Engineers Without Borders Cal Poly
Nicaragua Team, Prototyping Project
February 2015
The Project
I am a member of Cal Poly’s Engineer’s Without Borders Nicaragua team, and I am a leader of the prototyping subteam. As a prototyping lead, I helped design, plan, and complete a prototyping session for the team. The Nicaragua team is currently planning to construction a three classroom school in our community near Managua during the summer of 2015. In order to effectively implement our design during our trips to Nicaragua, the team needs to learn the skills necessary to construct the school.
The Design and Plan
The prototyping team spent an entire quarter designing and planning the prototyping session. We conducted material estimates and calculated material costs, and then we applied to a grant to provide funding for the project. I utilized my AutoCAD skills to draw the design for the prototyping project. After consulting and collaborating with the structures subteam, we decided to build a 4’10” x 4’10” corner of the school with a 1’-deep foundation, CMU skirt wall, and steel framing.
The Construction
After the design and plans were approved, materials, tools, and volunteers were gathered for the construction of the project. Thirty-five volunteers attended the prototyping session. Special attention was paid to teaching a practicing safe construction site procedures. As one of the prototyping project leads, I had to ensure everyone was being safe while gaining hands-on experience. The structures lead for the team led informative workshops to teach members the proper construction techniques to be used to build the school. He demonstrated how to use various tools and proper building techniques, then the team members were given the opportunity to practice them. Volunteers dug the foundation, bent and tied rebar, mixed and poured concrete, constructed formwork, laid blocks with mortar in-between, cut sheet metal, and screwed together steel framing. Overall, the project was a success, and many lessons were learned which we will considered during future construction. The Team
