Goodbye Potluck

We had a wide variety of food, mostly store bought, but nevertheless, the potluck was a success! Our two groups (Nicaragua and Guatemala) intermingled with one another as well. We also had a special shout-out to our seniors who are graduating and especially Karen. She had been our past president, project lead of the Nicaragua team, and done so much for our club! Thanks to everyone for making this a successful year! Keep an eye out for any summer updates (possibly about grants and traveling in September) via email or through this blog!

Last Meeting of the Year

Tuesday was our last meeting of the school year! Next week we will be having a potluck so be sure to write down on the Google Doc that Suzanne sent out what you plan to be cooking or buying (if you are not so handy in the kitchen).
We had a shorter meeting this week where we mostly discussed the conference call with Tiffany, from EWB-USA that will be next Wednesday. We anticipated questions that might be asked and discussed our answers to them. If there were any uncertainties about any topics whether in regards to construction materials or cost issues, we were able to verify and hear explanations. So it was good to bounce ideas off each other and have a better understanding of our upcoming trip.

This last involvement involves our favorite social network Facebook! Please "like" EWB-USA on Facebook! Also EWB-UCLA has a Facebook group so join our group as well!

Traveling Discussion

First of all, great job to everyone who worked hard on completing the 525 form! The rest of the meeting was devoted to preliminary traveling discussion. People interested in traveling filled out a travel waiver form. We discussed tasks and duties that each person would have during the trip. We also talked about taking more pictures this time. Taking more pictures can only help us in the future when we need information about the building site especially. It takes so much time and effort to go on these trips that we need to make every trip worthwhile! We are planning to travel September 2-19 and hopefully this is early enough to give Marvin a heads-up so he can plan to get the materials, contractor, and other things we may need to start construction of the foundation.

Other announcements include a possible end-of-the-year social! It could be a barbeque at Sunset Rec or another potluck!

T-Shirts!

After much discussion about making an EWB t-shirt, our t-shirts arrived and with five dollars you can pick yours up at the next meeting! The t-shirts weren't the only highlights of our meeting- we also discussed completing the necessary manuals, CADing the rest of our designs, and assigning grants to apply for. We decided that our maintenance and construction manuals should have more pictures since most of the community has little or basic literacy skills. There are members of our team who enjoy CADing! So the design team will work with them to finish drawing up our building plans. Lastly, it's important to keep searching for grants that we can apply for so please keep looking for foundations that can support our project!

EWB-USA Presentation & Saturday's Work Day

We had a special guest during this week's meeting! Pearl Abarca, the West Coast SoCal representative from Engineers without Borders-USA, gave a presentation during our general meeting. She shared some advice and helpful tips. I'll just name a few. There are scholarships for students to attend the EWB conferences! Sign up to be a member and you can access resources on the EWB website such as learning Spanish and getting ideas from other EWB chapters. She also encouraged us to get to know the leaders in EWB since they are very approachable and hands-on.

During our Nicaragua meeting, we first discussed this Saturday's work day. At 11 AM, we will be meeting in the patio between Eng. I and Eng. V. Come out and learn how to mix some cement! Also, we gave a round of applause to David for finishing the foundation design! With that off our list, we're now just left with completing the maintenance manual, cost analysis and CADing our design!

Elections!

Congratulations to our new board members! From their speeches, they had great new ideas for the upcoming year so I'm definitely looking forward to it!

Since elections took up most of our time, we had a brief project meeting. Tentatively, next week we will be having a work day to practice mixing concrete instead of our regular meeting. It will most likely be between Engineering I and Engineering V where the ASCE concrete canoe work area is located. So come prepared to do some mixing! Also, we found out that Simpson Strong-tie does not have strong-ties located in Nicaragua which means we may have to find another construction company who has the material we need in Nicaragua and is willing to donate. Lastly, our maintenance and construction manual is still in progress and we're going to continue to look for grants that we can apply for so we can travel this summer.

Structural Discussion and PCC

During Tuesday's meeting, it was an exciting time for nominations! Members nominated other members to the positions of president, internal/external vice president, treasurer, secretary, etc. If you were not able to make it out to the meeting but wanted to nominate yourself or someone else, you will still be able to next week right before our elections. The best way to be more involved in EWB is through a leadership position!

After splitting into our respective groups, we discussed traveling (most likely September) and grants (keep looking!). Then half the team went up to the white board to discuss building design plans and the other half of the team stayed to work on the pairwise comparison chart that we started last week. The results of the PCC showed that safety (obviously) was our highest priority. Our next task is to rank our categories for each priority. Example: for roofing, we have three options: metal, painted metal, and plastic; we rank each option in terms of safety, environmental sustainability, costs of maintenance, etc. We didn't finish filling out the chart since most of us were not experts on the benefits and disadvantages of metal versus plastic, but we did our best!

Lastly, we also discussed the possiblity of having our work day (practicing mixing concrete) on May 3 which is a Tuesday. Instead of our regular meeting, we would have our work day! This is a great way to get some hands-on experience and take a break from studying for midterms. Just a heads up that our "meeting" that day will probably be for 2 hours!

