most everyone will get wet also, so we need people that can handle rough conditions and work hard.
Can you share this with the EWB teams at NCSU and lets see if we can get additional volunteers to help with this worthy environmental cause. The stream location is Pigeon Fork creek actually located off Capital Blvd behind the old Harris Wholesale warehouse near Peace College.

If we could get some volunteers from NCSU - EWB, that would be wonderful. We are short on people now.

See if you can help us out with this. My number below is listed if you need any additional information. Just have the volunteers contact me directly. I can pick up people Saturday morning if anyone needs a ride.

Bill Buckner
Black & Veatch Corporation
Procurement Manager - Raleigh
Phone: 919-462-7356
Fax: 919-468-9212
Email: bucknerwt@bv.com
Building a World of Difference®

Oct. 22nd speaker on Bolivian social movements and current political violence

2008-10-19T20:15:00.000-07:00

If anyone is interested in attending this event, let me know and we can get a group together. It sound like it should be pretty interesting.

Chris
---

Hey Akeem,

It's Matt Ball from Duke-EWB. We're hosting a speaker about current events in Bolivia on October 22nd and I wanted to invite you and the other members of the NC State Bolivia team. Here's the official info:

*Current Power Struggles in Bolivia: A First Hand Account*
Bolivia has recently been gripped by political instability stemming from the indigenous President's plans to redistribute the nation's wealth and lift some of the continent's poorest farmers out of poverty. The country's landowners and business elite have had the support of the US government in their actions to destabilize the democratically-elected government.

Denise Cochran fled Bolivia weeks ago after living there with her family for the past twelve years. She worked as a non-profit consultant on issues related to social and economic justice while her husband advised Evo Morales, Bolivia's president and South America's first indigenous head of state. The Cochran family's close ties to the government have provided clear insights into the roots of the political violence that has recently taken hold of the nation.

Mrs. Cochran will speak on Wednesday October 22nd at 6:30pm in room 130 of the Sociology-Psychology building about current developments in Bolivia and the US's role in them. This event is sponsored by Duke's chapter of Engineers Without Borders. Refreshments will be provided.

More on current events in Bolivia:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/28/world/americas/28bolivia.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7668527.stm

Info on EWB's past work in Bolivia:
https://wiki.duke.edu/display/engineerswithoutborders/Bolivia

If you all have time to come, that would be great. Thanks.

Matt

Research meeting tomorrow and building the filter

2008-10-15T06:59:00.000-07:00

Hey Guys,

Instead of having a regular research meeting tomorrow, we will be meeting with Dr. Knappe in Mann at 11:45. We will just be discussing our research and overall project with him, and this may not take too long. If you would like to come, meet me in the Mann computer lab around 11:40.

We are also planning to build the cement filter this Friday in Weaver Labs at 1. This will probably take a couple of hours, but should also be a lot of fun. The more people that come, the faster we can finish the filter, so let me know if you would like to come and I'll send out a more specific meeting place that morning.

Chris

Tomorrow's meeting

2008-10-13T17:38:00.001-07:00

Hello guys,

At the meeting tomorrow we will be discussing:

Construction of the filter: we will build it in Weaver Labs, probably on Saturday
Fundraising: poker tournament, disc golf fundraiser, and a benefit dinner
Grants: we need to find some grants to apply for, so if anyone knows of a company that has a grant or would be interested in a sponsorship type of thing, could you let me know so we can apply for it.

Hope to see you all tomorrow.

Chris

Flow (Independent Film about the water crisis)

2008-10-10T07:31:00.000-07:00

Hey!

The American Water Works Association (AWWA) chapter we've been networking with has just notified us of an independent film coming out about the impending water crisis. If anyone hears about any showings in Raleigh, please let us know. (comment on the blog about it)

This would be a good opportunity for a nice social outing.

Here's the link to the movie's site: http://www.flowthefilm.com/

Have a great fall break! Be safe!
-Hanna

No meetings today. (Fall Break)

2008-10-10T07:30:00.000-07:00

Hey,

We will not be having a research meeting today, or the regular meeting
tonight. Out general body meeting next week will be next tuesday
because of the game.

