Engineering students at Lipscomb excel in competition
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By: Katera Bolander
Constructing a water tower in Honduras led three Lipscomb students in the Raymond B. Jones School of Engineering to place second in the "Multidisciplinary Team Project" division of the Student Poster Competition at the American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE) Southeastern Regional Conference.
Karla Childress, Katie McDonald and Kris Hatchell competed with a poster presentation entitled "Engineering with a Purpose: The Water of Life." The presentation was based on a class project to build a water tower. Students in the class designed the tower based on an actual need that existed in the CEDECO medical facility in Las Delicias, Olancho, Honduras. The students not only planned the design, but they also took necessary supplies with them to Honduras and constructed the tower.
"Before we built the tower, water was unreliable during the daytime for this clinic because the clinic is at the end of the spring-fed water supply running through the area," said Childress, senior engineering mechanics major. "The clinic needed a water tower to hold extra water so it won't run out during the day. The tower enables a continual water supply to the CEDECO medical facility that serves the people of the Las Delicias area."
Childress, McDonald and Hatchell developed their award-winning poster presentation to inform conference attendees of the engineering design aspects associated with building the water tower in Honduras. Students from eighteen other groups competed in the poster competition, highlighting their engineering designs and engineering research projects.
"With keen competition from several prestigious universities, we are delighted that Karla, Katie and Kris placed second," said Fred Gilliam, associate dean of the Raymond B. Jones School of Engineering. "They represented Lipscomb extremely well by demonstrating how people can use engineering skills to serve other people."
The Lipscomb water tower included a tank in the ground that held water from the spring, a tank on top of a steel water tower, a solar array powering a pump to fill the top tank and a distribution system to supply adequate water pressure for the facility, said Childress.
"The design of the water tower and pump system was based on the water needed for a period of concentrated activity at CEDECO such as a vaccination campaign. It was determined that 300 gallons of water would be sufficient, and the tower was designed to support that load, expected wind loads and allow for a structural safety factor."
The Lipscomb team did extensive planning and testing while still in the United States to be sure all of their plans would work once they got to Honduras.
"This project far exceeded the coursework required for our classes," said Childress. "We had a project that allowed us to make the design on paper and then bring it to life. And it wasn't just a project to build something; it had an overall purpose to help people. We were able to help real people in another part of the world who are less fortunate. This is comprehensive learning at its best."
For more information about the engineering program at Lipscomb or about the engineering mission in Honduras, contact Gilliam at 615.279.5887 or by emailing fred.Gilliam [at] lipscomb.edu.
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