The annual symposium of Engineers Without Borders will be held at the TU Eindhoven at February 20th. The theme for this year will be “Technical Challenges in Disaster Response”. Logistics, averting bottlenecks, coordinating governmental efforts and those of aid organizations – they quickly become the preoccupations of those overseeing disaster relief operations. We all feel compelled to help and we would like to contribute. However this does not always have to be by donating money. Clever ideas and practical solutions are just as valuable. Whether it is to create an app to locate people or an easy to put up construction for shelter, all ideas are useful after a disaster where people are left without anything.

The symposium will focus on such as medical treatment, sheltering, infrastructure and water supply after disaster or in disaster prone areas. Throughout the day interesting case studies will be presented.

More info and registration: https://www.kivi.nl/afdelingen/ingenieurs-zonder-grenzen/activiteiten/activiteit/technical-challenges-disaster-response

Speaker(s)

Some of the presentations that will be held are:
A systematic approach to optimize medical equipment for humanitarian settlements – Ana Laura Santos (Médecins Sans Frontières Sweden)

Emergency and temporary shelters: examples from the last 4 years (Haiti, Pakistan, Philippines and Nepal) – John Buijs (Manager of the Disaster Response Unit, ZOA)

Groundwater and emergency situations resulting from natural disasters – Jac van der Gun.

Avoid enlarging a disaster: take care of critical infrastructure – Erik Luiijf (Principal Consultant, TNO)

Fast energy supply for medical equipment – Roland Schmehl (associate professor TU Delft and Enevate BV) and Johannes Peschel (Enevate BV)

Excreta disposal in emergency situations – Jan Heeger (Red Cross)

Resilient Reconstruction Projects In the Philippines - Jan-Willem Wegdam (Shelter Expert, Cordaid)

Part of the symposium will be a workshop where you will be challenged to come up with a smart solution or enhancement for a technical problem encountered during disaster response