On the surface, it seems like a noble but simple task: Improve the cooking methods employed by the families in the Nandi community of western Kenya.

However, the challenge is quite complicated, explains project leader Brandon Boor, assistant professor of civil engineering. Nevertheless, if the Purdue improvement plan is successful, it could impact the lives of nearly 1 million people in the Nandi region.

Built-in stoves — typically made of brick and clay — are widely used in the Nandi community. This traditional cooking method relies on solid, fast-burning biomass fuels such as wood, coal, dung and crop wastes. It is a common cooking method used by 3 billion people worldwide, largely in developing countries.

“This is a traditional cooking method for families, but it is dangerous and inefficient,” Boor says. “Because it is such a pervasive custom, any proposed solution must be practical and affordable or it will never be adopted.”

There are significant health risks associated with the built-in stove emissions, he says. The primary risk comes from wood smoke inhalation which, according to the World Health Organization, is responsible for 3-4 million deaths a year.

“The smoke produced by the inefficient combustion process and the poorly ventilated kitchens causes a great amount of indoor air pollution,” Boor says. “Women and children are disproportionally affected by this health risk as they are the ones typically around the stove when the cooking is being done.”

Several organizations have attempted to solve the problem with clean cookstove technologies, but the solutions are rarely adopted, he says.

“From an engineering standpoint, there have been very efficient solutions presented, but they missed the whole cultural aspect,” Boor explains. “The newer, more efficient stoves changed their cooking techniques. They also could only cook one thing at a time on them, making meal preparation take much longer.”

Several others are stepping up to work on this problem with Boor: Danielle Wagner, a graduate student in environmental and ecological engineering, along with the EPICS Global Air Quality Trekkers team. EPICS (Engineering Projects in Community Service) is a program that enlists undergraduates from engineering and other disciplines to solve community problems.

They join their project partners in the Kenya-based AMPATH Consortium of academic medical centers, David K. Lagat, MD, of Moi University, and Irene Kalamai — a retired nurse who lives in the Nandi community. Groups of women in the Nandi community have been working with Kalamai to modify their kitchens to include a chimney as well as additional ventilation pathways while preserving traditional Nandi built-in stove techniques.

Civil engineering student Scott Houldieson says this project has opened his eyes to a vital aspect of designing that can’t be obtained from pure classwork.

“You really have to consider not just whether your design will work, but if it actually fits the system you’re designing it for,” Houldieson says. “It’s an interesting challenge that forces you to focus on how this will affect others.”

Over winter break, Boor, Wagner and four members of the EPICS team flew to Kenya to assess indoor air pollution and ventilation of traditional Nandi kitchens. The challenge now for the spring semester team is to analyze the data and further improve ventilation.

The Nandi project received a one-year seed grant from Purdue’s Global Engineering Program and the Innovation for International Development (I2D) fund. Boor says he hopes to garner additional funds to continue the study.

For more information about EPICS and the work being done in the Nandi community, visit engineering.purdue.edu/EPICS and engineering.purdue.edu/GEP/I2DLab. In addition, you can follow the EPICS team’s progress on Twitter: twitter.com/AirQualityEPICS