Historically EWB and research students have conducted impactful research to generate insights into diversity and inclusion in engineering and STEM more broadly. The objective of this project will be to build on the outputs from previous years. The scope will be refined after the research outputs from 2018 are reviewed in December 2018 and will focus on both engineering education and professional practice.

Currently the only alternative to large waste treatment plants in Vanuatu are household septic tanks. The focus of this research is to build on previous research to support the establishment of technologies that can treat wastewater without the need for a larger wastewater treatment plant.

The EWB team in Timor-Leste are focussing on the rejuvenation of springs which, combined with gravity-flow schemes, are the main source of potable water for communities given lack of accessible ground-water. This is becoming increasingly challenging as climate change reduces flow rates. To empower communities to deploy appropriate strategies to manage spring water, access to accurate information to establish hydrogeology will be critical. The aim of this research is to collect together relevant data to produce a map and tool that be used in decision-making by communities aiming to sustainably manage their spring water.

The EWB team in Timor-Leste are focussing on the rejuvenation of springs which, combined with gravity-flow schemes, are the main source of potable water for communities given lack of accessible ground-water. This is becoming increasingly challenging as climate change reduces flow rates and water quality at source and in transmission is challenging to manage. The aim of this project is to review current literature and approaches to spring rejuvenation strategies in low-income contexts and produce a tool that can be used by people in the field to select appropriate strategies.

With the launch of our 2030 strategy influencing the Australian Engineering Sector to take a leadership role in developing and stewarding “technology that benefits all” has become a key priority. We believe a critical element of this is ensuring engineering work delivered by the Australian Engineering sector engages communities meaningfully in projects, particularly groups that have been negatively impacted anecdotally. This research will aim to establish the different approaches to community engagement in the sector and how this relates to best practice to produce a series of recommendations we can use to help inform professional practice.

The EWB team in Timor-Leste, in collaboration with Permatil, are interested in investigating composting toilets which will support permaculture in communities while enabling access to improved sanitation. This project will explore different options for composting toilets and their use to support agriculture to provide a recommended design for field trial and eventual deployment.

The EWB team in Timor-Leste, in collaboration with Permatil, are involved in monitoring and managing water resource capacity. The aim of this project is to build on previous research and produce a tool which can be used to more accurately monitor and measure water resource capacity in spring systems including variations to water availability month-to-month. This will empower community decision-making around water use, inform policy decision-making and create a deeper understanding of the impacts of climate change.

The EWB team in Timor-Leste, in collaboration with Permatil, are interested in investigating water efficient irrigation for home gardens in water scarce environments. Many communities in Timor-Leste face water scarcity and the impacts of climate change are exacerbating this. The aim of this project is to build on previous research and review approaches for different methods of greywater reuse from specifically designed shower and toilet blocks, including greywater treatment, to provide water efficient irrigation methods for small-scale food production in home gardens in water scarce communities.

The EWB team in Timor-Leste are focusing on strategies to reduce water insecurity which is being exacerbated by the impacts of climate change. Currently the main approach to large-scale storage of water in Timor-Leste is the use of reinforced concrete tanks, however these are expensive to implement and maintain, with ongoing maintenance required as leaks and cracks occur. The aim of this project is to identify alternative large-scale water storage options that can be implemented at the community level at low-cost to increase the levels of water available for small-scale irrigation and domestic use.

Timor-Leste is prone to flooding events which can wipe out critical water supply infrastructure. With flooding events predicted to occur more regularly as a result of climate change, the EWB team in Timor-Leste are investigating disaster preparedness plans to enable EWB to be ready to support communities to access water in the near and medium term after a disaster. This project will investigate disaster preparedness strategies and technologies for water security at the community level and make recommendations to EWB on technologies and approaches that will enable EWB to rapidly restore water access with communities after disaster events.

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Health centres in Vanuatu have identified a desire for an incinerator to dispose of medical waste in an appropriate and safe manner. Previous attempts to implement incinerators have faced the challenges of maintaining an appropriate temperature, operational skills, low availability and high costs of incinerators. This project will review existing incinerator technologies and ideate design for an appropriate, low-cost incinerator for medical waste.

Septic tanks are common in Vanuatu, however outside of the urban centres of Luganville and Port Vila there is no management system for faecal sludge. This project will research and investigate options for faecal sludge management systems that can be deployed in peri-urban and rural settings across Vanuatu.

