Blog
Stories from EWB Australia
Announcing our 2024 EWB Challenge community partner – Torres Strait Island Regional Council
Each year, over 10,000 first-year university students across Australia and New Zealand participate in the EWB Challenge. Students work in teams to develop a solution to challenges identified by EWB Australia’s community-based partners. We are excited to announce that...
Building resilience to increasing uncertainty: the role of climate-resilient infrastructure
By Peter McArdle (Engineers Without Borders Australia), Anna Saxby (Humanitarian Advisory Group) and Neil Greet (Australian Security Leaders Climate Group) Increasing uncertainty Vanuatu is one of the most at risk countries in the world for natural disasters,...
Inside the Dili Water System Emergency Repair program
The Dili Water System Emergency Repair Program (DWSERP) addressed the catastrophic flood damage to Dili’s water transmission systems wreaked by heavy rains in April 2021. The program, funded by the Australian Government via the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade,...
Stellar EWB involvement leads to donation
One day in 2018, while spending part of her gap year volunteering as a teacher in Cambodia, Charli Fell’s career aspirations changed completely. Charli had always wanted to make a difference in the lives of others. She thought the best way to do so would be to become...
Meet our Futur-neers: David Sea
Pictured: David on-site in NSW in his role as an undergraduate process engineer with Metso Outotec in 2022. Growing up in Cambodia, David Sea never imagined he would one day be teaching children in rural Australia how to build floating houses like those on the Tonle...
Futur-neers Forum 2022 – the wrap
The Futur-neers Forum was a welcome and long overdue in-person reconnection of EWB’s Chapter network after a two-year, lockdown-riddled hiatus. Over 50 EWB staff and Chapter volunteers - representing 16 of the 19 active EWB Chapters dotted right across Australia -...
Meet our Futur-neers: Chelsea Hayward
Feature image: Chelsea picking coffee beans in Railaco, Timor Leste during her time volunteering as a mentor on a Humanitarian Design Summit trip in July 2018. Nurse. Farmer. Social worker. Athlete. Biomedical scientist. These were just some of the many careers that...
Creating opportunity for migrant and refugee engineers
The professional qualifications of migrants and refugees arriving in Australia are often buried by the obstacles that come with settling in a new country. EWB’s NSW Chapter and Metro Assist are creating opportunities to address these challenges. English as a foreign...
New social enterprise brings electric cooking to schools and institutions in Cambodia
EWB Australia is partnering with FuturEcook - a social enterprise that improves health, education and the environment with smart electric cooking for schools and other institutions in Cambodia. Donate to our joint fundraising campaign so we can make start! Across the...
Vertical gardens addressing space, water and food security issues in Vanuatu
Erratic rainfall, small spaces and fluctuation in market costs are creating food security issues for vulnerable communities in Vanuatu. A new project is developing solutions for 1000 people to create their own daily food supply and carve out livelihoods, with the...
Solutions to clean water access for schools in rural Timor-Leste
Twelve months on from the devastating floods in Timor-Leste that impacted tens of thousands of households and left infrastructure severely damaged, EWB has been working with communities to support recovery and longer-term resilience. The ability to access clean water...
Solar is powering a water supply for an island on the Mekong
1.14 million people living in rural settings in Cambodia still have no access to reliable electricity, which means that sourcing energy to operate mechanical systems can be challenging. Utilising renewable energy is a vital solution and Engineers Without Borders...
Inaugural EWB Digital Design Summit inspires confidence and curiosity
The pandemic called for new, creative approaches to delivering EWB’s inspiring, immersive learning experiences that are critical in nurturing future-ready engineers. From this, the first Digital Design Summit was born. Held for six weeks across January and February,...
Design Summit leads to better tools to natively restore Country
A key part of our individual reconciliation journeys should always be to understand the Traditional Owners and their lands that we live on. EWB’s ACT Chapter recently broadened their learning of the local Traditional Owners of Ngunnawal and Ngambri Country, and in...
Novel design on track to take portable solar energy on Country
The Centre for Appropriate Technology (CfAT) has been enabling remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to access renewable energy since its inception, and has been working with the in depth support of EWB on a novel mobile solar energy system since...
Volunteer engineers needed for the New South Wales flood response
EWB Australia is committed to mobilising professional engineers in partnership with Holding Hands Under Ground (HHUG) to support flood-affected communities in the Northern Rivers region. There are currently not enough qualified engineers in the Northern Rivers region...
Ground-breaking research on the future of engineering needs you!
The BeLongEng research project will help the sector understand how experiences in humanitarian engineering shape careers and opportunities in the long-term. Unique opportunity to influence the future of engineering education and policy EWB Australia is pleased to...
Announcing our 2022 EWB Challenge community partner
Photo: EWB Australia staff with rangers, other staff, board members and elders in front of their recently launched Yirrganydji Land and Sea Rangers boat (named ‘Kulbul’ meaning ‘sea’) during their scoping visit to Cairns in October 2021. Each year, EWB Australia...
Stories from the field – Vinicius Guim
Former Uruguayan President Jose “Pepe” Mujica was once described as the world’s poorest president. Serving until 2015, Mujica was known for his modest attitude on life; emblematic of his famous refusal to live in Uruguay’s Presidential Palace. These values of...
On Yirrganydji Country with Dawul Wuru
Pictured: EWB Chair Gavin Blakey's Irukandji district badge from his time as a Cub and Scout in Cairns. Each year, EWB Australia partners with universities and a different community-based organisation to develop and deliver the EWB Challenge. First-year university...
Who’s responsible for gender diversity in engineering?
By Sheila Mariana Artanti On the 6th of October 2021, EWB NSW Chapter in partnership with the Women in Engineering, Engineers Australia Newcastle division, hosted an online webinar leveraging the findings from the 2018 EWB Australia report, 'Engineering Redefined”....
Oxfam supports flood recovery response in Timor-Leste
As part of EWB’s emergency response to the catastrophic April floods in Timor-Leste, EWB worked with Oxfam Timor-Leste, teaming up with Feto Enginhera (Women in Engineering) to coordinate clean water and sanitation initiatives to flood-affected communities of Hera....
Supporting Timor-Leste’s emergency infrastructure recovery
In the midst of a COVID-19 lockdown in April this year, heavy rain caused widespread flood damage throughout Timor-Leste. Over 11,000 people were displaced from their homes and 45% of Dili’s population (70,000 people) were without ongoing and reliable access to clean...
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