DESIGN • TRAVEL • CONNECT • BUILD

For more updates, follow us on Instagram @cornell_eia, visit our website eia.engineering.cornell.edu, join our newsletter, or email us at eiacornelluniversity@gmail.com!

WHO WE ARE
Rural isolation, or the inability to access essential resources such as hospitals, schools, and markets due to geographic barriers, directly contributes to global poverty. Lack of access to consistent and clean water directly contributes to global health disparities, and in the school setting, decreases attendance and performance. The mission of Engineers in Action (EIA) and our University Chapter is to help rurally isolated communities gain access to these essential resources with sustainable infrastructure, by harnessing local expertise and global partnerships. In addition to the physical bridges, we hope to inspire meaningful intercultural and intergenerational exchange. By living with a host family inside the towns we are working with and for, our team gets a truly immersive experience in global development and makes lifelong friendships with people across the globe.

The Cornell University Chapter of Engineers in Action is a student-run project team with the College of Engineering that works with the non-for-profit organization Engineers in Action to design and build pedestrian footbridges, WASH systems, and suspension bridges for rurally isolated communities. We operate with four subteams; Bridge Engineering, WASH Engineering, Business, and Cultural; and each one is critical to the success of our organization in building critical infrastructure, engaging with mentors and community members, and educating the next generation of changemakers.

SUMMER 2025 PROJECTS

This past summer of 2025, our team took on two projects: a WASH system at Herefords Primary School and a suspension bridge at Hlanganani. The WASH team sent six students, in collaboration with six students from Duke University, to Eswatini for eight weeks to turn our design into reality. The system will provide clean, consistently available water to 300 students, teachers, and staff, improving public health outcomes through a solar-powered well with a 10,000 liter storage and distribution capacity. 

The bridge team sent eight students, in partnership with students from University College London and the University of Southern Indiana, to Eswatini, also for eight weeks. This was EIA's pilot student-led suspension bridge project, and it will help thousands of community members gain access to towns, schools, and neighboring communities, especially during the rainy season when crossing the river is dangerous. Compared to the suspended bridges we had built in the past, these bridges provide greater clearance over the water level, and will allow us to meet the needs of a wider range of sites. Suspension bridges are more technically challenging to design and construct, and have given our team an opportunity to learn new skills. 

SUMMER 2024 PROJECTS

In the summer of 2024, our team built the Jolitane footbridge in the Kingdom of Eswatini. Our team sent six Cornell students where they spent eight weeks turning designs into reality. Collaborating closely with local masons and community members, our team successfully erected a footbridge spanning the Mbuluzi River. This river is dangerous to cross all year round, but completely impassable during the rainy seasons, when floods can last nearly a week. There have been 10 injuries and 12 deaths sustained in the past three years due to these conditions. Our footbridge now provides a safer alternative for members of the community, and would help connect thousands of people to schools, clinics, markets, and maize fields that provide a majority of the community members with jobs.

In addition, we piloted a WASH (Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene) project, where we installed pumps and distribution systems at Matfuntini Primary School. Six Cornell students worked on this project last summer with community members to bring clean groundwater to the school’s children and teachers. Having clean and safe water is a crucial human right and is essential for physical health and well-being. Our WASH system helps alleviate their daily stresses of accessing water.

SUMMER 2023 BRIDGE

In the summer of 2023, our team built the Mandlakhe bridge in the Kingdom of Eswatini. Our team sent seven Cornell students, for six weeks. Collaborating closely with local masons and community members, our team successfully erected a 50-meter suspended cable bridge spanning the Mhlanga River. This remarkable structure now provides vital access for more than 2,800 residents from the Mahlalini and Skhotseni communities to essential resources and opportunities, including clinics, schools, bus stops, maize fields, and community events.

FUTURE PROJECTS

This upcoming summer, we will be completing two projects in Eswatini: one suspension bridge and one WASH system. Our Bridge team will be collaborating with the EIA chapter at Hofstra University, and the WASH team will be collaborating with students at Western University. Our team is looking forward to taking on these new projects together with our local and professional partners; learning, building, and connecting.

As a registered student organization, we are committed to equal access to all of our programs and do not discriminate based on any protected identity status.