Students at Duke & Beyond

Focus Alums Seek to Build Bridge in Rural Boliva

During the summer of 2009, a group of Engineering Frontiers focus alums will travel to Bolivia. They will construct a bridge in the country's flood prone highlands, creating a river crossing that will benefit multiple communities by improving their access to agricultural markets, grazing land, schools, and health clinics.
Bios of some of the Focus alums involved in this project are listed below:

Patrick Ye

(Biomedical Engineering 2010 / Engineering Frontiers Alum 2006).

Patrick is the project leader for the bridge in Bolivia project. The idea for this project came to Patrick during class when one of his Focus professors mentioned her archaeology research is in Obrajes, Bolivia. During the previous summer she heard many many of her local workers express the need for a bridge. Patrick traveled to Bolivia in May 2008 as part of the site assessment team to collect engineering data and interview community members.

"I really enjoyed the interdisciplinary aspects of the Focus courses I took. Never before have I been exposed to not just engineering challenges but also environmental, public policy, and ethical issues. Being around classmates that are passionate, visionary, and globally-aware has been very inspirational to me. I am very glad to have met these amazing people, and to this day, I am good friends with many of my fellow Focus-mates."

Philip Danser

(Civil Engineering & Public Policy Studies 2011 / Engineering Frontiers Alum 2007).

Philip will travel to Bolivia during the summer of 2009 to construct the bridge. He is the recipient of a Stay In Focus Grant through for his research project entitled "Cost to Benefit Analysis to Assess Economic Impact of Constructing a Bridge in Rural Bolivia." During his freshman year, Philip led a Focus sponsored field trip to visit production facilities of Interface Global, the world’s largest manufacturer of modular carpet and a leader in sustainable manufacturing processes.

"For me, the most valuable aspect of Focus is the lasting community it created for me on campus, inclusive of student and professors. I am finding that most of my closest friends are Engineering Frontiers Focus alums. At a recent lunch discussion with one of the focus faculty, there were three generations of focus students represented at the table, two were from the year above me and one from a year below."

Maria Gibbs

(Civil Engineering 2012 / Engineering Frontiers Alum 2008).

Maria is a member of the Bolivia team and will travel to Bolivia to help with the construction of the bridge and conduct research on the role of international volunteers in rural Bolivian social structure for which she has received a Stay in Focus Grant. Maria is enrolled in CE142, and is working with a team of two seniors and one freshman to design a pier supported short-span bridge which will serve as a potential design for the Bolivia team this summer.
"As a freshman who came to Duke excited about engineering, the Focus Program gave me the unique opportunity to channel that excitement into coursework that pertained directly to solving real world engineering problems. My Focus classes allowed my to supplement the generic engineering introductory classes I was enrolled in along with my peers with courses like Engineering the Planet, where I was introduced to ArcGIS, a software product my classmates and I used to view spatial data, create maps, and perform basic spatial analysis."

Magdalena Kelleher

(Civil Engineering 2011 / Engineering Frontiers Alum 2007).

Magdalena has been working on the team Bolivia project for two semesters. She is currently enrolled in a class dedicated to the design planning of projects such as the bridge in Bolivia. During the summer after her freshman year, Magdalena was accepted into the Duke Engage program.  Through this program, she had the opportunity to work with 10 other Duke students in aiding a rural community in Peru construct a water system.
"The Focus program allowed me to catalyze my engineering education in a real way. The program exposed me to various opportunities that allowed me to apply the engineering I was learning in my classes to real world problems. It was a great way to make connections with peers, Professors, and organizations that shared my interests and goals."

Stephanie Chang

(Electrical and Computer Engineering 2011 / Engineering Frontiers Alum 2007.

With the support of a Stay in Focus grant, Stephanie conducted interviews with subsistence farmers for the “impact assessment” component of the Bolivia site assessment in summer 2008, helping to identify the highest-impact location and desired criteria for the proposed bridge.  She is currently leading a student-driven project to design and build a health clinic in rural Honduras in partnership with Duke University Medical Center physician Dr. Dennis Clements, Heifer International, and the Honduran Ministry of Health.  Stephanie, who recently transferred from Trinity to Pratt, is serving as president of Engineers Without Borders for the Spring-Fall 2009 term.
Stephanie is a technology enthusiast and pragmatic environmentalist.  Aside from helping lead the Giles dorm to victory in the 2007 Eco-Olympics, she initiated an Engineering Frontiers field trip to the TFC Recycling Plant in Durham for a behind-the-scenes tour of the recycling process.

“The FOCUS program was the highlight of my freshman year.  I found it intensely rewarding to design and perform my own research projects in the Engineering Frontiers seminars, an enduring and intimate learning experience that many students don’t get until their senior year.  For example, my first-semester analysis of snowmelt trends in California gave me the background I needed to edit an article on North Carolina droughts for the Winter 2008 issue of Vertices (Duke’s Undergraduate Journal of Science and Technology). Aside from catalyzing strong friendships among peers with similar passions, the Engineering Frontiers FOCUS helps bridge the curricular divide between engineering design and the public policy issues that influence how technical solutions will work in the real world.  My advice to high school seniors:  What you get out of FOCUS is directly proportional to the effort you put in.  So make the most of this special opportunity!"

Will Patrick

(Mechanical Engineering 2010 / Engineering Frontiers Alum 2006).

