About the West Coast Conference 2021
We are excited to announce the Engineers Without Borders West Coast Conference 2021 will be held this Friday and Saturday, April 23-24 of 2021! Due to the current circumstances, the event will be held virtually via Zoom and free for everyone! The West Coast Conference is a collaboration between the EWB-USA West Coast Regional Steering Committee and is hosted by the EWB chapter of Cal Poly SLO. We are inviting anyone interested to join us in creating connections, learning from each other's experiences. You can click here or scroll down to view our schedule below.
We have opened our official registration form via Eventbrite! Click on this link or the button below register! Once registered, we will send you Zoom links to our main sessions and tracks as the date of conference nears. Although we encourage you to attend as many sessions as possible, registered attendees are not required to attend every session throughout the weekend. Registration will remain open until the end of the conference, but we encourage you to register before our first event at 5 PM PST Friday.
We hope to meet you at our event!
Or register through this link: http://bit.ly/EWB-WCC-2021
Event Schedule
(optimized for desktop viewing)
Presentations (excluding public Q&A and discussion segments) will be recorded according to the presenter and uploaded to Volunteer Village.
Friday, April 23
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5:00-6:00 PM PST Keynote Panel: Inclusive Development: Ensuring Equitable Benefit and Voice |
Keynote panel hosted by Dr. Aaron Opdyke including: Dr Pradytia Pertiwi – Lecturer, Faculty of Psychology, University of Gadjah Mada (Indonesia) Maria Kristina Alinsunurin – Assistant Professor, College of Public Affairs and Development, University of the Philippines Los Banos (Philippines) Dr Jeffrey Walters – Assistant Professor, College of Engineering, George Fox University |
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6:00-6:15 PM PST BREAK |
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6:15-7:15 PM PST Games & Networking |
hosted by EWB Cal Poly |
Saturday, April 24
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8:00-9:00 AM PST Decentralized Energy Production & Community Resiliency |
8:00-9:00 AM PST EWB-Philly Project Mentorship |
8:00-9:30 AM PST Sustainable Development or Student Development? A Critical Conversation on who EWB Serves |
Nick Yavorsky is currently conducting his thesis research in the field of energy and community resilience as it relates to decentralized energy production in Puerto Rico. |
EWB-Philly has put community engagement and sustainability at the forefront of its chapter mission statement. Partnering with a community empowerment group and the Temple U. student chapter, EWB-Philly's domestic program is revitalizing community infrastructure while mentoring and giving technical and leadership experience to the student members. |
EWB carries a dual mission of serving students and communities. In practice, do projects achieve sustainable development or student development? EWB Cal Poly alumni will facilitate and participate in a critical discussion on who EWB serves, using the EWB Thailand project as a case study. Past members, current members, and faculty will be encouraged to share their experience grappling difficult questions while involved in student led development projects, from early assumptions to lingering doubts. |
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9:15-10:15 AM PST Sustainable Community Development |
9:15-10:15 AM PST Membership Recruitment & Retention |
9:45-10:45 AM PST Dissecting Development: a Critical Examination of Engineering Development's History |
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Join Dr. Juan Lucena as we discuss what it means to have sustainable development. We'll being discussing humanitarian engineering, Happy Earth Solutions, and the work both Dr. Lucena is doing to disrupt our traditional views on development. |
Learn about how to find members, onboard, engage and maintain them for the long term with the LA Professional chapter. |
This presentation will introduce and explore the historical framework of development, specifically engineering development, the various criticisms of it, and post-development theory. EWB & Critical Global Engagement at Cal Poly will also discuss how these critical perspectives apply to work completed through EWB-USA and the ways in which engineering development organizations locate themselves in international modern developmental history. |
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10:30-11:30 AM PST Satellite Imagery Analysis & Applications |
10:30-11:30 AM PST The New EWB Strategic Plan Overview and Q&A |
11:00-12:00 PM PST Pitfalls and Possibilities for Global Partnerships and Critical Pedagogy in Global Service Learning |
An overview of remote sensing applications for EWB by Jack Johnson from the Hartford Professionals. Topics will include vegetation and surface water monitoring using both active and passive satellite systems, as well as surface temperature monitoring and mapping of rain water runoff areas. |
Join Andrea Stiles-Pullas from EWB-USA HQ to learn more about the new EWB-USA strategic plan and how it will affect your projects. |
