Rowan University engineering team receives ASEE Best Paper Award

June 27, 2007

A team of Rowan University College of Engineering faculty and students received the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) 2007 Best Paper Award for Chemical, Civil/Environmental, and Mechanical Engineering in the international division during a recent ASEE conference.

The paper is titled "Developing Global Engineers: An Integrated Approach to International Projects." The team includes faculty members Dr. Zenaida Otero Gephardt, associate professor of chemical engineering; and Dr. Joshua R. Wyrick, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering; civil and environmental engineering students Dustin M. Kuzan and Jared S. Krause, both of Cherry Hill, and David M. Santino of Queens Village, NY; and mechanical engineering students Carolyn D. Braun, of Telford, PA; and Mary E. Wellspeak of Annapolis, MD. Wellspeak was a sophomore, Braun was a junior, and the rest of the students were seniors when the paper was written.

According to Gephardt, the paper describes a project the team developed in El Amat?n, a community in Santa Ana, El Salvador.

"We completed the background work necessary to design a water delivery system for the town of El Amat?n, near the border with Guatemala," Gephardt said, adding that international collaborations are important in the global, as well as a community's, economy. "Engineers have a responsibility to improve the quality of life of the world's people."

Team members worked with representatives of Engineers Without Borders?USATM (EWB-USA) and the Peace Corps as well as with community leaders to design a way for the town to get potable water, according to the paper's abstract. Students also learned practical applications of the engineering with "an integration of service learning," according to the abstract.

Founded in 1893, the ASEE is a nonprofit organization of individuals and institutions committed to furthering education in engineering and engineering technology, according to the ASEE Web site.

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