The New Colombo Plan mobility program recently supported Tim Ha from the University of Western Australia to participate in an Engineers Without Borders (EWB) Humanitarian Design Summit in Cambodia.

The final year electrical engineering and commerce student has a longstanding commitment to humanitarian work and has worked with remote Indigenous communities in Western Australia as a member of the EWB UWA chapter.

The New Colombo Plan mobility grant allowed Tim to explore his interest in design solutions to improve people's lives through participation in the EWB Humanitarian Summit – an interactive study tour designed for students to develop their engineering skills while engaging in an overseas educational experience.

Over the two-week program students participate in a series of workshops, meet with EWB community partners, and receive mentorship from qualified mentors and facilitators.

During the summit, students visited EWB community field partners around Cambodia to explore potential design solutions to some of the challenges faced by rural Cambodians.

Tim and thirteen of his peers spent three days with Trapangsangke Community Based Ecotourism, an organisation that works to promote mangrove reforestation and income generation in Kampot Province. He worked to engineer a dispensary system for mangrove seed planting, which he prototyped and delivered back to the community advisors on the final day of the summit.

According to Tim, it's this part of the program that stood out the most.

"This program gave me more than I expected. For example, how to tackle cultural barriers and design appropriate technology with a particular community in mind. Overall, the summit brought my ambitions more into focus."

Tim sums up his experience in Cambodia: "I'm a lot more motivated now to take up a humanitarian engineering role some day in the near future."

More information on the Engineers Without Border Design Summit.