[media-credit name=’JEFF SCHORFHEIDE/Herald photo’ align=’alignnone’ width=’648′][/media-credit]Transcending both the bounds of Madison and the North American continent, a group of University of Wisconsin students continues to bring sustainable technologies to devastated and underdeveloped areas both at home and across the world.

The UW chapter of Engineers Without Borders held their banquet Thursday night where members presented about their recent worldwide trips and building projects.

"It's extremely impressive and inspirational — it's terrific," said UW biochemical engineering professor Alan Attie, who attended the banquet. "They are the future of our country. If we could scale this up nationwide, … things would be very, very different."

UW junior John Lee explained his trip to New Orleans last May, where he worked with Habitat for Humanity through EWB to assist in hurricane relief efforts.

Lee's presentation included images of the destruction Hurricanes Katrina and Rita caused on houses, as well as the "before and after" images of the immense clean-up project.

"What we did in each house was remove everything," Lee said. "It was like someone filled the house with water and then shook it up. There was a foot of mud, and also an oil refinery nearby — it broke open and spilled unrefined substances everywhere."

UW grad student Bobby Mohanty presented the efforts of an EWB trip to Thailand last May. The team installed wastewater management utilities for school in a village of 38 households.

"When we got there, they had three toilets, all were pits and they were blocked up," Mohanty said. "They had 150 students, so you could see it was a problem."

With a limited budget and scarce availability of construction supplies, Mohanty said they used rice bags in place of geotextile fabrics, in conjunction with water pipes.

According to UW grad student Phil Gaebler, EWB does not solely travel abroad, noting the work his team did at the Aldo Leopold Nature Center in Madison.

"The major areas and problems were right next to a walking path that floods in the spring," Gaebler said. "It's a popular place for fieldtrips, and there was a walking path that turns into a muddy mess."

Another EWB group traveled to El Salvador, analyzing wastewater collection and treatment processes in areas where there were reports of severe stomach problems and diseases like malaria and dengue fever.

"They have untreated wastewater flowing right down one of their main streets," UW junior Jon Blanchard said.

Blanchard added that they would be traveling down to the Central American country over spring break to continue the water treatment efforts.

UW senior Megan Bender presented EWB's projects in Muramba, Rwanda — at the heart of the 1994 genocide where nearly one million people were killed.

"The main issue this area faces is lack of portable water supply. They don't have nearly enough water for their community," Bender said. "They were still using pipes built in the late 1800s by the Belgians when they colonized the area."