Chris

Opportunity for sustainability conversation at Meredith College

2008-10-08T07:19:00.000-07:00

The Meredith Service Learning Coordinator is putting together a fall "Learn and Serve Fridays" series. The October 24th event will include building at the Meredith sponsored Habitat House from 2 to 4:30 and then a discussion and dinner on the Meredith campus from 5 to 6:30 on the topic of sustainability. We'd like to invite a group of NCSU (and/or other) sustainability-minded students or staff to join us, particularly for the dinner conversation, if not for the entire afternoon.

Let me know if you’re interested in participating by Monday, October 13.

Thank you,
Laura Fieselman
Sustainability Coordinator
Meredith College
919.760.8899

Bolivia Trip Postponed

2008-10-08T07:18:00.000-07:00

Hello folks,

We have decided to postpone the implementation trip from December to some time during the summer. This will give us more time to fundraise so we can take more people on the trip. We are going to try to plan a month long trip, instead of two weeks like was previously planned.

If anyone wants to go, let me know so we can plan to raise a certain amount of money. The more people we take, the better the project will turn out, so I would like for anyone that has any interest in going on the trip to let me know. It costs about $1500-2000 to take an extra person (mostly cost of plane ticket). If everyone that is going on the trip helps with fundraising and grant applications we should be able to accommodate everyone. Just let me know and we'll figure out what we need to do.

Thanks,Chris

Ferrocement tank build this week

2008-09-29T05:54:00.001-07:00

Hey guys,

Hope everyone had a great weekend. The main goal for this week is to
be able to build a ferrocement filter, but we are still waiting to
hear if we can use the lab, and we might have to wait until next week.
Anyone who is interested in helping with the filter, could you tell
me what times would be good for you; the times the CE 332 labs meet
and we have to work around are:

M 12:25 - 3:10
M 4:30 - 7:15
T 4:30 - 7:15
W 1:30 - 4:15
W 4:30 - 7:15
H 4:30 - 7:15

Building this filter should be a lot of fun, so I hope a lot of people
can come.

If anyone wants to see how ferrocement is built, there is a good
article (that includes pictures) online at
http://crs.org/publications/showpdf.cfm?pdf_id=99.

Chris

New videos

2008-09-26T06:02:00.000-07:00

Here are some recent videos related to the situation in Bolivia:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lolCfcPGAqk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sae3XkQ15A

Thursday, Sept 24 Meetings

2008-09-25T07:06:00.000-07:00

Hello all,

We will be having our research meeting tomorrow at 11:30 in Mann(we'll meet in the lobby and move to another room after that). Ourgeneral body meeting will also be tomorrow, at 7 in Dan 371. Hope tosee you all there.

Chris

New pictures uploaded!

2008-09-21T08:07:00.001-07:00

Go to: http://picasaweb.google.com/home

Water for People update on situation in bolivia.

2008-09-19T07:57:00.001-07:00

Hi!

As many of you have heard there's some serious civil unrest happening in Bolivia due to Evo Morales' new constitution and overall way of running the country.

Here you can find some more info:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7617873.stm

Here's an update sent to us by Water for People, non-profit organization we collaborate with through NC AWWA (American Water Works Association).
http://ewb.ncsu.bolivia.googlepages.com/WaterforPeopleBoliviaupdate.pdf

Let us know if you read anything new about this. We should all keep up with this situation since it may very well affect our project implementation.

Research or our meetings will not stop because of this. We'll continue working on this regardless. See you at the next meeting!
Have a nice weekend!!

Research meeting Thursday

2008-09-17T12:01:00.000-07:00

Hello all,

This is just a reminder that we will be meeting tommorow at 11:30 inMann for the research meeting and later in DAN 371 at 7:30 for thegeneral body meeting. Hope to see you all there.

Chris

Research meetings

2008-09-12T07:11:00.000-07:00

Hey guys,
The research meetings will begin next week and will be at Thursday @ 11:30 in theMann lobby. We may move to another room after people show up, but wewill meet in the lobby.
We are also going to do some sand sifting through mosquito netting totry to prepare media for a biosand filter. The purpose is to see whatsize and distribution of sand will make it through the screen, and ifthis will be adequate for filter media. We are going to meet in 135Weaver Labs (which is the large middle lab) at 12 on tuesday to dothis. Call me at (828) 400-1826 if you have trouble finding us.
Have a nice weekend and I hope to see you guys next week.
Chris

EWB research meetings

2008-09-05T12:00:00.000-07:00

Hello all,

I hope everyone is excited about getting started for the semester. Ifyou would like to attend the research meetings, could you send me yourschedule so that I can find a time most of us can meet.

