If you plan on attending this seminar please contact Terri Lavorgna or call the Academic Affairs Office at 471-7995 at least one day before the seminar.
Integrating International Community Service
into the Engineering Curriculum
PRESENTED BY:
Dr. Janet
Ellzey, Professor Mechanical Engineering
Meagan Vaughan, Teaching Assistant Mechanical Engineering
OVERVIEW:
Service learning, or community service integrated into the academic program,
provides a unique opportunity for students to apply their engineering skills to
problems facing underserved communities worldwide. At the current time, the
Cockrell School of Engineering has a very active Engineers Without Borders (EWB)
with 100 students who are committed to helping address the technical challenges
in low income countries. In Fall 2008, Dr. Janet Ellzey with the assistant of a
TA developed a course for EWB students involved in the design of a water system
for a girls’ school in Cameroon. Class time was divided among lectures from
international volunteers, discussion of West African literature and politics,
and project work. At the completion of the semester, students were prepared to
travel to Cameroon to complete the phase of the project for which they have been
preparing all semester. Student and instructor feedback was positive and helpful
in further refining the course structure for future international service
learning programs. In this seminar, we will discuss our approach to teaching
this service-learning class as well as suggest improvements for similar courses
to be offered in the future.
BIO:
Dr. Janet L. Ellzey earned her Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from the
University of California, Berkeley in 1985. She joined the faculty of The
University of Texas at Austin in 1990. She is Associate Chair for International
Engineering Programs.
Dr. Ellzey researches combustion with an emphasis on environmental technologies.
Her research includes both experimental and computational studies of combustion
systems. Two main applications of Ellzey’s work are low-emission burners and
fuel reformers. She has developed a low-emission combustor for gas turbine
applications, and developed an incinerator for used tires that can condense
usable fuel from the burned tires. Ellzey is currently developing a low-emission
combustor and a non-catalytic reactor to convert conventional fuels such as
methane into hydrogen-rich fuel mixtures without the use of a chemical catalyst.