Hands-On Experience Teaches Humphrey About Engineering Service

(PITTSBURGH, Pa.) – Junior Eva Humphrey learned a lot through her trip to India with Engineers Without Borders this past summer and is looking forward to continuing to travel the world. Humphrey is a member of the women's cross country and track and field teams at Carnegie Mellon University and is in competition throughout the school year, leaving little time for traveling.

"I like traveling, and there are lots of opportunities for that here," Humphrey said. "There are a lot of opportunities here at Carnegie Mellon too, and I don't want to give up a semester here to spend it somewhere else, especially with cross country and track both semesters."

The friendly atmosphere in Pittsburgh brought her from Asheville, N.C. to Carnegie Mellon when she fell in love with the school and the people on her visit.

"I originally narrowed my list down to four or five strong engineering and design schools," Humphrey said. "I visited the spring of my junior year for my School of Design interview. I was just amazed walking around how many people were willing to help others. My tour guide introduced me to so many professors and students that were all so helpful to each other. I wanted to be a part of that."

Humphrey travelled to the Philippines for her first trip and spent three weeks in the islands. She had a great time there but didn't come away learning as much as her later trip to India.

"I enjoyed it," Humphrey said. "It was a unique experience, but it was more like a service trip. We helped build homes following a tropical storm. Anyone could have done it. We weren't special for being engineering students."

The trip to Rampor provided her with tasks that were above her learning level but truly made a lasting impact on her.

"I felt much more accomplished after our initial trip there," Humphrey said. "It was only an assessment, but I saw that we have an opportunity there to make a real impact."

Humphrey and her teammates in Engineers Without Borders are working on creating sustainable electricity for a public school in Rampor. The school currently runs on hydroelectric power. When the demand for power increases, its water supply decreases and leads to the power being shut off at the school. They then turn to diesel-powered generators, which are distracting for the students and extremely inefficient.

"To solve the problems, we are planning on installing a solar system on the roof of the school," Humphrey said. "It won't be implemented until this coming spring, so on our trip we did assessments of the roof. We took measurements, installed a weather-monitoring system, and surveyed the roof."

The project has taught her plenty, but the high-context of it has led Humphrey to become less involved than she would like to be.

"It is such a high level and less hands-on for us," Humprey said. "It's not something that has a direct physical link with a class. I am learning a lot about diagrams and math. It's teaching me how engineers work in the real world."

In the future, the Engineers Without Borders program is looking for tasks that are more applicable to classes, and Humphrey is excited about this potential.

"They (Engineers Without Borders) keep communicating with people looking for something more directly applicable to the classroom," Humphrey said. "I'm looking forward to what they will find for us and would love to be involved with it."

The junior plans on continuing this work even if it isn't what she chooses as her career.

"It definitely proved to me that I not only like engineering work but engineering service as well," Humphrey said. "I will look to continue doing Engineers Without Borders in addition to my job and would love for it, or something like it, to be my career."

As for the remainder of her junior year at Carnegie Mellon, Humphrey will look to transition her late cross country season success to the track for the winter and spring. Humphrey finished the cross country season as the third best runner on the team.