Tufts Sends Engineers to Ghana

Tufts students had the chance to solve a real world problem and emerge themselves in another culture during a trip that they say will live with them a long time.

Six civil and environmental engineering students got an opportunity to do field work in Africa over last winter break with an engineering course.

Professors David Gute and John Durant organized a trip to Ghana last month to solve one of the region's most pervasive parasite problems.

The group worked to eliminate Schistosomiasis, which is caused by the schistosome parasite. The disease causes kidney inflammation and discolored urine.

The parasite primarily uses the inside of a certain type of snail, found in the Kwabeng, to lay its eggs. The town's problem with the disease increased when a local mining company's operations slowed the speed of the river, allowing the snails to multiply and provide more breeding ground for the disease.

"We mostly found the snail in slower moving portions of the water," senior trip participant Robert Curry said. "One solution we've created is increasing the velocity of the river so that the snails can't live there. Twenty years ago, before the mining company came in and altered the flow of the river, this wasn't a problem."

Though it is easy to treat the disease, infection rates have risen dramatically among children, who frequently play in the local river. Kwabeng's parasite-infected river is an integral part of the local community.

The six students, Curry, Katherine Shuman, Kelly Sanborn, Daron Kurkjian, Charline Han and Casey Caldwell, are all part of the civil and environmental engineering capstone course (CEE-81).

The course is designed to provide a select group of senior engineering students with hands-on experience in solving an open-ended, real world design problem using engineering solutions.

Students and professors worked to assess the problem and gather data. Students spent 12 hours a day counting snails, measuring the chemical and physical characteristics of the water, and directly observing local habits of river use. "Our understanding of the river and the problem grew daily," Gute said.

The group received blessings from two town chiefs and met with the regional king for their labors. "The community leaders were very excited about what we were doing," Curry said.

The trip's purpose was to conduct research but it proved to give more to students than just academics. "It proved to be more of a cultural immersion experience than I could have ever imagined," Han said.

The aid of people who lived near the river speeded up the research as well. "People were so great and friendly to us," Kurkjian said. "Without them, it would have taken us twice as long."

The Kwabeng community has created a committee of local citizens to periodically address issues about the problem, and will communicate any changes in the situation to Tufts.

Durant and Gute want to take a new group of seniors to Ghana next year. "Each set of students will stand on the shoulders of their predecessors," Gute said.

Although Tufts funded this year's trip, the professors hope to gain international funding for future travel.

The group is still analyzing the trip's findings, and has yet to report any conclusions.

The trip also had personal and social effects on the participants. "I'll definitely keep in touch with my contacts in Ghana. My friends were great people that I met," Kurkjian said.