Check out our spotlight article from the Office of Institutional Effectiveness at KCC:
Spotlight on STEM “Building a Better World: National Engineering Organization launches Local Chapter”
By Micael Rodriguez and Jason Salseg (edited by Kendall Kido)
To many, learning to live in harmony with nature while enjoying modern innovation and technology sounds like either a pipe dream or a distant, futuristic reality. There are some who believe this to be impossible altogether. One new club on campus seeks to make this dream a reality. Now. Engineers for a Sustainable World (ESW); a national organization of students, university faculty and working professionals; welcomes its newest chapter on the campus of Kapi’olani Community College. Kapi’olani ESW joins over 50 other chapters in universities across North America.
The local Hawaii chapter, which plans to coordinate with other higher education institutions in the state, was spearheaded by student Jason Salseg with the help of Kapi’olani CC faculty members Dr. Harry Davis and Dr. Aaron Hanai. Jason says the goal of Kapi’olani ESW is to, “engage future engineers who are still at the college and middle school and even elementary school level with hands on activities that benefit the community and have a focus on sustainability driven projects. Starting their focus now will have a tremendous impact later in the field of engineering.”
The club had its first meeting in April and hit the ground running. Within three weeks, they designed and built their first project: a functional solar powered cart delivering a hearty 500 watts per hour. Local companies, Solar Cool, All-Build Construction, Universal Manufactures & Re-Use Hawaii donated materials, and club members Yu Gong, Geena Wann, Will Kaeo, Bryson Racoma, Jackson Poscablo, Joe Valle, Michael Rodriguez and Jason Salseg designed and constructed the functional cart which debuted for the Earth Day event April 20th. Club member Geena Wann said, “we are still small, we are still new, so we are by taking on these smaller projects we can work towards a bigger goal. Hopefully in the future, we can get us to the point where we can be completely sustainable.”
Kapi’olani CC ESW is looking forward to the future. They plan to tackle other renewable energy projects like biodiesel, hydroponics and hydrogen cell technologies. With such lofty goals, it helps that members hail from so many different engineering majors. Currently, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering are represented, however all disciplines are encouraged to participate and help create a sustainable present, and a sustainable future.
“You have these big topics of concern that can only be addressed by engineers. When you see (young) students interested in taking on these incredibly large and complex issues, you know that these things can get solved. These are the student engineers who are going to fix those problems.”
-Jason Salseg
Thank you OFIE: http://ofie.kapiolani.hawaii.edu/
ESW KCC 