BUILD DAY PROGRAM

Building sustainable communities,
one day at a time.

 Build Day is a collaborative project design + build initiative that brings together students, technical experts, and local leaders to create sustainable change on the community level. Students work alongside community partners to identify a local environmental problem. Students work on the design of their project with their community partners over a couple of months. The build is then completed within a day onsite.

Why is Build Day key to building a more sustainable world?

Engineers are vital to solving today's and tomorrow's biggest engineering challenges. These challenges often include ethical, social, and economic realities that can't be replicated in the classroom. Likewise, communities face pressing infrastructure needs that could be addressed through collaboration with technically minded groups such as engineers and scientists. Many engineering problems involve complex or ambiguous social, political, and economic issues. The goal is to create engineers better equipped to tackle large social problems and to understand their ethical responsibilities as technical experts.

Build Day allows the community-at-large to take part directly in the design-build process. Having engineers and community leaders work side-by-side is crucial to building a better world that's more sustainable, resilient, and socially equitable.

Program Benefits

  • Up to $2,000 in project materials and supplies.

  • Continued support through the Project Maintenance Fund.

  • Connection to a team of expert, technical mentors, and volunteers.

  • Mentorship opportunities for professionals and student engineers.

  • Invitation to present at the Project Showcase at ESWcon.

Timeline

  • Phase I: Request for Proposals [August 15th - October 15th]

    • ESW-HQ will open a Request for Proposals (RFP) and invite ESW Chapters to apply. Applicants will submit a proposal through a Google form during the RFP period.

  • Phase II: Submissions Close & Team Decisions [November 1]

    • RFP will close and ESW-HQ will review all submissions. Reviews may take up to three weeks and ESW-HQ may contact teams for additional information.

    • ESW-HQ will decide and notify all teams of their project proposal.

  • Phase III: Kickoff & Project Development [November]

    • ESW-HQ will schedule meetings will selected teams to kick off the program and discuss their project, timeline, and challenges in more detail.

    • Build Day teams will then spend the next few months developing their project with their community partner(s).

  • Phase IV: Design Reviews & Build Day Launch [February - April]

    • ESW-HQ will reach out sometime in February or March to schedule Design Review sessions. Design Reviews are opportunities for project teams to present their final project design to a panel of technical experts that will give valuable feedback before the actual Build Day onsite.

    • Depending on their timeline, each team will host an in-person Build Day community service event. This Build Day event is where teams will “build” their project onsite and showcase the completed project.

    • After the project is complete, Build Day teams will submit a project report to the ESW Project Database.

Build Day Spotlights

The University of Buffalo Build Day team partnered with the Buffalo Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation to create a wheelchair-accessible tabletop garden bed with a solar-powered self-watering system. The garden will now serve as a meeting space for the residents, allowing them to partake in a healthy and therapeutic outdoor hobby.

Over six months, the ESW-UB team finalized their design, putting extra work into the electrical schematics behind the solar-powered water pumps. And with the help of a grant from the Awesome Buffalo Foundation, they were able to make their vision come to life.

On a rainy morning, the ESW-UB team trucked all of their supplies to the Buffalo Center and started to assemble their design. Over many hours, the team assembled the table/garden structure, solar panels & wiring, and the rainwater catching system. By the end of the day, the Buffalo Center was left with an amazing foundation for its outdoor space.

HOPES PROJECT

Over 80% of K-8 students in Oakland, California, are on the free and reduced meal service plan. The resilient kids at Hoover Elementary face food insecurity issues and other stresses related to living in this area. The team worked together to grow the school garden and community into a safe and educational green space. In 2018, the University of California, Berkeley Build Day team hosted a Build Day event that brought 80 community members and kids together to build a chicken coop made from recycled materials and a composter and drink bike-blended smoothies.

On their podcast, The Urban Farm interviewed ESW-HQ member and local Berekely resident Matt Kozuch on food insecurity, UCB’s Build Day project, and what it means to be an engineer.

 FAQs

  • ESW members that are part of an ESW Chapter in the United States.

  • Item description

  • It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

  • It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

  • It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

  • We will communicate with all applicants their status within 30 days after the RFP close date.

Contact us.

programs@eswusa.org
Email the Build Day program team with your interest, ideas, and questions.