Research meetings are when we meet with Dr. Knappe of theenvironmental engineering department do discuss performed and plannedresearch. We will probably meet in Mann, but may meet in the FlexLabs (where we will be doing our research, close to centennialcampus). Right now we are researching solar disinfection (SODIS).These meetings are completely separate from the committee meetings,and hopefully some folks from the Sierra Leone committee can make itto the meetings too.

Hope you all have a great weekend.

Fiesta del Pueblo - Sept. 6 & 7

2008-08-29T08:55:00.000-07:00

Hey!

You're all invited to this. There will be hispanic/latin food, dancing, crazyness ;)
I'll be there stuffing my face with food both days & volunteering at the Puerto Ricans in NC booth. Find more info here: http://www.elpueblo.org/english/events/lafiesta.html

Come over, it's tons of fun! Give me a call if you come...& if you need a ride too!

-Hanna
(787-598-1299)

Fall 2008 Update

2008-08-26T04:47:00.000-07:00

Hey Yall,

Hope your summers went well and this semester is a good one. This
semester is going to be a lot of fun for EWB. We are planning on
going to Bolivia in December, since we couldn't go this summer. Since
most of the planning of the trip was done last semester, this will
give us a little more time to research and fundraise, which will both
be a hoot.

Our first meeting is going to be in two Thursdays, so there isn't much
to do until then except try to come up with ideas for a fundraiser
this semester, so we can send some more people. If you come up with
some ideas, that will probably be the focus of our first meeting or
two. Also, we will be having research meetings this semester, so we
need to figure out a time that we can all meet with Dr. Knappe. If
everyone could bring their schedules to the first meeting that would
be helpful and we can start the semester off right.

Chris

SODIS Monday, August 11, 2008

2008-08-11T07:32:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,

The results from the last SODIS experiment look great! There were a couple of issues with collecting data with the datalogger, but that will be fixed this time around. Tomorrow (Monday) we will meet in the Mann lobby at 3:00PM to collect water and set up the SODIS experiment at the solar center. Please come if you can make it. I'll be sending the data from the last experiment in a future email.

See you tomorrow.

-Akeem

SODIS experiment is on! (Part 2)

2008-08-08T06:24:00.000-07:00

Hey guys,

SODIS experiment part 1 turned out great! Sorry everyone who didn't get part 1. I was only contacting the people who were available to help out with the research, but since we are nearing the beginning the semester, I would like everyone to get involved.
We were able to set up the bottles with the temperature probes and radiometer at the solar center. I have collected the data on the initial water sample (pH, turbidity, and soon absorbance and coliform content). We will continue the experiment for the next two days by retrieving the bottles from the solar center and analyzing the incubated Rocky Branch Creek water.
If any of you are in town and want to get involved, come to the Mann lobby tomorrow at 4:00PM. I'll go over how to use the equipment and answer any questions you have about the experiment.

I hope are enjoying the rest of your summer. I'll see you when you are back in Raleigh.

-Akeem

SODIS experiment is on!

2008-08-06T11:00:00.000-07:00

Hey guys,

We will be doing the SODIS experiment today, Wednesday August 6, 2008 at 3:30 PM. We'll start off by collecting the water from Rockey Branch Creek to fill up the plastic bottles. We will then take the filled bottles and datalogger to the Solar Center to set up our experiment. After the bottles are set, we will go back to the lab to test the pH, turbidity, and absorbance ofthe initial water samples. We will be learning how to use various lab equipment so it should be a fun learning experience. I hope you guys can make it.

See you this afternoon!

-Akeem

Research opportunity: assessing charcoal and biochar materials as water filtration media

2008-07-09T10:33:00.001-07:00

Charcoal and biochar materials can be produced from renewable biomass feedstocks and agricultural and forestry waste materials by pyrolysis (heating in reduced oxygen conditions). These carbonized materials resemble activated carbon at the molecular scale. Activated carbon has been shown to be very effective for removing pesticides and other harmful organic contaminants from drinking water. Since charcoal and biochar materials are easily produced, inexpensive, and widely available in many countries around the world, their use as water filtration media may prove an effective option for providing safe drinking water to low income, especially rural communities throughout the developing world.

