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    Hi, friends!  Thanks for your interest in this blog and my trip!  Below is an overview of what I'm doing, and how you can help.

About Me:
Hi!  I'm David.  Right now I'm in my fourth year of graduate school at "the" Ohio State University in Columbus, OH.  I'm working toward a Ph.D. in Ecological Engineering by studying green infrastructure for urban stormwater treatment and control.  The hope is that we can design cities that provide better habitat for things besides humans, which many people assert will make cities better habitat for humans also (1).  But at the same time, the hope is to solve some practical problems in the city with green infrastructure, which has some significant advantages to traditional "grey" infrastructures (2).

This is the only "engineering-y" picture of myself that I have.

I'm also passionate about humanitarian engineering.  Let's follow Wikipedia and define that as "research and design to directly improve the well-being of poor, marginalized, or under-served communities, which often lack the means to address pressing problems" (3).  For example, while working on my undergraduate degree I did some research on improved cookstoves, which address a number of problems that come from cooking over open fires (indoor air pollution is a major cause of death in the developing world (4))

Sorry - citations are by now an ingrained part of my writing style.  You'll probably just have to deal with it.

It's always made sense to me that engineering and helping people go hand-in-hand: it's arguably why I chose chemical engineering over chemistry during my first year at Rochester (though the number of labs required for each program played a role, I'll admit).  But, at Rochester at least, it was hard to find people trying to put these things together.  There were lots of ways to pursue social justice, to work for the poor and the marginalized, but none of them involved engineering.  Engineering services were undeniably useful - everyone envies the engineer's job prospects - but they seemed reserved for those who could pay for them.  One summer, I got frustrated and decided to volunteer with Americorps, figuring I could just help people, sans engineering.  It was a great experience, but I couldn't escape the specter of engineering thinking.  I was passing out lead testing kits at work, and looking up bioremediation strategies in my spare time (and trying to design a reactor that would remove the lead from hyperaccumulating plants...) 

So engineering clearly wasn't going to go away.  And I had other problems I wanted to pursue, problems relating to the ways people interact with nature (you should read Genesis 2:15 and compare it to the American Ecological Engineering Society's mission statement).  So I ended up in graduate school at Ohio State, a huge school with lots of opportunities.  And for a while I've been very happy exploring them.

But I've been in school for 22 years straight, and this past spring I decided that I wanted to take some time off in order to gain some practical experience.  While considering where to do this, I remembered EMI, and I thought, "...that would be perfect."

EMI:
"Engineering Ministries International (EMI) is a non-profit Christian development organization made up of architects, engineers and design professionals who donate their skills to help children and families around the world step out of poverty and into a world of hope." - emiworld.org

My understanding of their ministry model is as follows: a Christian organization has a project that needs engineering design work, either for their own operations or as part of their humanitarian mission to their neighborhood (say, a seminary or an orphanage or a water supply system for a village).  Engineering services are expensive and in short supply in the developing world, so they come to EMI and ask for assistance.  EMI then vets the project and, if it passes, they assemble a team of professionals who do a 2-week trip to scope out the area and lay the foundation for the design.  My understanding here is that interns like myself then turn the results of this flurry of activity into an actionable project.  The end result is a "helping the missionaries" kind of model: we enable local ministries to more effectively do the work that God has called them to, by using our unique gifts.

Check out their website - they do really awesome things.  And they offer an opportunity to integrate my passion for engineering, humanitarian work, and missions.



Notes:

(1) See, for example

Biophilic Design: The Theory, Science and Practice of Bringing Buildings to Life, by Steven Kellert, Judith Heerwagen, and Martin Mador (John Wiley & Sons, Inc.: Hoboken, New Jersey, 2008.);

 "Humans and Nature: How Knowing and Experiencing Nature Affect Well-Being" by Roly Russell et al. (J. Annu. Rev. Environ. Resour. 2012, 38 (1).);

and http://www.thenatureofcities.com/

(2) Particularly insightful is Melissa Keeley et al., "Perspectives on the use of green infrastructure for stormwater management in Cleveland and Milwaukee."  Cleveland and Milwaukee have the opposite problem as Columbus, OH - they are shrinking, and have to deal with very low budgets for stormwater management, while Columbus is growing, and has to figure out how to deal with excess stormwater in an efficient matter - but many of the same principles hold.

(3) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humanitarian_engineering

(4) Smith et al. "Indoor air pollution in developing countries and acute lower respiratory infections in children." (Thorax 2000, 55, 518–532).

(5) See, for example, Isaiah 45:22 John 14:6, Acts 4:12.  In context, of course.