Engineering Design and Innovation: EWB Challenge Report on Cambodia

This report addresses the Engineers Without Borders (EWB) Challenge, focusing on an engineering design project aimed at solving water issues in Cambodia. The report begins by outlining the EWB Challenge and its objectives, emphasizing the importance of communication, teamwork, and sustainable development. It then delves into ethical compliance within engineering, discussing the responsibilities of engineers in society. The core of the report analyzes the community economic impact of a proposed water filter design, examining its benefits, such as reduced time and energy expenditure for water collection, and potential drawbacks, including labor considerations. The report also identifies project stakeholders, including project leaders, customers (Cambodian residents), and resource managers, and discusses strategies for stakeholder engagement. Finally, it provides an overview of the current water-related challenges in Cambodia, highlighting the importance of clean water access, and concludes by emphasizing the positive impact of the water filter design in improving the quality of life for Cambodian communities. The report uses several references to support its findings.

Running head: ENGINEERING DESIGN AND INNOVATION
Engineering Design and Innovation
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s Note:

1
ENGINEERING DESIGN AND INNOVATION
Table of Contents
1.1 The Engineers Without Borders Challenge..........................................................................2
1.2 Ethical Compliance..............................................................................................................2
1.3 Community Economic Message..........................................................................................4
1.4 Project Stakeholders.............................................................................................................5
1.5 Current Situations of Cambodia...........................................................................................6
References..................................................................................................................................7

2
ENGINEERING DESIGN AND INNOVATION
1.1 The Engineers Without Borders Challenge
1. Engineers Without Borders or EWB is utilized by various non governmental
organizations in several countries for describing their activities on the basis of engineering
and hence is oriented for the work of international development. All the groups eventually
work in the entire world for serving the requirements of disadvantaged people or
communities by the projects of engineering1. All the Engineers Without Borders or EWB
nationalized groups are being developed from one another and are not formally affiliated with
one another. The majority of this EWB organization is strongly associated to the students.
2. Engineers Without Borders Challenge is the specific design program for all the
university students of primary year. This was eventually coordinated by the team of
Engineers Without Borders Challenge and is being delivered in the partnerships with all the
universities worldwide2. This EWB Challenge gives all the students with the proper
opportunity for learning regarding the communication, teamwork and design by real,
inspiring or sustainable development projects.
3. The 2018 EWB Challenge program is eventually delivered in the partnership with
CRDT or Cambodian Rural Development Team. It is a local non-governmental organization
that is focused on the natural resources management as well as community development in
Cambodia north east. This challenge focuses on three communities, which are Koh Khnear,
Puntha Chea and Ksach Leav.
1 "EWB Challenge". 2018. Ewbchallenge.Org. https://ewbchallenge.org/.
2 "EWB Challenge". 2018. Ewbchallenge.Org. https://ewbchallenge.org/.

3
ENGINEERING DESIGN AND INNOVATION
1.2 Ethical Compliance
1. Engineering can be defined as the activities or actions that artfully bring out
something effective for the betterment of the society. Since, it is a creative application or
innovation; the engineers have significant roles on the global society3. The main roles include
providing creativity, innovation and proper utilization of resources, so that the society is
benefitted.
2. There are various ethical responsibilities of an engineer. They are as follows:
i) Increasing the knowledge regarding moral responsibilities and duties in the works
or professions of the engineer.
ii) The second responsibility is the transmission of necessary ethical values to perform
for the profession.
iii) The third important responsibility is the proper development of various human or
social skills for innovation or team work4.
iv) The fourth important responsibility is the complementing of technical perspective
with the moral judgments in favour of any decision making for the engineer.
v) The next responsibility is to promote the development of various professional
virtues for the purpose of obtaining social justice.
vi) Whistle blowing and ensuring safety are other responsibilities.
3 Harris Jr, Charles E., Michael S. Pritchard, Michael J. Rabins, Ray James, and Elaine Englehardt. Engineering
ethics: Concepts and cases. Cengage Learning, 2013.
4 Basart, Josep M., and Montse Serra. "Engineering ethics beyond engineers’ ethics." Science and Engineering
Ethics19, no. 1 (2013): 179-187.

4
ENGINEERING DESIGN AND INNOVATION
3. Humanitarian engineering is the research as well as design for directly improving
the well being of marginalized or poor communities that are lacking the means in addressing
problems.
1.3 Community Economic Message
1. The project is on water issues of Cambodia and for solving this problem, a filter has
been designed. The cost of this design is not much higher and it has various economic
impacts or benefits on the society. The first and the foremost benefit is the reduction of
energy or time expenditure that is needed to collect water5. The time to retrieve fresh water is
saved as people do not have to take up long journeys for collection of water. However, there
are few issues as well. Labor issues are one of the major problems in this case. The Graphene
filters often become major problems for the clean water.
2. This design has solely improvised the economic situations of the residents. They
have got major advantages due to the incorporation of filter. They do not have to travel
longer distances for bringing clean water and thus the issues regarding water are resolved.
3. Yes this design has created employment opportunities by involving labors in the
work.
4. Health related costs and transport costs are eventually reduced with this design6.
5. This particular design has created wealth by increasing the number of days the
residents could work and enhancing the skills for other uses.
5 Le, Xuan-Quynh, Van-Hieu Vu, Luc Hens, and Bas Van Heur. "Stakeholder perceptions and involvement in
the implementation of EMS in ports in Vietnam and Cambodia." Journal of Cleaner Production 64 (2014): 173-
193.
6 Jeuland, Marc, Jennifer Orgill, Ameer Shaheed, Geoff Revell, and Joe Brown. "A matter of good taste:
investigating preferences for in-house water treatment in peri-urban communities in Cambodia." Environment
and development economics 21, no. 3 (2016): 291-317.