Research activities are currently underway in the environmental engineering department at NCSU to characterize a variety of charcoal and biochar materials at the molecular level and assess their capacity for removing pesticide contaminants of concern in drinking water supplies. We are seeking research assistant(s) to help perform lab experiments to support the design of a prototype water purification system serving a farming community in northern Thailand. For more information, please contact Josh Kearns at josh@aqsolutions.org.

Implementation Trip Update (cancelled)

2008-07-09T06:29:00.001-07:00

Unfortunately, we had to postpone the implementation trip to Bolivia. There is too much civil unrest in Bolivia right now because they are having their election in August. Also EWB-USA was giving us a hard time when we were trying to get approval. They loved our project and thought we were prepared and organized, but they wouldn't give us the OK until we told them what the roofing material was made of. We contacted Luc (the director of the Capacitation Center in Bolivia) and he told us that the roof was made of a zinc alloy and that he believed that it was usable for rainwater harvesting, but it was not enough information for EWB-USA. They wanted to know if we could get a sealant for the roof to prevent the zinc from leeching into the water, but there was now way that we could get that information at the time since Luc left Bolivia for a month and our other contacts were not responding in. Because our implementation trip date was approaching and we still had not bought our tickets, we had to postpone the trip. the tickets would have been too expensive for our budget, and we would not be able to get the rest of the implementation trip requirements completed before August.

For the rest of the summer and next semester, we will be doing experiments with sand filtration, charcoal filtration, SODIS, and ferro cement to prepare for our implementation trip in December. Will you be in town for any of the summer? If you are interested, you can help us out with the charcoal filtration, and SODIS experiments this summer.

If you or anyone else has any more questions, please ask me. I want to make sure that everyone is updated and knows what's going on. I hadn't sent everyone an update yet because our decision to postpone the trip was just made last week.I hope you have having a great summer,

-Akeem

NCWFP meeting this Friday, July 11, 2008

2008-07-08T08:38:00.000-07:00

Akeem, Chris and Hanna have been attending these for some time now. It's a good opportunity to network with professionals for your personal benefit and that of the committee. The NC chapter of American Water Works Association works with NCWFP (Water for People NC), which funds Water for People Bolivia (hence our networking interest).

Let us know if you'd like to join us by calling in or physically attending the meeting.

Here's a brief invitation from them:
Please join us in either Charlotte or Raleigh and we will teleconference and webcast. Alternatively you can call from where you are, though we will be gathering at both the above indicated locations.

Friday, July 11th, 2008
10:30 a.m. to 12:30pm
HDR, Charlotte, NC & Hazen and Sawyer, Raleigh NC

2008-06-11T05:53:00.000-07:00

Hey Yall,

This email is intended to catch everybody up on the status of ourproject in Asankiri. Right now the project is on hold until we canshow that the paint on the roof of the Capacitaion Center will notleach anything into the water, or (more likely) find some way to put asealant on the roof so this leaching does not occur. We don't knowwhat is best used for this, or what is going to be available inCochabamba, so it is difficult to find a solution to this problemwithout going to Bolivia. Other than this one point, the TAC was verypleased with our project. There are also apparently going to be some"peaceful" demonstrations in Bolivia at some point, but we are not sure if this will affect our trip in any way.

Our new mentor for the trip is Josh Kearns, who is currently doingresearch on charcoal filtration at NC State. If anyone wants to helphim out with that research, you can contact Akeem because he has beenhelping Josh when he can. Akeem is also doing some research on SODIS,so if anyone wants to help with that you can contact him. If anybodywants to help in any other way, someone could write up a plan for thehygiene education meetings that we are going to have with the studentsat the Center.

A couple extra notes, we are currently trying to set up more of arelationship with Aqueous Solutions (the company Josh works for).There is someone Josh knows in Bolivia who is working on slow sandfiltration, so he might prove to be a valuable when we move forwardwith our project, if we move in that direction.

I hope you all are having a great summer, and as soon as we know the exact position our project is in, I will let you guys know.
Chris

Apex Conservation Days

2008-05-13T05:55:00.000-07:00

Hi EWB-ers...

I'm making a presentation about Aqueous Solutions' research and projects in sustainable and self-reliant water filtration at an event called Conservation Days in the town of Apex (suburb of Raleigh) on Saturday, May 31. The presentation will be part slide show about our project in Thailand, and part hands-on, how-to demo session for building your own 5-gallon bucket filter for potable rainwater harvested from rooftops. (See paper here.)

