Engineers Without Borders: Purpose, Impact, and the Next Generation of Engineers

WEBVTT
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A big thank you to Autodesk, the sponsor of Engineering Influence at this year's convention.
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Autodesk partners with the AEC industry and its leaders to shape a more connected,
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data-driven future, empowering engineers to work more intelligently and to make
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confident decisions to drive meaningful impact.
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This enables firms to evolve, stay competitive, and deliver stronger business
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outcomes, all while designing a better world.
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So thank you again to autodesk welcome to engineering influence a podcast from
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the american council of engineering companies we're coming to you live from
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our annual convention and legislative summit in washington dc this podcast is sponsored by autodesk
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i'm chris grindler and i'm very pleased to be joined by boris martin the ceo
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of engineers without borders usa good words welcome to the show nice to meet
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you nice to meet you having me
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yeah yeah thanks for uh spending time with us so So just tell me about Engineers
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Without Borders USA, something about the program.
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Yeah. So Engineers Without Borders USA was founded 25 years ago.
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It's an organization that's volunteer driven, professionals and students of
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engineering that want to make a difference in the world and a difference in their own backyard.
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Lending their skills to communities that needed the most access to basic infrastructure
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that makes people's lives better.
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Access to clean water, access to energy, good healthcare facilities,
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good schools, any infrastructure that puts a community on a path to thriving
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is really the mission of the organization.
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Okay. And this is the USA portion of Engineers Without Borders.
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So it services every city, any community that has a need, Community Engineers
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Without Borders could potentially be involved.
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Yeah, partner. Exactly. We have, yeah, exactly. Communities that typically cannot
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afford or are not really ready in the U.S.
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Specifically. communities that are that you know consulting engineering companies
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typically turn turn down
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when they reach out because they're just not ready or don't have enough of their
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own funding to access state or or federal funds to invest in their infrastructure,
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who are kind of like stuck at square one when it comes to figuring out the you
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know what they could be doing to make their communities better.
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We have communities who is like you know water system has broken and they don't where to go for help.
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They reach out to us and then we provide pro bono engineering services that
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allows them to kind of become ready, articulate their needs.
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It's the community readiness program so that they get funded and then they hire
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the engineering companies that are at this convention, really the,
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you know, small, medium, large engineering construction companies that do the
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actual design and construction. And the work.
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And then internationally, we have a program of design build.
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So we like we really kind of like mobilize volunteer engineers to raise funds, to adopt projects.
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We have communities reaching out to us from 20-some countries
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where there's simply no access to clean water or people are,
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you know, giving birth in the dark or like in, you know, healthcare facilities
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without the proper amenities and we're there as a partner to really help these
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communities and like invest in their infrastructure.
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So these are life-altering infrastructure creations. I mean,
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this isn't something simple. I mean, this is really changing lives with this
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program. Yeah, absolutely. I mean,
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I've met young women who grew up as kids fetching water back and forth from,
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you know, sources, walking, you know, hours a day.
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Whose childhood was really doing labor that we never have to face, you know.
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And when you think about infrastructure in the U.S., typically people,
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you know, take a lot of these things for granted.
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The moment you engage around the world and you realize that people don't have
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access to these basic services then for all of our volunteers professionals
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especially who are like day-to-day working in like pretty mature you know markets,
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they come into engineers lab borders they realize the value of infrastructure
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which we tend to forget you know when you're work when you live in the u.s when
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you have the running water and you have housing you have the electrical so how,
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How are these volunteer-y, how are,
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you finding the volunteers, and what kind of roles are they serving? Uh-huh.
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So we have a, you know, over 25 years when the organization was founded as just
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an idea, and very, very quickly, in fact, we grew exponentially.
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The number of people that want to make a difference in the world is staggering,
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and the engineering profession was missing this platform for people to find ways to do it well.
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And so that's what Engineers Labores USA has become. It's really the place where people come to,
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apply their skills in a way that is really, you know, sort of thoughtful.
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Respectful of the local engineering, you know, capacity and organizations that,
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you know, exist in all of these countries, but to engage positively.
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So we have, we have more volunteers than we can, you know, work with.
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Oftentimes what's missing for us is like the funding that allows us to have
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the, to accelerate the projects.
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You know, people want to apply their skills, but communities.
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You know, if you go to a place like Guatemala or a place like Uganda,
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A lot of communities just can't afford the basic infrastructure.
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And so we raise the funds to make the project possible.
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And then we have a platform where, you know, teams of volunteers can adopt these
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projects and take them from needs analysis, alternative design,
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construction and post-construction operations maintenance training.
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It's interesting. You have the workforce ready to go on and do the projects,
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but the funding side is full of you back.
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And honestly, like the, I often joke when I speak at ACEC events that,
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you know, it's the flip side. Right. You know, a lot of companies are like,
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we have a talent shortage. We have a talent problem.