The EWB team in Vanuatu are investigating designs for a low-cost footbridge that will enable safe and easy access to schools across rivers. This project will investigate locally available and sustainable materials, such as bamboo, which could be used and produce a design for a structurally safe, low-cost footbridge.

With a ban on single-use plastics in Vanuatu imminent, the EWB team in Vanuatu are investigating different compostable nappy technologies which could be used in conjunction with reusable nappies. Building on existing research, this project will look at ‘plastic-light’ nappies which are more compostable than standard disposable nappies, as well as other technologies, such as banana fibres, which can contribute to the design of a compostable nappy.

In conjunction with CRDT, the EWB team in Cambodia is interested in investigating water and energy for food opportunities. Building on previous research for EWB and the broader literature, this project will investigate and iterate different types of technologies, such as aquaculture and hydroponics, that support the efficient use of water and energy to increase food security in rural Cambodia

Dawul Wuru Aboriginal Corporation has done much to create opportunities for younger people in the community as well as opportunities to connect with Country and culture. The programs have expanded rapidly in the last year and there’s a desire to see all the programs housed under one roof to facilitate connection. As such the aim is to have a hub with storage for the ranger and crocodile management teams, a keeping place and spaces for coming together and yarning while still feeling connected to Country. There are also ambitions to have facilities for research at such a hub with view to building it up over time. The focus of this project is to review modular construction approaches that could support this incremental growth of a hub on Country through review of approaches other people have take and modular construction methodology. The recommended approach should be flexible yet culturally appropriate, making best use of resources already on-Country to minimise impact.

The Crocodile Management Team use a range of boats to conduct crocodile monitoring and capture activities where there may be a danger to the public. Generally these use petrol outboard motors. However recently the crocodiles have adapted and now hide at the sound of an outboard. The team do have a small electric outboard motor on one boat but this often can’t be used as its not powerful enough to against the current of the rivers and creeks the boats have to navigate. The aim of this project is develop an electric outboard motor that can operate in these conditions while producing minimal sounds and reducing environmental impact.

Yirrganydji sea Country is part of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park and the rangers work with a number of different stakeholders on the reef to monitor biodiversity and heal the coral. There are concerns that many species of coral may die out altogether in the years to come. One partner Dawul Wuru work with is Reef legacy who are aiming to pull together a biobank storing all of the hundreds of species on the reef, with a view to repopulating he reef in the future when conditions are more favourable. Reef Legacy is keen to work with different peoples along the Great Barrier Reef to establish regional biobanks in addition to the central one. These would empower Traditional Custodians to ensure that coral stays alive on Country even if they are adversely affected on the reef itself, and empower them to heal the reef in the future while enabling cultural connection and engagement with traditional knowledge about the coral. This project will focus on how to establish a low-energy regional biobank that could form part of the broader community hub.

The aim of this project is create a small version of the biobank concepts that can be used to sustainable store an maintain coral at the household level (see I27). The unit would need to be self-sufficient and portable while keeping the coral alive. The project was inspired by terrarium and is intended to engage the broader community on coral preservation with coral that be kept alive in the household in addition to the biobank. It would also enable education programs the rangers run with schools in the region.

Mangroves are an important feature for Yirrganydji serving a range of cultural purposes. In addition, more and more is being understood about the important ecosystem services that mangroves provide in terms of carbon storage and erosion control as well as flood resilience. As such the ranger are often involved in activities such as mangrove restoration. However when the purpose of the restoration relates to erosion control this has been historically challenging as it’s proven difficult to protect the planted mangroves long enough to establish and resist the rapid currents that build up after heavy rainfall. The aim of this project is to establish method to ensure the mangroves are protected long enough to become established and able to resist rapid currents.

Dawul Wuru are currently collaborating on research to understand the “blue carbon” potential of mangroves in tropical regions. Mangroves have proven to be very effective for storing carbon, effectively acting as pumps to store carbon dioxide in the mud where they are rooted. There are now schemes whereby you can receive carbon credits which can be sold on carbon markets for protecting and restoring mangroves, a “blue carbon” scheme. Dawul Wuru are interested in establishing such a scheme on Country. The aim of this research is to review the literature on Blue Carbon to make recommendations and design a method to optimise the value such a scheme would provide.

