In a small neighborhood in Nicaragua, numerous women and children die from smoke exposure in their homes every year. The combination of the open flames of their stoves and poor ventilation in kitchens exposes families to harmful substances as they breathe in carbon monoxide and other particles. Tech students have done what other organizations have tried and failed to do: they designed a cook stove that is cost-effective, sustainable and clean.
For water to come flowing clear and clean from the tap, a lot has to go right. In the United States and other developed countries, people largely take for granted that all systems — mechanical, electrical, structural, and chemical — are go. And if they aren’t, someone can and will quickly determine what went wrong and get it fixed. But in many areas around the world, it’s a different story.
When Joe Brown went to India last summer, he was hoping to collect samples that could help answer some questions he’d been thinking about for a while. His years studying sanitation and global health had given him the idea that the open sewers and overflowing latrines common in the dense cities of the developing world could be linked with disease through an unusual mechanism: airborne transmission of pathogens.
Rebecca Yoo knew long before she arrived at the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering that she was interested in international development, but having been born into a family of liberal arts majors, she wasn’t sure how engineering could play a role. After hearing more about civil engineering at a seminar for undecided engineers, however, she knew she’d found her niche.
Adjo Amekudzi-Kennedy influences students in her Georgia Tech classes every day when it comes to sustainability and development in the developing world. She took that even further Oct. 2 as one of the main speakers at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s first-ever International Youth Environmental Symposium in Atlanta.
School of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Georgia Institute of Technology
Mason Building, 790 Atlantic Drive, Atlanta, GA 30332-0355
Phone: 404-894-2201
Fax: 404-894-2278