Would anyone like to participate in this event with me? There are other interesting workshops happening as well on sustainable energy, land and water resources, organic gardening, water harvesting and rain gardens, etc.

For my bit, it would be nice to have a hand doing the demo, as we will be constructing the filter on the spot during the workshop. And since I want to make sure it works in advance, a few days before we could get together for a dry run (or a wet run, as it were). And perhaps EWB would like to have the demo filter once the workshop is over for research projects, etc.

I was also thinking this could be a good opportunity for outreach for your EWB trips, projects, research, etc. The event has space for tabling and display - you could present your SODIS work for example. Perhaps you could even get some donations for your travels and field work?
Email me if any of these possibilities sound good to you.

Josh K
www.aqsolutions.org

Week of Thursday May 1st, 2008

2008-05-01T05:38:00.000-07:00

FINALS WEEK!!!!
Check out our new website! and pictures!
Thank you all for helping out at the Benefit Dinner, it was a success! More info about our economic success is to come.

Paperwork
- Please contact Akeem if you're interested/have time this or next week to help fill out all the paperwork so our project can be accepted!

Research Group Meetings
Research meetings with Dr. Knappe are Wednesdays at 12:30 to 1:30.
A sampling plan for SODIS is being revised so we can start formally testing and learning about this treatment process soon. We're using the brand new total coliforms and e. coli testing technology in the lab. If you haven't already, come check it out!
The datalogger also arrived.
We will be getting in touch with the Solar House people to verify their availability over the summer.
Hygiene Education group is scheduled to present soon!
SODIS
- Please begin collecting 2 L clear soda bottles for this experiment.
- We will setup at the NC Solar House!

Sand Filtration
- Scheduled to begin building the formal prototype next semester.
- Dr. Rizkalla (from CFL) is helping us with the design.

Rainwater Catchment
- The formal/written design should be worked on sooner than later! We still have to ask Luc whether or not it would be possible for them to build it before we get there!

New pictures from Bolivia!

2008-04-14T05:56:00.000-07:00

Hey, guys!

Luc just sent me some more pictures...hope they'll help us with our tank design. Check them out!

http://picasaweb.google.com/ewb.ncsu.bolivia/PicturesSentFromBolivia

Week of Thursday Apr 10, 2008

2008-04-10T05:40:00.000-07:00

Check out our new website! and pictures!
Benefit Dinner
When: Friday, April 25th, 2008
from 6:00pm to 9:00pm
Where: Pullen Church
Research Group Meetings
Research meetings with Dr. Knappe are Wednesdays at 12:30 to 1:30.
A sampling plan for SODIS is being revised so we can start formally testing and learning about this treatment process this week and continue to for the next four weeks. We're using the brand new total coliforms and e. coli testing technology in the lab. If you haven't already, come check it out!
Hygiene Education group is scheduled to present soon!
SODIS
- Please begin collecting 2 L clear soda bottles for this experiment.
- We will setup at the NC Solar House!

Sand Filtration
- Scheduled to begin building the formal prototype next semester.
- Meeting with Dr. Rizkalla this Thursday!

Rainwater Catchment
- Scheduled to formally design something next research meeting.

Week of Thursday Apr 3, 2008

Check out our new website!
Benefit Dinner - Back on track!
Date: Friday of Dead Week
Food
More info TBA
Research Group Meetings
Research meetings with Dr. Knappe are Wednesdays at 12:30 to 1:30.
A sampling plan for SODIS is being revised so we can start formally testing and learning about this treatment process this week and continue to for the next four weeks. We're using the brand new total coliforms and e. coli testing technology in the lab. If you haven't already, come check it out!
Hygiene Education group is scheduled to present soon!
SODIS
- Please begin collecting 2 L clear soda bottles for this experiment. We should have a place to store them in Mann Hall really soon.

Sand Filtration
- Sieve Analysis - Chris will post or let us know what he found or learned.

UNC-CH Trip
Pictures are up on Akeem's Flickr account, contact him.

