Water management is fundamental to human societies, and requires scientists and engineers who can integrate cultural, institutional, and international dimensions of water resources with sophisticated technologies and solutions. This International Research Experiences for Students (IRES) project engages U.S. students in water management research in Cochabamba, Bolivia. Undergraduate and Ph.D. students with engineering and anthropology backgrounds will collect field data to: 1) assess the treatment performance and carbon neutrality of sanitation technology and 2) develop mathematical models to estimate the sustainability of water supplies from natural springs and rainwater under scenarios of population growth, urbanization, development, agricultural land use, and climate change. Students will partner with an engineer from the community-based nongovernmental organization Aqueous Solutions, and will also work with students and faculty from the Universidad Tecnológica Boliviana, under the mentorship of faculty member Dr. Santiago Morales.
Graduate students will integrate their research with participation in a new 16-credit Graduate Certificate in Water, Health, and Sustainability. Undergraduates will return to campus to continue research via the USF Honors College or other undergraduate research initiatives. Undergraduates will also participate the following year in a 6-credit International Capstone Design course. Three of the course credits will take place in Bolivia through an established partnership with the civil engineering at the Universidad Privada del Valle (Cochabamba).
This project is co-funded by the Office of International Science and Engineering (OISE) and the Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport Systems (CBET).
There is a growing recognition that increased stresses (e.g., land use and climate change) on the world’s water affect quality, quantity and availability. Water management institutions are fundamental to human societies, and when combined with dynamic global challenges require we train scientists and engineers who can integrate cultural, institutional, and international dimensions of water resources with sophisticated technologies and solutions. Over the project period we paired 20 U.S. STEM students with a demonstrated interest in issues of water and sustainable development with 26 Bolivian engineering and science students to perform research in Bolivia. The U.S. students included 8 PhD students, 8 MS students, and 4 undergraduates. Our Bolivian partners included an engineer from a community-based nongovernmental organization and faculty and students from the Universidad Tecnológica Boliviana (La Paz, Bolivia), Universidad Privada del Valle (Cochabamba, Bolivia), and Center for Water and Environmental Sanitation at the University of San Simón (Cochabamba, Bolivia). The intellectual collaboration with the foreign team provided unique research locations, interdisciplinary projects requiring international perspectives and integration of technology with societal issues, cooperation with three Bolivian universities and one nongovernmental organization, and a setting that provides opportunities to research concepts of water management and sustainability with community engagement in a real world context. Our results have increased the scientific understanding of how viruses and other pathogens such geohelminths are sampled, analyzed, and removed during wastewater treatment for subsequent discharge to the environment or agricultural fields via water reuse. We have also demonstrated how to quantify the environmental sustainability of wastewater treatment and the recovery of water, energy, and nutrients that embodied in treated wastewater. Other parts of our research improved our understanding of the mechanism by which water quality degrades during household water storage and during homeowner maintenance, how urban green space is perceived by users in rapidly urbanizing cities, and what impact changes in land use and climate have on water resources. In addition, the research is also identifying the appropriate synthesis of community members, government, nongovernmental organizations, engineering practice in the management of water infrastructure. Ten theses/dissertations will ultimately be derived from this research experience and ten peer reviewed journal articles, book chapters, and conference proceedings resulted from this research. This grant helped to transform education and research initiatives related to sustainable water management that take place at a system interconnection of engineering, anthropology, and an international perspective. The integrated community of U.S. student researchers include PhD, MS, and undergraduate students from engineering, marine sciences, and anthropology. Research was driven by graduate level requirements for thesis/dissertations and scholarly publications. One of our Bolivian university counterparts was successful in being awarded a USAID PEER Science grant associated with this grant (Titled Bolivia ? Project 358: The fate of enteric pathogens in fluids, fields, and food products: on-farm solutions for the safe reclamation of water and nutrients from sewage). In addition, several successes between integrated teams of engineering and anthropology faculty have led to increased external funding and several joint publications. Our proposal recruited and trained a diverse cohort of students into international science and engineering research. There were 20 total U.S. student participants in the program, 12 were women (60%) and 6 of the 20 participants were under-represented minority students (30%). By education level, the breakdown was 4 BS participants (4 women, 2 under-represented minorities), 8 MS participants (3 females, 3 under-represented minorities), and 8 PhD participants (5 female and 1 under-represented minorities). All 4 of the BS participants have continued their education at the graduate level and of the 8 MS students, 2 have continued on for the PhD degree. Two of the student participants have recently been awarded Fulbright grants to study in Brazil and Costa Rica and one student continued her education with the U.S. Peace Corps Master’s International Program in Civil & Environmental Engineering. The students also gained perspectives that align strategically with national groups like the National Academy of Engineering (in Educating the Engineer of 2020) that have documented the rapid social, political, economic, and environmental changes occurring in the world and associated implications for engineering education, research, and practice.
