Buckeye engineers lend a helping hand in Ghana

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Students stand on a cement bridge to commemorate their Ghana trip.

Last December, 16 Buckeye engineers traveled to Ghana as part of a three-year initiative to make a difference for the local community.

Led by Lecturer Greg Bixler, the International Engineering Service Learning in Ghana (IESL Ghana) program uses real-world experiences to teach students the concepts of humanitarian engineering, which is the application of technology to improve the wellbeing of underserved people, families and communities.

The goal of IESL Ghana is for students to collaborate with an established in-country partner to bring useful and sustainable technologies to the Ghanaian people over the next three years. Bixler, a faculty member in the Department of Food, Agricultural and Biological Engineering, designed the program to be split into three sections: inspiration, ideation and implementation.

Once they arrived in Ghana, students were divided into two water teams and two agricultural teams. One of the agricultural teams observed a lack of food sanitation methods within the community, and students who were part of a water team discovered that taste is very important to the Ghanaian people.

“People choose unsafe water because it tastes better than pump water,” said second-year chemical engineering major Mia Rizzo. “I think that’s important for the next two phases, because if they could improve the taste quality of pump water, it could increase the usage of a safer water source.”

Students gather around a wood-fueled oven where fish are smoked.
Students visit a smoking facility and learn about commercial fish processing to assess if they will be able to help in any way. [Photo: Greg Bixler]
Bixler said that the trip to Ghana went well and received positive student feedback. One student participant said that not only was the trip incredibly beneficial, but it opened her eyes to the possibilities of engineering solutions worldwide.

In previous years, students researched and designed a product over the course of one semester and then implemented those projects in Ghana during winter break. Bixler found that by doing so, a lot of the resulting products were things Ghanaian people did not think they needed and did not use once the students left.

During the inspiration phase of IESL Ghana, students spent autumn semester researching and preparing for the December trip. Once in-country, students were able to compare their research to what is actually happening locally through personal experience and interviews with Ghanaian people.

Students collected critical information and data that they brought back to Ohio State to be used by future classes in the second and third phases.

Students will spend fall semester 2019 generating ideas of useful products and possibly building a prototype to test before the second visit to Ghana.

In 2020, students will return to Ghana to implement the proposed projects.

“The third year is what we call implementation, which is another class,” Bixler said. “We teach how to implement technology, and things like supply chain repair, maintenance and getting it into the actual user’s hands.”

Buckeye engineers can find more information about applying to the winter 2019 Ghana trip on the Ohio State Education Abroad website.

by Alex Andrews, College of Engineering student communications assistant

Categories: OutreachStudents