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At Smith you’ll collaborate with engineering faculty and students from other
institutions as you go on location to explore design issues with global
implications. From examining how development is altering ecosystems in
Costa Rica to using local materials to create innovative products for a
Nicaraguan community, the world will be your laboratory. Along with getting
hands-on experience, you’ll contribute to research that affects people,
policies, and the planet. Projects have included:
Students Study Climate Change in the Cloud Forest
In the mountains of Monte Verde, Costa Rica, more than 400 species of birds thrive. Located five thousand feet above sea level, it’s a wet, humid environment with lush vegetation. But it’s not a rain forest. Rather, it’s a cloud forest where the moisture necessary for life comes from a steady, heavy mist that rolls up from the Atlantic Ocean. And it’s here in the world famous Monteverde Cloud Forest Preserve that engineering students work as part of an interdisciplinary team led by Andrew Guswa, associate professor of engineering, and Amy Rhodes, associate professor of geology. Their goal is to understand the cloud forest’s makeup and project how it will be affected by regional development. More…
Thinking Locally for a Nicaraguan Community
In partnership with Grand Valley State University in Michigan and two
Nicaraguan universities, five Smith students (2 engineering majors, 1
engineering minor, 1 economics major, and 1 government major) traveled to
Esteli, Nicaragua, in May 2007 for a two-week course in product development
and entrepreneurship. There, they began discussions regarding design
innovations for economical products that would meet community
needs while using local materials and labor. The five products they will be
developing over the next year include: a non-electric fan; a detachable
bicycle seat for a second passenger; a bicycle-powered clothes washer; a
pressurized water system for sidewalk and porch cleaning; and a household
vegetable cutter.
Throughout the 2007-2008 academic year, the Smith
students continued collaborating with the other students as part of a 4
credit course, learning more about the economic and social context in
Nicaragua, developing and testing product designs, and further investigating
the market viability of their ideas.
Mapping the Cultures of Production: a MASSMoCA Installation
Engineering students collaborated with the feminist art collective subRosa to
explore the connections—cultural, environmental and economic—between
North Adams, Massachusetts, and Ciudad Juarez, the fifth-largest
city in Mexico. Their work contributed to an installation by subRosa at MASS
MoCA (the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art). Titled "Can You
See Us Now? ¿Ya Nos Pueden Ver?," the installation reflected the ways in
which the labor conditions and daily lives of women in North Adams
resonated intimately with those of women in Ciudad Juárez. It mapped some of "the intersections of women's material and affective labor in cultures of pro-duction (and production of culture) in North Adams and Ciudad Juárez.."
This installation, which involved a Life-Cycle Assessment of the ecological impacts of capacitor production, also documented the global transport of materials involved in such a process. In addition, the engineering students teamed up with a women's studies class on gender and youth culture to curate a portion of subRosa's installation
Tracking Pollution around the Globe
Engineering students have traveled both domestically and abroad to participate in major atmospheric research campaigns led by engineering faculty member Paul Voss. The research addresses questions in atmospheric chemistry, transport and climate forcing, using the world's smallest long-duration controllable balloons.
Dr. Voss and several engineering students were part of one of the largest atmospheric research campaigns in history. They participated with researchers from all over the world in investigating integration and transport of pollution within and out of urban megacities, such as Milagro, Mexico. More. |
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