Engineering
April 6, 2020
Four seniors in the Shiley School of Engineering are designing a renewable energy powered irrigation system for the 600 girls at St. Mary’s Secondary School for Girls in Karonga, Malawi. The irrigation system will serve the seven-acre farm at the school and would allow for planting and harvesting three times a year. Civil engineering students Kim Dorr and Madi Wernke and mechanical engineering students Aymon Klem and Nadine Prentice are working with two Portland-based organizations, TeamLift and Green Empowerment.
“This project is important because it will help combat two of the major issues in Malawi –education for girls and food insecurity,” Prentice said. “Our goal is to have an operational solar-powered drip irrigation system for the school, which should combat the two social issues.”
The students have also been working closely with the sponsoring organization, TeamLift. The nonprofit’s mission is to “eradicate chronic poverty in Malawi by developing village campuses that address the related needs of education, healthcare, and nutrition, with a focus on women and girls.” TeamLift co-founder Don Neureuther saw the Shiley School of Engineering as the perfect fit for this international project.
“The expertise of the students will make a significant difference for the local community,” Neureuther said. “The irrigation system will allow us to at least triple the food output of the site and make a major difference in the health of our girls and in what local farmers will learn over time.”
In August 2019, the students, Neureuther, and Shiley School of Engineering instructor Niki Schulz traveled to Malawi to visit the school. In Malawi, the team spoke with stakeholders, gathered information, and performed a site visit.
“Designing the irrigation system for the farm has become much more than just an engineering project,” Dorr said. “This project is transforming and shaping us into global thinkers, humble learners, and compassionate neighbors to our friends in Malawi.”
Back in Shiley Hall, the civil engineering and mechanical engineering students have been busy designing a solar-powered, drip irrigation system, with technical help from Green Empowerment. The civil engineering students are working on designing the pipe network using the programs EPANet and AutoCAD Civil 3D, while also collecting information from agricultural specialists on pipe layout design for the farm. The mechanical engineering students have been focusing their efforts on collecting information about solar pump and panel sizes as well as bore hole flow capacities. The team hopes to source 75 percent of the materials needed for the project from Malawi.
“Projects like this are important because they give students opportunities to think critically about global issues and directly apply the learning acquired in their four years of college toward solving meaningful problems,” Dorr said. “It also allows students to gain a greater understanding of the world by creating relationships with individuals from different cultures and backgrounds.”
The team had planned to travel back to Malawi in May to help implement the project and work alongside the local people to construct the irrigation system. Due to the COVID 19 travel restrictions globally, the trip has been postponed to a later date.
“Our main goal isn’t just to design and implement an irrigation system for St. Mary’s,” Dorr said. “Our hope is to build a sustainable system that can be easily operated and maintained by local people that will also greatly benefit the community.”
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