Week of Thursday Mar 27, 2008

2008-03-27T05:41:00.000-07:00

Benefit Dinner - Back on track!
Date: Friday of Dead Week
More info TBA
Research Group Meetings
Research meetings with Dr. Knappe are Wednesdays at 12:30 to 1:30. Hygiene Education group is scheduled to present soon!
Research
In the process of buying materials, we should be able to begin our experiments in the next couple of weeks!
- This Wednesday's research meeting we'll be using our brand new Quanti-trays that just arrived!!!!!!
SODIS
- Please begin collecting 2 L clear soda bottles for this experiment. We should have a place to store them in Mann Hall really soon.
- If you have any way to collect pallets (these will serve as racks for the bottles) from Lowe's (Chris!!), Food Lion (Danielle!!), Sam's Club, BJs (did I get that right?), you get the picture, please collect and store until further notice. :)

Sand Filtration
- Sieve Analysis - Chris will post or let us know what he found or learned.

UNC-CH Trip
Pictures are up on Akeem's Flickr account, contact him.
Imagine a Difference Videos
This is a site that promotes projects worldwide. They've been in contact with us (well, Hanna) and EWB-USA for a while. Since we haven't had any 'big' activity related to our project, until now (the UNC trip) I hadn't brought it to the meetings. I'll be working on a video, mostly informative about our project, which the guy said he'd post it on the site (www.imagineadifference.org) with a "Please donate" link. If you have any pictures or ideas, please send them to hkrodriguez@gmail.com.

Week of Thursday Mar 6, 2008

2008-03-06T05:41:00.000-08:00

Have a good Spring Break! Be safe!

Benefit Dinner - Very doubtful (start thinking about any other fundraising ideas we could do before the semester's over)
We are getting really close to our planned benefit dinner date and we still don't have a location! I'm going to need everyone to find at least two possible places for us to have the dinner. The parameters are:
Costs <$500 but hopefully Free (tell them it is tax deductible)
Planning on having it on March 14 or 15
Allows caterers from elsewhere
If you know ANYONE or ANY PLACE where they could allow us to have an event like this but with an outside caterer, please contact Danielle Touma (danielletouma@gmail.com).

Research Group Meetings
Due to schedule conflicts the research meetings will now be on Wednesdays at 12:30 to 1:30. Hopefully the majority of us can make it at this new time. The Rainwater catchment group will be presenting this week.

Sieve Analysis
Chris will post or let us know what he found or learned.
UNC-CH Trip
Pictures are up on Akeem's Flickr account, contact him.

Imagine a Difference Videos
This is a site that promotes projects worldwide. They've been in contact with us (well, Hanna) and EWB-USA for a while. Since we haven't had any 'big' activity related to our project, until now (the UNC trip) I hadn't brought it to the meetings. I'll be working on a video, mostly informative about our project, which the guy said he'd post it on the site (www.imagineadifference.org) with a "Please donate" link. If you have any pictures or ideas, please send them to hkrodriguez@gmail.com.

Week of Thursday Feb 21, 2008

2008-02-21T05:42:00.000-08:00

Benefit Dinner
We are getting really close to our planned benefit dinner date and we still don't have a location! I'm going to need everyone to find at least two possible places for us to have the dinner. The parameters are:
Costs <$500 but hopefully Free (tell them it is tax deductible)
Planning on having it on March 14 or 15
Allows caterers from elsewhere
If you know ANYONE or ANY PLACE where they could allow us to have an event like this but with an outside caterer, please contact Danielle Touma (danielletouma@gmail.com).
Research Group Meetings
Due to schedule conflicts the research meetings will now be on Wednesdays at 12:30 to 1:30. Hopefully the majority of us can make it at this new time. The Rainwater catchment group will be presenting this week.
Sieve Analysis
Chris Love: "If anyone is interested in helping with the sieve analysis (needed tofind the effective diameter and uniformity coefficient of the sandsbeing used for the biosand research), I am planning on doing it Friday (the 22nd)afternoon in Weaver lab 135"

UNC-CH Trip
We'll be at UNC all day Saturday, the 23rd carrying out these two tasks:
Volunteer for WaterPartners
Breakfast
Need nice clothes for the evening dinner.
Visit Biosand Filter (with Mark Elliott, PhD student)

Week of Thursday Feb 14, 2008

2008-02-14T05:42:00.000-08:00

Happy Valentine's Day!

Benefit Dinner
We still need a location!!! We pretty much have everything but the location. We are now aiming for the weekend of March 15, so as soon as we find a place we will start advertising. Through a website, information was requested to various locations including museums, Peace College, hotels, and such.
If you know ANYONE or ANY PLACE where they could allow us to have an event like this but with an outside caterer, please contact Danielle Touma (danielletouma@gmail.com).