Dugong ae important culturally to the Yirrganydji People and paly an important role in the conservation of sea Country. Unfortunately dugong often become injured and there are currently no facilities on Country to collect, treat and return them to ensure the population is sustainable. The aim of this project is to design a system which can transport and then help Dugong on Country while they are treated for any injuries. The design should operate off-grid while maintaining the water quality needed to sustain the dugong.

Aquaculture is seen as one potential source of employment for Yirrganydji youth and Dawul Wuru are considering options to build up an industry in this area. On Country there are still a number of traditional fish traps, constructed using rocks on the shoreline, designed to support more effective fishing practice. The aim of this project is to design an aquaculture approach that build on this traditional approaches and other inspiration to develop and effective and culturally appropriate approach to aquaculture on Country

The tumble drum has been a core technology development project in Vanuatu as a key means to empower households to effectively clean reusable nappies while mitigating the negative health impact of current washing practices. The current design still relies on an individual to be manually operating the machine which mitigates some of the hoped for tim benefits of access to tumble drum technology. Given this the team are interested in developing a solar powered version of the tumble drum to support households, particularly those that are looking to run a business collecting, washing and delivering reusable nappies. This project will be focussed on developing a design that uses solar power while keeping costs as low as possible.

Drainage of wastewater fomo roads and other hard infrastructure is having a negative impact on lagoons and other bodies of water around Port Vila, with a number of negative impacts for the communities living in close proximity to the lagoons. The aim of this project is to ex,ore how nature-based solutions could support the effective management of road drainage while potentially supporting increased access to safe water and sanitation in communities currently being impacted by the lack of effective drainage management.

Solid waste management in schools is still a big challenge for students and teachers. Centralised waste collection currently cannot service all schools in rural and even some urban context. As a result the disposal of solid wastes such as plastic bags, water bottles, papers, and other packaging is still a great issue at school. Currently schools are forced to burn the waste in the open or using incinerators, both of which are polluting incinerators. The aim of this project is to come up with an alternative approach to solid waste management which mitigates air pollution which can be managed locally rather than relying on centralised waste collection. IDeally the solution will generate energy to be used by the school.

The Ministry of Rural Development has approached EWB to help develop sanitation technologies appropriate for Kep Province where water scarcity is a common issue. Kep was selected as they are aiming to be a province to become and role model achieving open-defecation free status by the end of 2023. In this project teams will need to help provide a clear definition of water scarcity sanitation before reviewing available technologies and offering recommendations and/or a proposed design.

In many rural communities individuals, such as rice farmers, may spend protracted periods away from the community and household where water points are accessible. This makes access to clean water challenging as transporting the amounts of water required form the water point can be impractical. Given this and the availability of surface water which may not be safe if untreated, the EWB team in Cambodia are interested in investigating transportable water filtration which individuals can carry with them. The aim of this project is to review existing individual-scale water filtration devices (such as life straws which are unaffordable for many families) and identify current barriers to their broader use. Ideally this will include a consideration dn analysis of the potential market.

The team in Cambodia has identified an opportunity to expand on existing rainwater harvesting practices to create larger rainwater harvesting ponds with filters for drinking water and links to drip-fed agriculture. The aim of this project will be to review similar technologies and make recommendations and/or propose a design for centralised rainwater collection with linked filtration for domestic purposes and irrigation infrastructure.

Water consumption and wastewater contamination are some of the environmental impacts associated with coffee production. This project will look into processes to clean wastewater from coffee processing, making the water safe for reuse in operations and reducing overall water consumption.

Solar has considerable potential to support equitable energy access in Timor-Leste. However historically cost and poorly implemented systems with a lack of maintenance support have undermined confidence in the technology. With the cost of rooftop solar dropping the team have identified that developing systems for effective feed-in tariffs would help to restore confidence and interest in the technology. This project will support the team on the ground through a review of how these systems are implemented in low-income contexts before making recommendations on a systems design

The team in Timor-Leste are working with Abundant Water and ANU to develop a large scale ceramic filter unit that can be used to support safe water access at schools and other shared community buildings. A prototype was developed and trialled in 2022, this project will aim to support the field testing with lab testing to generate data that can support the effective management of these units including recommendation on potential design refinement and maintenance approaches to extend their longevity.