March 2011 COSAM E-Newsletter
Cal Poly Technology Project in Guatemala Expands to Summer
Cal Poly students with their San Pablo counterparts in
December 2010
SAN LUIS OBISPO – Cal Poly and Guatemalan students will together explore energy use, language and sustainable technologies in a new collaborative education program beginning this summer in the mountainous village of San Pablo, Tacana, in Guatemala.
The Guateca Study Abroad Program has been codeveloped by students and professors from Cal Poly and their partners in San Pablo. The summer study abroad program grew out of Physics Professor Pete Schwartz’s service learning, project-based classes. In those Appropriate Technology classes, Cal Poly students focus on developing simple, sustainable technologies intended to provide services and generate income in developing countries.
The Appropriate Technology courses are now in their fourth year at Cal Poly. The interdisciplinary courses are taught by Schwartz and Industrial Manufacturing Engineering professor Kevin Williams. This year the Appropriate Technology courses include students enrolled in related classes with Business Professor Lou Tornatzky and Agribusiness Professor Steven Slezak.
Cal Poly Appropriate Technology students have been developing technologies with partner communities including San Pablo and the Working Villages organization in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Technologies developed so far include solar concentrators, solar water heaters, water purification systems, and stoves that burn agricultural waste for fuel. The students are also working on plans to improve preexisting greenhouses and other organic agricultural practices in San Pablo.
The Cal Poly students have been working throughout the year with Guatemalan students in San Pablo to determine which projects could be implemented in the village and could lead to environmentally friendly income generating projects there.
Schwartz and 12 Cal Poly students made the project’s first two-week trip to San Pablo over winter break. The coming 12-unit summer session has space for 20 Cal Poly students. For details on the Guateca Study Abroad Program, visit:
http://appropriatetechnology.wikispaces.com/Guateca+Summer+School+2011or find “Guateca” on Facebook.
The university is seeking grants and private support to fund the Guateca Program. Learn more about the program at:
http://appropriatetechnology.wikispaces.com/
Schwartz, who earned his doctorate in physics from Princeton, became interested in the application of physics in sustainability after studying with UC Berkeley’s Energy and Resource Group in 2006-07. He teaches “Energy, Society, and the Environment” as well as two classes dedicated to appropriate technologies for impoverished communities.