In the context of global service-learning and/or internship programs -- whether via EWB, or otherwise -- what does it mean to support participation and voice amongst community partners? How can students (and supporting faculty) push each other to be more critically reflective about their own positionality as it intersects with their aspirations for participatory development? This session uses case studies of student and host partner experiences to spur reflection and discussion about these crucial questions, drawing especially from the experiences of EWB & Critical Global Engagement Club at Cal Poly and the founder of Omprakash, Willy Oppenheim. The session draws upon the work of Omprakash (www.omprakash.org), a Seattle-based nonprofit working to help universities build ethical global partnerships and support students with critically-reflective training and mentorship. The session will begin with an overview of the Omprakash model and its EdGE online learning platform, and then will shift into participatory activities which revolve around scenarios, breakout room discussions, and 'playing' with digital participatory theater techniques. |
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12:30-1:30 PM PST Mortenson Center Research Panel |
12:30-1:30 PM PST EWB-USA Regional, National, and Non-Profit Leaders |
12:30-1:30 PM PST Dissecting Development: Institutions and Ideologies of Engineering Development Today |
Katie Chambers, Briar Goldwyn, and Kimmy Pugel will be discussing the research they've done through the Mortenson Center. The Mortenson Center focus on improving global development tools and practices. Among these tools and practices include: organizational theory, systems, science, infrastructure, and impact measurement. |
Have you ever wondered what it's like to lead thousands of volunteers? Are you curious what happens at a Board of Directors meeting? We know you've heard of a state representative, but still wishing you knew what they actually did? If so, this is the panel for you! Join Jackie O'Brien (EWB-USA CEO), Nicole Trenchard (Student Rep. on the EWB-USA Board of Directors), and more to talk about what their everyday work is like with EWB-USA, what their biggest challenges are, and what they are excited to see in a post-pandemic world. Come ready to ask questions, because after a short introduction we'll be answering the audience. |
What do the current dominant engineering development models look like? To what kinds of institutions and cultures do current models contribute to? To what extent do current engineering models uphold neoliberal ideologies? In this presentation by EWB & Critical Global Engagement at Cal Poly, we aim to deconstruct the contradictions between current engineering development models’ intentions and their impact on the communities they intervene in. Specifically, we plan to examine how current models perpetuate neoliberal and neocolonial ideologies, as well as discuss and reflect on our own assumptions regarding development that may fall into oppressive mindsets. |
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1:45-2:45 PM PST Case Study: Remote Implementation El Llanito, Nicaragua Water Supply Project |
1:45-2:45 PM PST Professional Chapter Panel |
1:45-2:45 PM PST Peace Building: Decolonializing Engineering Framework through Designing with Intention |
Join Patrick Coyle from the SF Professionals in his presentation of a remote implementation of a nearly complete water supply project in Nicaragua, and initiation of remote assessment for next projects. |
Are you interested in staying involved with EWB after graduation but unsure if joining a professional chapter is the right fit for you? Are you looking for ways to partner with professionals in EWB? Join panelists Duyen Nguyen (Los Angeles Pros), Jody Olsen (Alaska Pros), Lee Faraca (San Francisco Pros), & Peter Sturtevant (Puget Sound Pros) in a conversation about their experiences as professional chapter members, how being a part of them differs from student chapters, if there are any mentorship opportunities out there for your chapter, and how you can join. |
Have you ever thought about why past EWB projects have failed? Have you ever thought about how culture and technical design intersect? In this presentation, join EWB & Critical Global Engagement of Cal Poly to learn more about failure within EWB projects by analyzing past case studies and failure reports. Reflect on your current EWB project, education, and intentions for engaging within development and international volunteer work. Learn how to implement an intersectional framework within your own projects through human centered design. Get an introduction to Peace Engineering Principles through exploring themes on conflict resolution, power dynamics, project management, and engineering via systems thinking. To conclude the session, hear from Liz Thompson as she addresses any questions you might have, focusing on how she has used/seen principles of peace building work in practice. Through this discussion hear how peacebuilding can be utilized within an engineering without borders project framework, and how to level out the vertical space of power indifferences through design. |
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3:00-4:00 PM PST Data Justice Panel |
3:00-4:00 PM PST Fundraising Events (Prerecorded) |
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As the world become more digitized, there needs to be more of a focus on the fairness in the way people are made visible, represented, and treated as a result of their production of digital data. Much of these problems stem from data-driven processes and big data. Professors Theresa Migler and Zoe Wood will be discussing their work in datafication and social justice and how to combat this. |