Will has pursued his interest in sustainable development through his three years at Duke so far. Will's involvement in Engineers Without Borders (EWB) began when Lee Pearson introduced him to the Rural Agency for Sustainable Development (RASD). As a sophomore, he became president of EWB and coordinated a DukeEngage group project in Nkokonjeru, Uganda where Duke students worked with the RASD on several initiatives, most notably successfully implementing an Internet cafe. Outside of EWB, Will has worked with a team of graduate students from UNC and Stanford to develop water purification technologies utilizing UV light emitting diodes.  This summer, Will plans to intern with Distributed World Power in Ahmadabad, India, a start-up that seeks to provide electricity to the rural regions of the world.

"The Focus program started my intellectual experience at Duke. In Focus, I began to understand the complex interface between technology and humanity, and since I have concentrated my academic and extra-curricular endeavors in trying to utilize technology to make a positive social impact. Having classes with the other Focus students on an intellectual and personal level, my relationships with Focus classmates are some of my strongest friendships at Duke."

Eric Thorne

(Electrical and Computer Engineering 2011 / Engineering Frontiers Alum 2007)

The summer following his freshman year, Eric opted to travel to the Rural Agency for Sustainable Development on DukeEngage funding to continue his work on a concrete coffee sheller design he worked on with Will Patrick in Engineers Without Borders. Once on the ground in Uganda, however, he found that his time could be better spent acting as a liasion between coffee farmers and a prominent coffee farmers' union to help organize the farmers into groups to realize greater profits on their crop. This year he is leading a project to improve the waste management system in Nkokonjeru, the town where RASD is located, as well as continuing work on organizing farmers into coffee associations.

"As a student in the program, FOCUS surprised me. I thought it was easy; imagine, my first semester at Duke was easy! But, as an alumnus, I keep on posing the same types of open-ended technological and policy problems in my classes and in my work with Engineers Without Borders that I first encountered in Engineering Frontiers. Surprise, surprise; FOCUS launches its students right into the engineering world. Anyone can calculate the efficiency of an electrostatic precipitator or the volume of water that evaporates from a dam in a day, but not everyone can find a cost-efficient means to reduce pollution from coal plants or quantify the energy lost by lake-sized dams. Just like anything else, these issues should recieve as much attention as you care for them. My FOCUS courses should have been the most challenging I've taken at Duke.

Focus alumni participate in Frosh Life

Alumni from four Focus clusters participate in the latest edition of Frosh Life! Ryan Brown and Andrew O’Rourke, both of Visions of Freedom in Wilson, were awarded the distinction of Best Editors. Sandeep Prasanna of Evolution & Humankind and Eric Jain of Prospective Health Care tied with fellow student, Pronoy Sarkar, for Best Story. Read more.

Andy Cunningham

During the spring 2007 semester, Andy and fellow student, Laura Heeter, launched a new Duke Study In China program in Kunming, China. Read more in their co-written article.

Lee Pearson

Focus Program alumni, Lee Pearson, is Duke’s newest recipient of the prestigious Marshall Scholarship.  Lee is a double major in civil and environmental engineering and biomedical engineering. Lee is also a campus leader for Engineerings Without Borders.  Read more.

Sarah Wallace

Meet Sarah Wallace – a Changing Faces of Russia alumna in Chernobyl.
Sarah blogged about her summer experience in Chernobyl. Sarah is a senior at Duke University, majoring in public policy and global health. She created the blog so colleagues at Duke will be able to follow her research in Chernobyl, Ukraine, during the summer of 2007.

Benjamin Abram

“Focus is the singular program at Duke that jump-started my experience, to make it as intellectually and socially invigorating as it has been. Even though the major I finally landed on — Envionrmental Engineering — is totally different than the topic of the Focus cluster I was in — Humanitarian Challenges — the program gave me a base of knowledge and learning that pushed me to take upper-level classes much faster than I would have thought I could... to great results.”

“What Focus did was show me all the resources the University has to offer, and to help me more quickly define how my true interests could be funneled into action at Duke, through increased confidence in my ‘college-level’ academic skills and close relationships with my professors.”

“As part of my Focus experience, I had an internship at the Interfaith Hospitality Network where I spent a lot of time with a second-grader: hanging out at the park, playing ball, and working on homework. One Friday when I came, he wouldn't come to the park with me and his siblings because his father had promised to come pick him up for the weekend. He was excited; however, when we returned to the shelter later that afternoon, tears were streaming down his face as he slammed down the ringing phone one final time. The next week I promised to mentor him for all four years I would be here in Durham; of all the relationships I've made at Duke this one is by far the most important, and I have the Focus Program to thank for the introduction.”

“Memo to first year students: you spent the time filling out all those college applications — now that you've decided on Duke, take the extra hour to fill out the most important application yet: the Focus Program application. If you apply for a topic that interests you, and you are truly passionate for learning, it is one hour you will never regret.”

Eric Oberstein

Meet EricOberstein – a Focus Program alumnus who co-founded Arts Connect, a program for the Durham West End Community Center which teaches children about the arts. Eric says his experience in the Arts in Contemporary Society Focus cluster allowed him to explore his passion for the arts and interact with students who had similar interests. “ I was immersed in all areas of the arts, and given the unique opportunity to study the role of arts in our society as well as the ways in which the different art forms interact.” This experience helped put him on the path for a career in arts management. His Focus experience also inspired him to start ArtsConnect, an arts engagement program that gives Duke student artists the opportunity to expose Durham children to all areas of the arts through weekly sessions at local community centers and schools. Eric’s advice? “I highly recommend the Focus Program becuase it allows students to approach an area of study in an interdisciplinary manner, facilitating ongoing, engaging dialogue between students and faculty.”