Purdue receives award at Engineers Without Borders-USA national conference
Andrew Piepho was driving to West Lafayette to start his junior year this fall when an email pinged.
Engineers Without Borders-USA (EWB-USA) and Engineering World Health (EWH), two national organizations he’d been involved with at Purdue University, had merged.
Piepho wasn’t exactly sure what that would mean for the Purdue-connected programs, but he was eager to find out.
Turned out, Piepho would become an instrumental piece in a significant transition.
One that resulted in a national honor.
At the EWB-USA national conference March 8-9, a group of Purdue students were presented with an award for “outstanding service to EWB community health efforts.”
William (Bill) Oakes, president for EWB-USA and associate dean for undergraduate education in Purdue University’s College of Engineering, lauded Purdue’s EWB chapter for being a leader in integrating EWH and EWB-USA at the local level to match the efforts to the national organization.
“Our students have fully committed to figuring out how to integrate EWH and EWB. I’m very proud of how they have worked together and operated in the ambiguity of the transition of EWH into EWB,” Oakes said. “They have developed ideas that are helping to shape how the national program develops. Very proud of them.”
In 2014, Oakes helped integrate Purdue’s EWB chapter into an Engineering Projects in Community Service (EPICS) course. The EPICS EWB team surged as has grown to 81 students this spring. The team is working on major projects domestically (Louisiana) and globally (Rwanda).
Purdue’s EWH group, advised by the Marta E. Gross Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering Jacqueline Linnes, was a student organization and not connected for a formal course. Linnes and Oakes agreed to integrate EWH into the EWB-EPICS course, and Linnes became a co-advisor to the class.
Piepho, a biomedical engineering major, joined EWB as a first-year student three years ago because he loves “the mission and purpose of it all and felt like it’d give me a lot of reward.” To start his sophomore year, he added EWH because it was more technically applicable to his future.
Once the EWB-EWH national merger happened this fall, Piepho said he was the “convenient liaison” because he was in both Purdue groups. He spoke with both teams, and they agreed with the recommendation to incorporate EWH as a subteam of EWB.
“Both of these organizations were in the low-resource space and trying to do good work around the globe that benefits people,” Piepho said.
In December 2024, Piepho was selected as Purdue’s EWB chapter president and work began in earnest in January to integrate the groups.
“We went a long time educating the EWH people on what we were doing with EWB,” Piepho said. “(EWB) has two projects, Rwanda and Louisiana. Both of these communities have infrastructure needs, which is what we’ve been addressing, but they also have health needs, so we thought we could do a side or off-shoot project with the Engineering World Health team, help build trust with the community. A lot of these (EWB) civil engineering projects take 2-5 years to complete, so it’s nice to have something short-term that shows we’re committed.”
The EWH subteam started with the Louisiana project for the Grand Caillou/Dulac Band (GCD) Native American tribe, and, after much discussion and brainstorming, the team is working on its first project under the reorganized structure.
“A big health need is sanitation after hurricanes. We’re currently having the team develop pop-up showers that are able to be up after a hurricane comes through because a lot of times, for various reasons, showers won’t work,” Piepho said. “The tribe has been eager to help. They’re the best. They could be the busiest people in the world, and they’d still make time for us. They’re eager to help us help them. It’s been a good relationship.”
An uptick in hands on Purdue’s side definitely helps.
This fall, EWH is EWB’s biggest subteam with 15 students, Piepho said.
"The transition to EWB has been filled with redirection, but I am so grateful for our leadership team and advisors who have been here to guide us along the way,” said Eliza Thurs, a sophomore in BME and the EWH health team design lead. “Additionally, it's really cool to work alongside a community so closely and make a meaningful impact with a hardworking team."
"Transitioning into EWB has had so many opportunities for us to grow both on a personal level and as a team,” said Heppelmann, a sophomore in electrical and computer engineering. “Personally, I have really enjoyed learning about EWB and its core values — especially the purposeful partnerships model, and I think that they align really well with what I hope to accomplish as an engineer."
Piepho said he’s proud of how students “have stepped up to the plate for a bigger time commitment.”
The response impressed beyond Purdue, too.
Prior to the EWB national conference, staffer Megan Lavery reached out to ask Purdue to present at the conference. She also wanted to meet while there, and Piepho said Lavery’s response to what the Purdue groups had done in a couple months was encouraging.
“She loved the fact we were taking the initiative and doing it ourselves and having our advisors have conversations,” Piepho said. “Sometimes I feel like we don’t know what we’re doing — we’re still figuring everything out — but it’s cool that the fact we’ve taken the first steps was appreciated.”
The award — accepted by Piepho, first-year engineering student Abby Heppelmann, another key cog to the EWH team, and four other team members — cemented that.
“It was nice to be recognized for making that transition,” Piepho said. “It was a great confidence boost to the team that is trying to fit into this new system.”