Engineers In Action
Engineers in Action (EIA) works with indigenous professionals in Bolivia and Ecuador to improve the lives of thousands of people in need through sustainable community projects.
As part of this mission, the Engineers in Action Bridge Program engages students from over two dozen colleges and universities around the world, providing resources and opportunities for students to take what they have learned in the classroom and apply it to the real world problem of providing essential infrastructure investments in the form of footbridges in communities suffering from rural isolation.
2023 EIA Bridge Builder Conference
The 2023 EIA Bridge Builder Conference will focus specifically on educating university teams on how to effectively complete EIA bridges in Bolivia and Eswatini and on promoting collaboration and innovation amongst university teams. The goal of the conference is for attendees to leave empowered to effectively complete an EIA project from the initial planning and fundraising phases all the way through construction and inauguration of a bridge.
To most effectively meet this goal, the conference contains sessions that focus on succeeding both on-campus and while on-site. Speakers and session leaders include EIA staff, program alumni, industry professionals, EIA staff, and university faculty who will share their firsthand successes in bridge building.
The Host
The 2023 conference will be hosted by the University of Colorado. CU Boulder is heavily involved in global engineering and has become a center of excellence with scholars working in a broad array of disciplines focusing their research on development work around the world.
In particular, the conference is partnered with the College of Engineering and Applied Science and the Department of Civil, Environmental, and Architectural Engineering. The college's commitment to civil engineering and engineering for developing communities within CU Boulder's larger mission of establishing unique connections that have lasting outcomes around the world will be a guiding principle of the conference.
The Organizers
The conference is being organized and led by the EIA Bridge Program in consultation with CU Boulder faculty and staff who have extensive experiences designing and constructing footbridges alongside rural communities.