Fundraising for your Engineers Without Borders project is hard work. There are multiple avenues available to raise money, from grants to individual donors. Join Mike Reiter from Hartford Professionals presentation will focus on fundraising through events. Events fundraisers can be small dollar events to support a local project or bring in larger amounts of money needed for more complicated projects and travel. The presenter will talk in detail about the mechanics of fundraising events he has run in the past and give you clear thoughts on how to manage your fundraising events in the future. |
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4:15-5:15 PM PST Effective Altruism and Measuring What Matters |
4:15-5:15 PM PST Members Testimonials Through Covid and The Inspiration To Keep Moving Forward Despite The Circumstances! |
4:00-5:00 PM PST Dissecting Development: Transformative Models and Alternative Approaches |
How can you use your money and expertise to do the most good in the world? Join Dr. Jacob Sparks in discussing some lessons from the effective altruism movement and some of the challenges we face when we try to measure our effectiveness in helping others. |
As a global organization EWB reaches communities across the world and teams up with people from different regions and backgrounds. When the pandemic hit we lost the sense of what is normal and created a new normal that exists in the virtual realm. EWB Cuesta College chapter would like to share how they navigated through this new normal together as a small but mighty chapter. |
In this presentation EWB & Critical Global Engagement of Cal Poly aims to explore and understand alternative approaches to the dominant models of development with which we can reconstruct and transform on-going and future development initiatives to better serve communities. Grounded in a variety of feminist, indigenous, radical, and regenerative frameworks from across the globe, we will be introducing several models of transnational community aid efforts that are exemplars of development contributing to liberation and resisting hegemonic oppressions. We will also discuss the relevance of shifting away from the prioritization of growth and un-developing the Global North within such transformative models, as well as concrete examples of domestic grassroots movements and initiatives engineering development in the U.S. could model to delineate our work from the current oppressive institutions that our nation is situated in. |
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5:30-6:30 PM PST Integrating Perspectives into your Project Reviews |
5:15-6:15 PM PST “Narco-Deforestation” in Central American Protected Areas: Developing A Spatiotemporal Proxy Database for Drug-Trafficking Activities from Media Reporting |
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Global Development projects are a complicated process, with a multitude of stakeholders, perspectives, values, and goals to navigate. Applying insights learned by EWB Cal Poly alumni from previous project failures, EWB Cal Poly has recently started an internal project review process, in which we gather Alumni, faculty advisors, professional engineers, and our members to collaborate. All four of our project teams present their current project background, goals, and plans so that they can receive feedback from individuals with various backgrounds in engineering, anthropology, sociology, ethnic studies, gender studies, and other fields. Join us as we discuss our goals and motivations for setting up this internal review, discuss what we learned from our first Project Review Night, and discuss how you could integrate this into your EWB chapter's review processes. |
In this presentation, Olivia Cameron will discuss research conducted during her Research Experience for Undergraduates, exploring patterns of "narco-deforestation" (forest loss linked to drug trafficking) in protected areas of Guatemala and Honduras. This phenomena has a disproportionate impact on indigenous and rural communities in Central America. This project became her Honors thesis, defended in 2019. Prior to this work, there was essentially no data that appropriately demonstrated patterns of narco-trafficking intensity due to the obscurity of the activities involved. In her work, Olivia developed a novel proxy database of open-source media articles to use as a temporal and spatial measurement of illicit narco-trafficking activities. This database was used to find a causational relationship between narcotrafficking and deforestation. The novel methodology used in this study poses questions about the use of open-source data to explore understudied, clandestine topics. Olivia will present on her research within the context of EWB's work, and provide members with the context they need to make decisions when working with communities that could be impacted by illicit economies (including drug trafficking). She will answer questions about the results of her study, including drug trafficking hot spots and correlational protected areas, and how infrastructure enables narcotraffickers to choose these areas. |
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6:45-7:15 PM PST Event Closing & West Coast Regional Awards Ceremony |
hosted by the West Coast Regional Steering Committee |
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7:15-8:00 PM PST Games & Networking |
hosted by the West Coast Regional Steering Committee |