Blog
Stories from EWB Australia
A message from EWB CEO, Eleanor Loudon
As Eleanor wraps up six years as EWB Chief Executive Officer this month, she shares some reflections about her experience leading the organisation over the years: An Indigenous elder on an island in Kratie, Cambodia, once took me aside and asked directly, what can...
Volunteer adventures in Vanuatu: Sadia’s life-changing year abroad
Feature image: Sadia Abdullah and her team at the Vanuatu Department of Water Resources during her year abroad as an EWB Australian Volunteers Program Field Professional. When Sadia Abdullah arrived in Vanuatu, the first thing she noticed was the heat and the...
Global travels and local impact – Bea Duffield’s volunteering journey
Bea Duffield isn’t an engineer, but her experience spans almost everything else. From her academic background in scientific research to her career across both private enterprise and government sector, she has worked in a range of diverse fields including resource...
The challenge that blew his mind: Tim Kuiper
As a newly-minted undergrad, Tim Kuiper took a seat in his first class of mechanical engineering at Deakin University. Little did he know, it was a unit that was about to blow his mind. It was 2007. Lizzie Brown, EWB’s Education Officer at the time (who later became...
Embedding Indigenous perspectives at Griffith University
The academic team at Griffith University has been working to authentically embed Indigenous perspectives into their engineering and design curriculum. This begins in a student's first year at Griffith University with the EWB Challenge program, which introduces...
Using human-centred design tools in community
Feature image: EWB Technology Development Lead Mitch Horrocks at a participatory design workshop in Darlau, Timor-Leste in May 2022. Over 3,500 people have directly benefited from new, appropriate technology that EWB has been involved in implementing in Cambodia,...
EWB Australia responds to the floods in northern NSW
Feature image: Volunteer Field Lead Engineer and EWB Australia Board Member, Gavin Blakey, HHUG director Ella Rose Goninan, and volunteer engineer Dominic (Cav) Cavanough outside “The Ark”, HHUG's Op Shop in Mullumbimby which provides free clothing and household goods...
New research give critical insights into disposal of nappy waste in the Pacific
Featured image: Erakor Community Facilitator A new research report on nappy use in the Pacific has been released which provides critical insights into addressing the estimated 815 million single-use nappies used and disposed of in the Pacific region each year. EWB...
Stellar EWB involvement leads to donation
One day in 2018, while spending part of her gap year volunteering as a teacher in Cambodia, Charli Fell’s career aspirations changed completely. Charli had always wanted to make a difference in the lives of others. She thought the best way to do so would be to become...
Meet our Futur-neers: David Sea
Pictured: David on-site in NSW in his role as an undergraduate process engineer with Metso Outotec in 2022. Growing up in Cambodia, David Sea never imagined he would one day be teaching children in rural Australia how to build floating houses like those on the Tonle...
Futur-neers Forum 2022 – the wrap
The Futur-neers Forum was a welcome and long overdue in-person reconnection of EWB’s Chapter network after a two-year, lockdown-riddled hiatus. Over 50 EWB staff and Chapter volunteers - representing 16 of the 19 active EWB Chapters dotted right across Australia -...
Meet our Futur-neers: Chelsea Hayward
Feature image: Chelsea picking coffee beans in Railaco, Timor Leste during her time volunteering as a mentor on a Humanitarian Design Summit trip in July 2018. Nurse. Farmer. Social worker. Athlete. Biomedical scientist. These were just some of the many careers that...
Creating opportunity for migrant and refugee engineers
The professional qualifications of migrants and refugees arriving in Australia are often buried by the obstacles that come with settling in a new country. EWB’s NSW Chapter and Metro Assist are creating opportunities to address these challenges. English as a foreign...
New social enterprise brings electric cooking to schools and institutions in Cambodia
EWB Australia is partnering with FuturEcook - a social enterprise that improves health, education and the environment with smart electric cooking for schools and other institutions in Cambodia. Donate to our joint fundraising campaign so we can make start! Across the...
Vertical gardens addressing space, water and food security issues in Vanuatu
Erratic rainfall, small spaces and fluctuation in market costs are creating food security issues for vulnerable communities in Vanuatu. A new project is developing solutions for 1000 people to create their own daily food supply and carve out livelihoods, with the...
Solutions to clean water access for schools in rural Timor-Leste
Twelve months on from the devastating floods in Timor-Leste that impacted tens of thousands of households and left infrastructure severely damaged, EWB has been working with communities to support recovery and longer-term resilience. The ability to access clean water...
Solar is powering a water supply for an island on the Mekong
1.14 million people living in rural settings in Cambodia still have no access to reliable electricity, which means that sourcing energy to operate mechanical systems can be challenging. Utilising renewable energy is a vital solution and Engineers Without Borders...
Inaugural EWB Digital Design Summit inspires confidence and curiosity
The pandemic called for new, creative approaches to delivering EWB’s inspiring, immersive learning experiences that are critical in nurturing future-ready engineers. From this, the first Digital Design Summit was born. Held for six weeks across January and February,...
Design Summit leads to better tools to natively restore Country
A key part of our individual reconciliation journeys should always be to understand the Traditional Owners and their lands that we live on. EWB’s ACT Chapter recently broadened their learning of the local Traditional Owners of Ngunnawal and Ngambri Country, and in...
Novel design on track to take portable solar energy on Country
The Centre for Appropriate Technology (CfAT) has been enabling remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to access renewable energy since its inception, and has been working with the in depth support of EWB on a novel mobile solar energy system since...
Volunteer engineers needed for the New South Wales flood response
EWB Australia is committed to mobilising professional engineers in partnership with Holding Hands Under Ground (HHUG) to support flood-affected communities in the Northern Rivers region. There are currently not enough qualified engineers in the Northern Rivers region...
Ground-breaking research on the future of engineering needs you!
The BeLongEng research project will help the sector understand how experiences in humanitarian engineering shape careers and opportunities in the long-term. Unique opportunity to influence the future of engineering education and policy EWB Australia is pleased to...
Announcing our 2022 EWB Challenge community partner
Photo: EWB Australia staff with rangers, other staff, board members and elders in front of their recently launched Yirrganydji Land and Sea Rangers boat (named ‘Kulbul’ meaning ‘sea’) during their scoping visit to Cairns in October 2021. Each year, EWB Australia...
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