Pairwise Comparison Chart

In this week's meeting, we did a lot of voting! The purpose of our voting was to fill out a Pairwise Comparison Chart (PCC) which is a method of determining what objectives should have the highest priority. There were seven priorities that we had- ease of maintenance (for up-keeping the schoolhouse), sustainability, safety, and ease of transportation (in regards to bringing the material to the village) just to name a few. At times, it was difficult to vote because both choices had good arguments such as ease of maintenance versus cost of maintenance. Other times it was not hard to make a decision; for example, safety always received the most votes when compared to any other category. The results of our PCC will be announced next week and we will be able to know how our priorities rank and thus, focus on what is most important.

All the voting we did will help prepare us for EWB elections coming up! Next week will be nominations and the following week will be the elections. Anyone interested in being a leader in EWB should consider running for a position!

Just Getting Ready for September

Our trip to Nicaragua has been postponed from June to September so up til then we are just getting ready! That means continuing raising funds by applying for grants, finalizing our designs, completing travel forms, and having work days to practice mixing concrete and basic construction techniques. We are also working on compiling our own maintenance and construction manuals. The maintenance manual will be simple consisting of how-to's for basic problems that may arise. We plan to get ideas from home improvement stores such as Home Depot and Lowe's which offer fix-it advice and instructions. Lastly, during our meeting, we were reminded of our need to raise money for our project. All of us are going to bring three grants to next week's meeting!

And Spring Quarter Begins!

Our first meeting of the quarter was exciting with several new students interested in joining Project S.E.D. After introductions that even consisted of an icebreaker question, we discussed the EWB-USA grant. This grant is a great opportunity for us to receive much needed funding for our project. Another thing on our to-do list is making a construction and maintenance manual. These manuals will be helpful for the community members in Las Brenas. So several of us will be writing the manual, finding helpful pictures and diagrams, and of course translating our instructions into Spanish. Also coming up this quarter, we will have at least one session in training for the trip. We will be able to practice possibly digging a footing, mixing concrete, and working with wood. Project S.E.D. faces an exciting new quarter!

Holding off until Spring Quarter

Despite it being dead week, there was still a group of EWBers who attended this week's meeting. We did a lot of discussion during the meeting. Henry, who attended last week's conference call with an EWBUSA representative, informed us of the advice that Tiffany (the representative) gave us. One of the tasks we need to accomplish is to put together a construction and maintenance manual of the schoolhouse for the people in the community. This will be a somewhat difficult task since we will need to put a lot of effort into writing it, including helpful pictures, and translating it into Spanish. We were also advised to practice nailing, mixing concrete, and other building techniques before we leave. However, we all agreed that with finals right around the corner, it would be best to hold off on working on the manuals and holding building workshops until next quarter. Surely spring quarter will be a busy time for Project S.E.D.!

On track to getting ready to travel

On Tuesday's meeting, we discussed briefly about our trip to Nicaragua. The original plan was to go in June after finals week but the weather might be more suitable for building if we went in September. Nothing is set in stone but if the funds are raised, we can expect to be traveling in the summer to start construction of the foundation!
Today, there was a conference call with a representative from EWB-USA. According to Oren, our project lead, the conference call went great and we received positive feedback and helpful tips. Once we complete our implementation forms and decide the traveling details, we will be able to see our long hours of preparation bear fruit when we begin construction of the schoolhouse.

Good News and Bad News

The good news is that the design of the roof and wall are completed. Eugene, our design lead, emailed out the designs and by the pictures and complicated numbers it looks like the schoolhouse will be ready to withstand any rainstorm, hurricane or earthquake. The bad news is that during the meeting we did cost estimates on the material and found out that we would need a lot of material that obviously requires a great deal of money. Our previous project was the latrines that did not require as much material as a schoolhouse so the costs of materials gave us somewhat of a jolt. Of course we are building the schoolhouse in stages so this way, we can raise the money needed as each stage approaches. If you want to check out the layout of the schoolhouse, they can be viewed through our Google Groups page (see attached link below) listed under discussions as EWB Schoolhouse- Building Layout and Alternatives.
http://groups.google.com/group/ewbucla-nicaraguasanitation?lnk=

Frijolillo

The word "frijolillo" may be hard to pronounce but we are excited to say it! Frijolillo is a tropical hardwood that we recently discovered is sustainable, meets our building standards, and is found in Nicaragua! It is used as a substitute for Cumaru, another hardwood, but frijolillo has all the same valuable qualities as Cumaru. We are very happy that we will be able to use such an ideal material that is environmentally friendly and has the right strength properties so we can construct a stable structure. If you want to learn more about frijolillo or other sustainable wood materials check out http://www.nicaraguahardwoods.com/products/S4S%20Frijolillo%20FAS(Cumaru%20substitute).php

And we are still applying for grants hoping to get enough funding so we can travel this summer. Furthermore, our NGO contact, Marvin, has informed us that the community has been eager for us to start construction on the schoolhouse.

