Miami University’s AlChE student chapter has won first place in the AlChE Chemical Engineering for Good Challenge (ACE4G). AlChE partnered with Miami’s chapter of Engineers without Borders (EWB) to submit a proposal that can show how chemical engineering can improve the quality of life for people in the developing world.

Children of the community helped in Uganda          

ACE4G is a challenge that encourages the involvement of chemical engineers and chemical engineering principles in international service projects. The challenge awarded the top three proposals with donations to their individual chapters. Because Miami received first place, the chapter received a $3000 donation to the functioning of their campus organization.

Miami’s submission focused on EWB’s work in Kabingo, Uganda. The proposal discussed how students were able to develop a solar powered water sterilization module for a water treatment plant. Their system is comprised of four steps - storage, aeration, sedimentation, and filtration. Before the help of EWB, the local community was drinking potentially contaminated water from a local lake. This water led to health problems within the community, making the water not safe to drink. With the continuous contribution of EWB, this community has increased access to safer drinking water, and reducing the amount of health risks related to the water intake.

Through their collaboration and hard work, they were awarded first place in this competition. We are so proud of what our CEC organizations are doing and cannot wait to see more successes in the future.

To read more about the competition visit the AlChE website.

By Maggie Cavanaugh, CEC Communications Assistant