Dr. Borden
We need to come up with a nice project layout/proposal with a proper objective so that en the environmental engineering senior design students can do our project. We'll start setting that up on Thursday the 14th.

Presentations
Many organizations are wanting a presentation from us. Please come up with good ideas and send them to me so we can incorporate it into the presentation we will be showing to various organizations. One of the presentations (for AWWA) was started today, we'll finish at the meeting.

Appearances
AWWA (American Water Works Association) meeting (with Chris Belk from NC Water for People) - Feb. 15 @ 10:30 am (more info)

Week of Thursday Feb 7, 2008

2008-02-07T05:43:00.000-08:00

Benefit Dinner
We still need a location!!! We pretty much have everything but the location. We are now aiming for the weekend of March 15, so as soon as we find a place we will start advertising.

Presentations
We are pretty much the presentation committee now, because a bunch of different organizations are wanting a presentation from us. Please come up with good ideas and send them to me so we can incorporate it into the presentation we will be showing to various organizations.

Week of Thursday Jan. 24, 2008

2008-01-24T05:44:00.000-08:00

We are off to a great start! Here are some of the things we went over at our meeting tonight

AWWA-WEF Committee Meeting
We were invited to attend this meeting on the 15th of February, here's more info. We'll talk about it in depth at the meeting, check your schedules by then and let us know if you can come..

Benefit Dinner
Danielle has taken the role as the head of the Benefit Dinner, so if you have any questions about it, send it to her. We will be eating at a restaurant called Mami Nora's on Sunday to test out their restaurant and to convince them to donate their food for our dinner. If you are interested sent Danielle an email. So far we have at least 7 people interested, so we're going to have a big crowd to intimidate them into donating their food. As far as the location of the dinner, we are looking at the Talley Ballroom, Alumni Center, and the Vaughn Towers. If you can think of any other location, post it on the message board under Benefit Dinner.

Research Group Meetings

Right now we are thinking about having our meetings on Wed. or Thurs. at 5:00pm. Since our schedules are conflicting we can possibly alternate between the two. We should be starting back up next week so you will know soon. Hanna and Akeem will be working on the proposal to the SODIS research and the field trip to UNC to analyze their sand filtration system. As far as research presentations, if you do not have a treatment method to research, email Akeem.

Slow Sand Filtration Group: Wednesday, February 6th @ 3:30pm in Weaver Labs.
SODIS Group: TBD (Look for information: http://www.fundacionsodis.org/)

Dr. Borden
Hanna and Akeem are still communicating with Dr. Borden to capture his interest in our project. Hopefully it will become a senior design project so we can progress with our project faster.

Questions for Reed and Luc
Reed is the representative from Water for People who is helping us with our project. He will be going to Cochabamba this weekend, so we came up with some questions. If you have any questions that you think he can answer in Cochabamba, post it on the message board.
Luc works at the capacitation center and is a valuable source of information for our project. If you have any questions for his, please also post them on the message board.

Week of Thursday Jan. 17, 2008

2008-01-17T05:44:00.000-08:00

At last week's meeting we met some new people, who hopefully will bring new ideas to our project.
Quick meeting minute:

- The CDs with GIS information are here! We've been working on getting as much information from them on to understandable maps for all. (Some are already posted on the Files section) Anyone with some experience on ArcGIS or related programs, please get in touch with Hanna (hkrodriguez@gmail.com).

- Benefit Dinner:
* We need someone to get involved in this! Akeem has most of the information, just reservations remain and a formal person to appoint to this task (ASAP!!!).
* Tentative date: Weekend of February 23 !!! (COMING SOON!!!)
* Caterers: Mama Nora (New restaurant in Durham)
* Location: Carrol Joyner Visitors Center (accross from Wolf Village in Western Blvd.) or McKimmon Center.
* Miscelaneous: McKimmon Center has tables and chairs for rent. If we decide on the visitors center, we'd have to be transport them from the McKimmon Center.
More info on the Visitors Center on the Discussion and the Files.
- Research committees:
* New research will be taken over by a new member, related to ceramic filters. Once we get the date settled, he'll be one of the first ones presenting.
* For those who haven't presented: be prepared to really soon. We need to determine whether or not another treatment method will be experimented on so Dr. Knappe can do his thing and fin the resources to get it done. This means that once you present and we determine which methods we'll use, you should prepare a proposal for Dr. Knappe, go over it with him so we can hopefully get all the funds we need ASAP.
* Hanna and Akeem met with Dr. Knappe last week for the SODIS proposal and are doing pretty well. We'll get you up-to-date on that next meeting but basically the experiments will begin soon!!!

