Six students in civil and environmental engineering worked with Washington State University's Engineers Without Borders and Asiana Education Development (AED) to design 2 schools that will be rebuilt in the Indonesian region destroyed by the December 2004 tsunami. AED, a Seattle-based non-profit organization that runs schools for orphans in Sri Lanka, is working to re-build 9 of its schools.

Student Alex McDonald started the WSU chapter of Engineers Without Borders about a year ago. The WSU group's initial project was the relocation design of a potable well system for a non-profit group that does work on the Yakama Indian Reservation.

After the tsunami, McDonald read about efforts by AED to rebuild their schools. He contacted Adam Salmon, AED's director, and the Puget Sound professional Engineers Without Borders organization. He brought work on the design of the two schools back to WSU, where he worked with Professor Dan Dolan to make it part of two senior design projects.

"I want to introduce the students to an international view of how to do projects," Dolan said. "The world is getting too small to do it our way only."

"I am interested in helping people," said student contributor Matthew Ellis. "It's why I became an engineer in the first place."

The students had to overcome many design challenges. The schools had to be built to withstand regular cyclones. The buildings had to be feasible and safe for kids, meeting design parameters for a classroom setting. At the same time, the engineering students had to account for different construction practices and building techniques found in Sri Lanka. Because of turmoil in the region, trying to get information on just what a school site looked like was difficult. One of the schools required a surrounding security wall because of concerns about kidnappings.

The projects have been submitted to the Engineers Without Borders group in Seattle for review, and then will be passed along to AED. Students working on the two projects included Ben Hoppe; Robyn Lee; Dan Westley; John Farleigh; Joshua Horky; and Matthew Ellis. The work done by these students echoes the spirit of WSU's service learning and study-abroad curricula.