Our chapter
Engineers Without Borders UBC is a vast interdisciplinary team (including non-engineers) that works on a myriad of initiatives outside the typical hyper-technical work that engineering students normally pursue. We focus on generating long-lasting meaningful impact in the projects that we take on and work rigorously to promote the personal development of our members. We work on fostering community and building strong leaders.
EWB UBC has branches working on education with Vancouver’s youth, advocacy with local MPs, and sustainability initiatives, such as aquaponics and food waste minimization apps, that involve working closely with other sustainable organizations on campus. We are passionate about discussing problems that we encounter as a society and take it one step further by formulating solutions and putting them into action.
We work on both local and global projects, ranging from fundraising to technology implementation in Sub-Saharan Africa. There is a tremendous amount of room to spearhead your own initiatives and contribute to others. You’ll have an opportunity to have some incredible conversations with insightful individuals and be a part of an engaged and inclusive community.
Day in the life
EWB UBC runs off a ‘Venture’ structure. This means that each venture is a sub-team focused on a different subset of initiatives. Here is a quick description of our main ventures:
- Youth Venture – Works heavily with elementary and high school students in and around the Greater Vancouver area. One example of their work is an annual conference in conjunction with many local high schools where we get the students thinking critically about global change, and other engaging workshops.
- Sustainability – Focused on trying out new approaches to sustainability, including building an aquaponics system! This team collaborates heavily with other sustainability organizations on campus. Some notable accomplishments include the Scrapless app, a new initiative looking at reducing food waste on campus and supplying affordable food to students.
- Advocacy – Build relationships with our local MPs, discuss policies, and foster conversations about issues that are important to you. Work alongside other EWB Chapters at the national level to run large-scale advocacy campaigns.
- Member Learning / Journalism – Do deep dives on a myriad of different topics ranging from geopolitics, impact investing and the state of business and science in Sub-Saharan Africa. You’ll have an opportunity to work with a research team developing comprehensive articles and presenting to the wider campus community.
- Kumvana – Every year, EWB hosts entrepreneurs from different parts of Africa. Be a part of the team that helps organize the logistics of their stay and visits – build contacts, networks and meet some brilliantly driven minds!
Why you should join
For all of you in Arts, Education, Business, Journalism and everything else
The beauty of interdisciplinary collaboration is the opportunity to integrate a variety of perspectives into a single project or tasks, melding together different areas of interest and expertise. Together, we can combine our strengths and balance out our weaknesses, while learning about approaches and outlooks that we may have never considered. Every member regardless of their discipline contributes and makes an impact on campus, at the national level, and even possibly the global level. Ideas that we may deem “different” are not neglected, rather they are fostered.
For all you UBC Engineers
By virtue of your degree, you will develop a strong technical skillset. EWB UBC presents an opportunity to apply that skillset and the Engineering design mentality to comprehensive social, political and environmental issues. The opportunity to think critically about the complexity of social issues that mar us today is not something we explore often (if at all) in our core classes. Everything from improving education, looking at public policy, and running sustainability initiatives based on comprehensive research, is fair game. This is a chance for you to explore the realm of reality and apply that classic Engineering mentality to solving some problems for which there is no solution manual.
