Sunday, December 13, 2009

Check us out in The Daily Texan!

That's right, PUC is starting to generate some major publicity after our Concert for a Cause. The staff at The Daily Texan did an amazing article explaining the benefit event and the class itself, along with the hopes and goals that will result. Read it here.

It's almost weird; the more word gets out, and the more people there are outside of the class that know about our efforts, the more REAL it seems.

Thanks again to all who came out and to those helping make this all a success!

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Saturday, December 12, 2009

We're well on our way!

So the Concert for a Cause was a success!! We had three great bands, Kalua, Cameron Vail, and When the Lights Turn Red, along with an awesome collection of silent auction items donated, ranging from framed pictures to rugs to chairs, almost all of which were sold. We had a great turnout, and raised a little over $1200, but more importantly, got the word out for our cause.

But even better news...two of our members are guaranteed going to Peru in January!!! A big thanks to our local stakeholder, Steve Crowell, the CEO of PlusPetrol, who is willing to pay for their travel expenses, so that we can make our initial reconnaissance trip sooner and more effieciently begin the designs of the project when we return to school in January.

We're also hoping to raise more money over the winter break, by speaking at our local Rotary clubs, applying for grants, and hopefully hearing back from some companies that wish to support us. With the initial trip well under way, this project is starting to feel less like another school assignment and more like reality! As each day approaches we are getting more and more excited about what we are doing and the amazing community that we are helping. Thanks to all who have donated so far, and thanks in advance to those who will donate it the future!!

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Sunday, November 29, 2009

Concert for a Cause!!!

The entire class is now working hard to get, what we hope to be, a HUGE benefit party organized as a way to bring in funds for our cause. It's going to be December 6th, from 6pm-11pm at Cherrywood Coffeehouse in Austin, Tx. There will be food and drinks available, as well as LIVE MUSIC, and a silent auction. All for only 5$ pre-sale! We hope this will be a success, and are excited for it to finally take place.

So if you're in the Austin area, or simply want to make a charitable donation to the cause, please visit our benefit concert page.


And remember, any amount is greatly appreciated and will go a long way as we plan and design to get much needed clean water to this Santa Cruz, Peru school. Thanks again!!

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Tuesday, November 3, 2009

We're going to Peru!!!

Yesterday, we recieved the awesome news that the SLAB board gave our project the green light. We plan to take an initial assessment trip in January, along with Dr. Ellzey, to meet with our contact Steve Crowell and to gather research and details for our concept design. Right now, our fundrasing team is working hard to make this possible, but we need your help. Please, if you can, take the time and donate to our cause (Choose International Engineering Education in the “Area of Greatest Need in Engineering” drop down menu, and please also indicate PUC in the “special notes” section); it will be much appreciated. Currently, this link is only for monetary donations, but if you would like to donate airfare miles, your technical expertise, or any other means feel free to contact us!

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Sunday, November 1, 2009

SLAB presentations

We presented our project concept selection to the SLAB board this past Wednesday, including topics such as, our country research, our contact with stakeholders, our project descriptions, the risk assessments, and the projected schedule for the remainder of the project. We feel it went successfully, and were given some good critiques, as well as, more questions to ask our on-location-contact people. We should know soon whether our proposed Santa Cruz school project gets the green light to move forward, or if we will have to choose one of our back up projects.

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Monday, October 26, 2009

Introduction to our projects


There are three projects our team has been investigating and researching in order to select one to move forward with. The three projects are as follows:

  • Santa Cruz, Peru: provide their only school, Institucion Educativa Carlos Noreiga Jimenez, with potable drinking water, and a better quality of a distribution system. This would allow the 500 students that attend the school, aging three years and above, to have water outside of the municipally-alloted one hour per day, as well as route water to their science lab. The school also has improper restroom facilities for the children, having only three toilets for both of the boys' and girls' restrooms. We would like to not only add three more toilets to both facilities, but for the toilets to be child-sized so that they're easier to use.

  • Camisea, Peru: provide the fifty families of an indigenous tride potable water by restoring their current well, as well as creating new, more practical distribution systems. We would test the water to ensure that the newly built well was in working order, while also ctreating a system to pump the water from the ground. We would also design and construct a system of pipes to carry the water from the welll directly to their homes, instead of the community walking to the well with buckets and manually drawing water out
  • Reynosa, Mexico: provide a solar or wind power system for La Calichera Colonia, where they have no power, water, or sewer for their individual homes. The power system would operate the water well pump and the colonia's restroom and shower facility, a multi-room school, and the caretaker's home. Ideally, the natives will be able to maintain the system, as well as pay for ongoing costs. This will allow for a much more independent system, instead of the current exploitation system of buying water by the gallon from a truck, or even drinking the dirty canal water, freeing up their time, money, and improving health.


After about two months of researching the countries, the cultures, the impact we would have, and the possible risks, we made our selection, and are currently pushing for the success of the project in Santa Cruz, Peru! We hope it will be the success we all imagine.

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