5
ENGINEERING DESIGN AND INNOVATION
6. With the filter, the cost of buying clean water everyday has been resolved and
hence it is cost effective.
7. Yes it would reduce wealth in other ways like reducing tourism opportunities or
taking away all workers from other industries.
8. The costs are shared by the community and these costs could be easily paid as the
entire community would be sharing them7.
9. Yes it would be taking away all workers from other industries and costing jobs in
other sectors.
10. Yes, the economic benefits outweigh the economic costs.
1.4 Project Stakeholders
1. The project stakeholders are the members associated with the project and are
responsible for any type of decision in the project. For this project, the stakeholders are
project leader, customers and resource manager. The project leader is the one, who drives the
project. The customers are the residents of Cambodia and the resource manager is responsible
for arranging all the resources of the project8.
2. The team can hold meetings and thus would be ensured for making the stakeholders
engaged as well as involved in the project. The proper engagement of the stakeholders could
be done with the help of perfect sub division of tasks. This proper subdivision would help the
7 Kumagai, Tomo’omi, Ryan G. Mudd, Thomas W. Giambelluca, Nakako Kobayashi, Yoshiyuki Miyazawa,
Tiva Khan Lim, Wen Liu et al. "How do rubber (Hevea brasiliensis) plantations behave under seasonal water
stress in northeastern Thailand and central Cambodia?." Agricultural and forest meteorology213 (2015): 10-22.
8 Dany, Va, Bhishna Bajracharya, Louis Lebel, Michael Regan, and Ros Taplin. "Narrowing gaps between
research and policy development in climate change adaptation work in the water resources and agriculture
sectors of Cambodia." Climate Policy 16, no. 2 (2016): 237-252.

6
ENGINEERING DESIGN AND INNOVATION
project to be perfect as the stakeholders would be doing their job properly. The stakeholder
map helps to segregate the responsibilities of the stakeholders properly and significantly.
1.5 Current Situations of Cambodia
The current situations of Cambodia are not at all good. There are various types of
water issues. People are not getting sufficient and water for daily purposes. This is even
leading to several water borne diseases. The children and the old people are majorly affected
in this scenario. They do not have the resistant to fight against these diseases and thus they
are suffering from these problems9. Moreover, due to the lack of enough clean water, people
are utilizing unhygienic water for their regular uses and thus facing huge problems. The
incorporation of water filter within their lives will be solely helpful to the entire Cambodia
and its residents. The water filter would be filtering the water; no matter how much
unhygienic the water is to a pure form and thus providing the customers to use this water
properly. Hence, the current situations or problems of Cambodia would be easily solved with
this water filter.
9 Loucks, Daniel P., and Eelco Van Beek. Water resource systems planning and management: An introduction
to methods, models, and applications. Springer, 2017.

7
ENGINEERING DESIGN AND INNOVATION
References
[1] "EWB Challenge". 2018. Ewbchallenge.Org. https://ewbchallenge.org/.
[2] Basart, Josep M., and Montse Serra. "Engineering ethics beyond engineers’
ethics." Science and Engineering Ethics19, no. 1 (2013): 179-187.
[3] Dany, Va, Bhishna Bajracharya, Louis Lebel, Michael Regan, and Ros Taplin.
"Narrowing gaps between research and policy development in climate change
adaptation work in the water resources and agriculture sectors of Cambodia." Climate
Policy 16, no. 2 (2016): 237-252.
[4] Harris Jr, Charles E., Michael S. Pritchard, Michael J. Rabins, Ray James, and Elaine
Englehardt. Engineering ethics: Concepts and cases. Cengage Learning, 2013.
[5] Jeuland, Marc, Jennifer Orgill, Ameer Shaheed, Geoff Revell, and Joe Brown. "A matter
of good taste: investigating preferences for in-house water treatment in peri-urban
communities in Cambodia." Environment and development economics 21, no. 3
(2016): 291-317.
[6] Kumagai, Tomo’omi, Ryan G. Mudd, Thomas W. Giambelluca, Nakako Kobayashi,
Yoshiyuki Miyazawa, Tiva Khan Lim, Wen Liu et al. "How do rubber (Hevea
brasiliensis) plantations behave under seasonal water stress in northeastern Thailand
and central Cambodia?." Agricultural and forest meteorology213 (2015): 10-22.
[7] Le, Xuan-Quynh, Van-Hieu Vu, Luc Hens, and Bas Van Heur. "Stakeholder perceptions
and involvement in the implementation of EMS in ports in Vietnam and
Cambodia." Journal of Cleaner Production 64 (2014): 173-193.

8
ENGINEERING DESIGN AND INNOVATION
[8] Loucks, Daniel P., and Eelco Van Beek. Water resource systems planning and
management: An introduction to methods, models, and applications. Springer, 2017.