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It's hard to keep people in and to keep people engaged. I'm saying.
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I have a workforce that I pay zero dollars and people keep coming back because
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engineers laborers reveals the purpose of engineering. And, you know,
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you see it firsthand, you realize how transformative it is in people's lives.
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When you do infrastructure in the U.S., typically people will curse at you because
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you're getting in the way.
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It's dusty. It's noisy. You know, the traffic gets disrupted.
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I mean, infrastructure, the relationship with infrastructure investment in the
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U.S. from the public is not a positive one oftentimes.
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If you go to a community that has never had access to clean water or where people
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have been crossing a stream in treacherous conditions and now they get a suspended
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bridge, I mean, it is an explosion of joy.
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There's a celebration in the community. Everyone feels profoundly impacted by
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it. And we do that like 70 times a year.
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Engineers Without Borders USA celebrates with our partners and with the communities
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we serve, a new project's completed.
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So there's a lot of joy coming out of that work. Absolutely.
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And I think that that goes to the engineers that are in school or considering a career in engineers.
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This is really the impact that you can have as an engineer.
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A hundred percent. And we have, you know, I meet young people who are in undergraduate
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engineering and they tell me, look, I knew of Engineers Without Borders.
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That's why I went into engineering. And then I looked for a university where
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there is an engineer's level as you as a chapter because I wanted to make.
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So people are intentional with picking those and then they stay within the profession
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because they're really this that's kind of their spiritual home in some way.
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You know, like this is where they can really, you know, make a difference.
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And we see that people after graduating stay with us as volunteers and they
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mentor younger younger folks.
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They really see the impact and understand what it means to the community.
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That's that's that's really fantastic.
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So let's say you are just starting out. Is there a pathway to get involved?
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Like, let's say you're in school, you're learning.
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Is there a way to go on site and contribute to the build? Is that someone who
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is, you know, in college? Maybe, I mean, maybe in high school. Yeah.
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So we have a STEM outreach program.
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We recognize that people oftentimes don't understand what engineering is really about.
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Right. And so we bring stories from the field into the schools and we bring,
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we give professionals an opportunity to just sit in front of,
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you know, sort of a high school audience and tell.
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And like a college, we actually have a very focused college,
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community college program, You know, the two year, because we realized that
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community colleges are actually a very, very strong feeder into the engineering sector. Right.
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Right. So we we cater to community colleges. We bring some of our corporate
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partner employees to, like, talk about their job, but talk about the you know,
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they talk about engineers, lab borders, the relationship they have.
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And then that, you know, sort of invites people into engineering.
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And then during the undergraduate degree, we have chapters in 120 different
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colleges of engineering across the country.
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So you can find, you know, a group that's already there, that's coordinating
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projects, that's supporting volunteers to learn, you know, how to be a good
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humanitarian engineer, how to engage with communities in a respectful way.
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So there's a lot of learning for every one of our volunteers before they ever get to go on a project.
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Once we feel that they're prepared and ready, then, you know,
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we can have, we have teams of five volunteers with a professional mentor,
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with a professional engineer that oversees the design process.
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So there's always like a construct to make sure that everything we do is like
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a professional standard.
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There's a curriculum in place to help them prepare. Exactly.
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They're in the field in the third world country or wherever they go,
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they see it in person, they come back, they apply it and they understand.
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I mean, the loop is there to really appreciate it.
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Engineering the impact and the humanitarian cause as well yeah absolutely it's
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a fantastic program or is there anything else that you that we're missing that
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you want to cover here engineering companies are you know.
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The to this work um the majority of our funding comes from them because you
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know this is a way to make a community contribution both like us and international work,
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it's completely aligned with the skill sets of the employees in these companies
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and so we're able to provide employee engagement opportunities,
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volunteer opportunities, mentorship, but it's also a phenomenal recruitment
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ground for all of the companies involved on top of making a difference in the world.
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So it's a winning, it's a win-win proposition and it's been only growing.
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And I'm here at, you know, ACC, I do a lot of ACC like state level events because.
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Our partners are phenomenal, you know, in helping the mission and getting employees involved. So.
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Well, it's great that you're here. We would love to see a fall conference or
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future episodes to see how the progress is coming along.
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So I'm sure firms will want to get involved. How can they reach out?
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How can they connect? What's the best way to get started?
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CEO at EWB-USA.org. That's really like, you know, send me an email and we can
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talk. We'll drop it in the show notes.
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We'll make it easy. So if you're watching this episode, make sure to go to the
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show notes and send an email and start getting involved. Well,
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again, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to cut you off. No, this is good.
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Thank you so much for joining the show. It's been a great conversation.
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I encourage everyone to check out Engineers Without Borders USA.
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This has been another episode of Engineering Influence Podcast. We'll see you next time.