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| Daniel Dahlinger is one of the engineering students at Trinity who work on the water barrel project (Photos by Paige Johnson) |
By Paige Johnson
The Engineering Science Program at Trinity University is drawing international attention for its humanitarian work in South Texas.
The project involves creating and monitoring sturdy water barrels along the boarders in the desert of South Texas, to provide fresh water for those who travel in that area. Many of those traveling through South Texas are migrants from Latin America, fleeing danger in their home countries. Journeying across the desert is extremely dangerous, and the fresh water saves lives.
“When this project idea was presented they mentioned that most of the migrants crossing the border and drinking from these barrels were from Honduras and El Salvador,” said Andrea Zavala Handal, who worked on the project and graduated last year. “I am from the small country in the center of Central America, Honduras, and therefore I wanted to help my own community out.”
The project was initiated two years ago, in 2016, when Professor Angela Breidenstein from the education department approached the senior engineers with a challenge—to create 55-gallon water barrels that can be monitored online for the South Texas Human Rights Center (STHRC).
Dr. Farzan Aminian, professor and chair of the Department of Engineering Science, decided to take on the project, regardless of political views. “We are engineers. Our task is to serve humanity. We don’t make political statements. We are not politicians,” he said.
The task was handed to more than a dozen students in the Senior Design Seminar. They faced many constraints when trying to build the high-tech water barrels. Eddie Canales, director of the STHRC, said the organization had already installed 1,200 water stations across Texas. But he had no way of tracking the remaining supplies and functionality of each station. The senior engineer students were tasked to design technology capable of monitoring each station and reporting back to the organization, with a cheap, reliable, and secure network.
Nearly a dozen students traveled to South Texas in October to implement and test their design. The STHRC has been monitoring the station ever since, and there appears to be a drop in vandalism.
“Every detail of the water barrel design can point to a class from Trinity that gave us sufficient knowledge to create and implement,” Zavala Handal said. She credits the Design I class for teaching her the proper programs to design such an applicable project. Other students are grateful for their liberal arts education beyond engineering training.
“Trinity taught me not only the fundamentals of engineering but also how to express my thoughts and ideas,” said Kathryn Schoer, who also participated in the project before graduating in 2017. “Many engineering fundamentals you never use again in your career. But knowing how to learn, think on your feet, and communicate is imperative to being successful.”
And the water barrel project is not the only case where Trinity’s students and faculty in engineering are making real life impacts. The Engineering Science Program regularly works with humanitarian organizations in San Antonio to provide solutions to real-world problems. As sophomores, students are required to complete a service learning project which is typically with United Way or San Antonio Lighthouse for the Blind.
“Every year they come to campus in the fall and they propose ideas. The question is, ‘What can you do to make it easy for somebody with difficult challenges to operate [an everyday machine]?’” Aminian said. “You actually go and see what the needs of the society are and you try to respond to those needs by trying to design something.”
As for the water barrel project, students are ready to keep it going. Trevor Johnson, a junior, is gearing up for the work to come. “All of our strengths will be challenged, but the end result can save lives.”
Another rising senior, Daniel Dahlinger, also plans to continue to work on this project. “It’s giving me an opportunity to make a major impact in saving lives,” he said. “Our sophomore year, we were placed in teams to solve problems for Goodwill Industries of San Antonio and the Lighthouse for the Blind, so we have experience doing philanthropical work with our projects.”
In the future, Aminian hopes the project will be employed to other disaster zones to provide medicine, nutrients, and water to those in need. “What this system can do is that dispense anything that you need for the disaster area and keep track of what is left and how much is gone,” he said.
Interested in the idea of the prototype, some organizations, both national and international, are seeking to adopt Trinity’s design and expand its application. A major human rights organization from abroad is looking to collaborate with Trinity, which is quite unusual. Although the details are still being finalized, the engineering program is abuzz with excitement.
As the school year rounds out, engineers at Trinity prepare to leave an international impact, all before starting their first jobs.
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