Midterms, Marvin, MOU

Tuesday's meeting saw a decrease in attendance which we blame midterm season for. However, we were still able to have a successful meeting. Karen, who corresponds with our NGO contact in Nicaragua named Marvin, gave us an update that Marvin had given her. Marvin reported that the families in the community are using our latrines! The latrines are basically bathrooms that have chemicals added to the waste to turn it into fertilizer which is helpful since the community is mostly agricultural. Currently, in addition to the schoolhouse, we are working on improvements we can make to the latrines. Marvin also informed us that it is better to transport materials to the village during rainy season because the river will have enough water to make it easy to bring the supplies in the boats. We concluded the meeting with ideas on how to make our MOU (Memorandum of understanding) with the people of Las Brenas more detailed. It is important that once the schoolhouse is completed that it will be well maintained and that there be guidelines on its use.
Keep working on grants so we can fund the schoolhouse!

523, 524, 525

In order for us to continue Project S.E.D and go to Nicaragua, there are three forms that we have to fill out- 523 Alternatives Analysis Report, 524 Preliminary Design Report, and 525 Pre-Implementation Report. We have divided these reports into smaller parts to be more efficient in completing them on time.
Meanwhile, the design phase seems to be near the end with just a few more things to finish up like drawing it up on CAD (Computer-Aided Design). Speaking of CAD, some members of the Nicaragua team went about two weekends ago to a CAD workshop at UCLA to get some basic knowledge of how to CAD. So hopefully we learned enough to apply our newfound skills to our schoolhouse.

Finishing up the design!

In last Friday's design meeting, Eugene explained how we needed to analyze the schoolhouse's structure (specifically the roof truss) by calculating the load for different scenarios like if there was an earthquake, hurricane, someone on the roof during an earthquake, etc. We needed to determine which was the worst scenario and base the design of the structure on this to ensure that the building would be stable.
So in yesterday's general meeting, Dennis (an undergraduate civil engineering student who graciously volunteered to do the load calculations) brought in his analysis of the truss structure. Now we can finish calculations on this coming Friday's design meeting and hopefully have the design done by February. The meeting will be at 12:30 PM on the 8th floor of Boelter Hall in the SEL Research Commons which is right across from the Science Engineering Library.
And I forgot to mention that a recent email from Marvin, our contact in Nicaragua, informed us that there is most likely going to be plywood that we can use! Yay!

Design and Deadlines

During the design meeting, our head design leader, Eugene, basically showed us in ten minutes how to build a schoolhouse. Of course, there's definitely more calculations and work so there will be a Design Day this Friday at 12 PM. Anyone wanting to help and willing to learn can come even without a structural engineering background. They will be meeting in front of Boelter Hall in the Court of Sciences. There are two designs for the schoolhouse: one with plywood available and one without plywood available. The alternative of not having plywood would cause more difficulties in design and gathering material and would be more costly.
In our regular meeting, Oren reminded us of the deadlines approaching. There is a great need for us to raise money because without the money we cannot begin construction of the schoolhouse. Therefore, everyone is to bring the name of a foundation with a grant to next week's meeting.
Another issue raised was that the foundation would probably be exposed for a long time (possibly even a year) and because the soil is mostly clay, we need to find ways to build the foundation to last during the wait between visits. Two solutions that were discussed were to either build a bigger foundation or to transport gravel or sand from another location to place the foundation on top of (the gravel or sand will allow water to drain).

Clay Sucks

David, our geotechnical graduate student, finished running tests on the soil samples that the team brought from the assessment trip and delivered the results during the meeting. He said the soil is mostly clay and the clay is mostly plastic which leads to problems in the stability and safety of the structure. Basically, clay sucks. Luckily, our design team can hammer out a plan that overcomes the problems that clay presents. The design team is now also focusing on the water tanks for the rainwater catchment. In the design meeting, they debated whether it should be underground or above ground, made with plastic, and other aspects of the tanks. To be more effective, possibly the coming Monday, there will be a Design Day(!) filled with lots of calculations and designing. Design Day will help us get a more definite plan sooner. Anyone can come, even if you do not know how to design a structure, because there will be much needed help with calculations and cost estimates.

Welcome Back!

Today was the first meeting of our winter quarter! And we have a lot of work to do!
Oren and Henry talked with someone from the EWB headquarters who reviewed our submitted post-assessment. She brought up some important issues that we hadn't considered such as determining who owns the land that we are building the schoolhouse and finding a schoolhouse. In addition to finding solutions to the issues she called to attention we have many other forms to complete so that we can travel to Nicaragua this summer.
In addition, more pressure is on the design team to complete the design of the schoolhouse and to also create alternative designs. Starting next week, they will be meeting at 5:30 PM in the same room where we have our meeting. I'm sure that they can use any help!
Lastly, a previous EWB-UCLA project in Thailand will need some reconstruction. The No Lae schoolhouse built several years ago needs improved water tanks. Anyone interested in helping in this project or heading this project can contact Nathan, our President and he can probably lead you to the mentor/leader of the project.