Engineers Without Borders at University of Minnesota Duluth

04/23/2025

Reminder to stop into Duluth Spice and Tea Exchange on Thursday April 24th! 10% of proceeds will be donated to help fund our projects. Additionally, they will have a booth set up at our Bent Paddle fundraiser which starts at 5pm!
Hope to see you all there!!

04/13/2025

If you can’t make it to our upcoming fundraiser at Bent Paddle but still want to support the chapter, donating to our fundraising page is another great way to help fund our projects and make an impact!

Help support community and outreach at the University of Minnesota.

04/04/2025

Check out the winners of the portrait and video categories! You might recognize a few familiar faces from our chapter.

A huge congratulations to Thalia and Ryan. We appreciate your hard work and are so glad to see that others appreciate it too!

12/31/2024

Here are some photos of our team conducting topographic surveys in Kirengo! The data collected during these surveys provides important details about the elevation and location of various areas within the community, which will help us design our system now that we’re back in Duluth.

12/25/2024

Final travel team update!

The travel team is back from Kenya, and what an incredible experience it’s been! We’re so grateful for the opportunity to collaborate with the local communities and to have met so many wonderful people along the way. Thank you to everyone who supported us – the trip was a success, and we can’t wait to continue our work together!

12/20/2024

Travel team update!

This morning, our entire team met with the CBO to update them and the community on the work we’ve been doing. During the meeting, we also expressed our gratitude to one another and presented the board members with UMD EWB t-shirts. After the meeting, we had lunch and then continued with our surveys.

12/20/2024

Travel team update!

Our meeting with the women’s ministry went well and we got lots of valuable information. After the meeting our team from Nyansakia arrived, we all ate lunch together then split up so we could complete more demographic surveys, topographic surveys, and water testing.

12/18/2024

Kirengo team update!

We continued on with our work from yesterday. Our topographical survey team finished taking points from one of the main roads in the community, and our demographic survey team completed a bunch of surveys. Additionally, we tested water from 7 different points throughout the community so we can further understand the condition of the water they’re currently using.
Tomorrow the women in our group will be meeting with the women of the community to learn more about their experiences, while the rest of our team continues on with the work we’ve been doing!

12/18/2024

A final update from Nyansakia!

Today was our last day in the community. We were able to reach our goal of nearly 100 surveys of community members by lunch! Afterwards we conducted a meeting with the Water Board. Members were able to learn about operation and maintenance plans for the system as well as voice their opinions. Many thanks were given by the community members and our team who were so grateful for their support and collaboration through this very long project. The day was rounded out with a few dance parties and one last nostalgic walk around the community. We were sad to leave but are elated to be leaving behind a functioning system that is serving the community well.

Words cannot describe the feeling of seeing years of hard work be fruitful for our friends in Nyansakia, whom we have grown to deeply care about over the years. We wish them the best as they begin their journey in fully taking over the system and hope that it is able to relieve the burden of struggling for water for years to come.

Tomorrow we will rejoin the group in Kirengo to finish out our time here in Kenya!

12/17/2024

Kirengo team update!

Today, we split into two groups. One group met with community members to conduct demographic surveys, while the other focused on gathering topographic survey data. This way, when we return, we’ll have all the necessary information to begin designing our system. Tomorrow, we’ll continue this work to ensure we collect accurate data on the community’s needs and gain a clear understanding of the land.

12/17/2024

Nyansakia team update!

Today we were able to finish our evaluation of the system and survey even more community members. Along the way we got to visit existing springs and see children playing in the river. It looked like they were having a blast and wished we could join in on the fun! We also got to learn how bricks are made in the community. Overall a great day!

12/16/2024

Kirengo team update!

We started our day by meeting with the local CBO (community based organization) to discuss goals for the project and familiarize ourselves with the community. We then walked around taking GPS coordinates for four potential borehole locations.
To end our work day we met with a local contractor to discuss project budget.
Tomorrow, we’ll continue with our surveys and look forward to further collaborating with the community.