- Other announcements
* Reed Palmer, our contact from NC Water for People is making a trip to Bolivia to the Water for People - Bolivia headquarters, where he'll ask some questions and try to get some information we requested. * Mr. Luc Mattheij, the director of CETCFIA (the Capacitation Center) will be contacted at the end of this week. If on your research you come across some questions you might want to ask him, please post it or bring it to Thursday's meeting. We will be punching in some numbers as far as existing tanks' capacity and such, especially since we have a new tank to account for than the two the assessment trip people saw. An mainly because of the fact that we'll be supplying water to a hospital during the dry season too!! We should be doing that on Thursday, so, if you can, overlook the assessment report, the new tank specs, and Mr. Mattheij's answer to the questions (where he explains more about the hospital) posted on the Files.

Week of Thursday Nov. 15, 2007

2007-11-15T05:45:00.000-08:00

The contact from Bolivia finally replied! But all they said was that they sent our questions to other organizations that we should star collaborating with which include Save the Children Canada, USA, and Spain. We will continue to communicate with them to make sure that our project goes smoothly.

Hanna, Danielle, and me went to Jibarra to talk to the event coordinator of the restaurant. He was very willing to help us and was flexible with the dates and other aspects of the event that we planned. The only problem was the price of the food that we are suppose to pay for the dinner. When I spoke with him on the phone the last time he said that the average price for a meal per person was $40.00. So after talking to him for a while, we asked him if we could get a discount for the food. He said he would calculate the benefit dinner costs and get back to us. The restaurant is a very classy place, and would be a great place to have it since we are targeting professionals to come to our dinner this time.
I met with Jimmy the Sunday before the break. He answered some of my questions that dealt with the location of Asanquiri and the water sources around the capacitation center. I will go over the information in better detail at the next meeting.

Week of Thursday, November 8, 2007

2007-11-08T05:45:00.000-08:00

A lot has happened this week so I'm going to try to cover everything without making the email too long. But I want to make sure that everyone is caught up with everything.

Benefit Dinner:
I called the restaurant, Jibarra, on Wednesday. The private event coordinator Joel told me that they will let us use the restaurant for our benefit dinner as long as we paid for the food. I asked him how much the food costs per person, and he told me it was around $40.00 per person depending on how many courses they wanted. I asked him if there was any way they can donate a portion of the food. He told me that maybe he can work something out, so I arranged a meeting with him next week to discuss the logistics. If you have any ideas of what I can say to convince them them to donate the food, send it to me so I can use it at next weeks meeting with him.

Research Meeting:
We had our first Research meeting with Dr. Knappe on Thursday at noon. We had a decent amount of people show up despite the time conflict with the hot cocoa fundraiser. We discussed researching the various methods further in smaller groups.

Meeting with Dr. Borden:
He said that we still need more information about the topography and rainfall data in order for him to make a senior design project our of our project. Try to collect as much information as you can so we can gain his support. I'm working on contacting the people in Bolivia via phone, since they still haven't responded to my email.

Meeting with Dr. Arumugam:
Dr. Arumugan also stressed that we need more rainfall data. He mentioned looking up groundwater data as an alternate source of water. He directed us to look for this information at Stream Flow Stations and GRDC (Global Discharge Runoff Center) to find more information on ground and surface water. Thursday's meeting:We had a representative from Water for People come to our meeting who gave us valuable feedback to some of the questions that we had. He provided many contacts and sources of information that we need to look into. I'll send you more information about the new contacts later this week.

Questions for Jimmy:
Jimmy Summey, one of the people from the team that went to Bolivia last semester, will be coming to our meeting next week. If you have any questions about the community in Bolivia or anything other questions about the project that haven't or cannot be answered by anyone but someone that has gone to Bolivia, write them down so we can ask him next week.

Check the google group every week for weekly updates like this (but shorter).

The Sierra Leone Renewable Energy committee will be having their solar cell fundraiser at the brick yard next week. They'll be there all week (except Monday), so help them sell their solar cells whenever you have some time.