IRES Track I: US-Brazil Integrating Engineering and Anthropology Research to Expand Perspectives on Water and Sustainability

San Diego State University Foundation, San Diego CA

Investigators

Abstract

This project will enable cohorts of students from engineering, anthropology, and other sustainability-related disciplines to collaborate and study the efficacy of sanitation and wastewater treatment technologies as well as the role of culture and local perceptions on the safe recovery of energy, nutrients, and clean water from human excreta and wastewater. Over the course of three years, a total of 18 US students will be supported to study the performance of different technologies at the Center for Research and Training in Sanitation (CePTS) in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. This facility, which is co-managed by the Federal University of Minas Gerais and the State Wastewater Company of Minas Gerais, contains pilot-scale reactors that treat real wastewater from the city of Belo Horizonte. Considered one of the most important research and professional training centers of its kind in the Americas, it is used as a test site to evaluate the effectiveness of new technologies and train wastewater system operators. In addition to broadening students' perspectives about sanitation, resource recovery, and risk within an interdisciplinary team setting, this project will also allow students to improve their intercultural abilities. The researchers will seek to recruit students that reflect our demographics as Title V Hispanic Serving Institutions, with a particular focus on underrepresented groups in the sciences and engineering. Students will participate in a five-day intensive crash course on Brazilian culture and Portuguese language, led by the San Diego State University Program on Brazil, where they will learn to articulate the opinions and perspectives of people from different cultures and backgrounds. They will gain an awareness of international, interdisciplinary, and community perspectives on the role of engineering and technology in the management of water, energy, and food systems. After participating in the research experience, students will share their experiences by engaging in local outreach activities at K-12 schools in Southern California. The integration of water reuse and resource recovery into wastewater treatment and sanitation systems provides opportunities to simultaneously meet several of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. However, the challenges of choosing appropriate and sustainable technologies are just as much social as they are technical. Inadequate assumptions about local attitudes and the role of technology in development can lead to the failure of systems. Thus, there is a need to integrate studies of the efficacy of sanitation and resource recovery technologies with assessments of social and cultural factors that influence perceptions about these technologies, as well as the perceived value and risk of recovering resources from wastewater and excreta. This three-year International Research Experience for Students (IRES) project will send interdisciplinary cohorts of six students each year (from Engineering, Anthropology and an interdisciplinary Sustainability Program) to Belo Horizonte, Brazil, to participate in a research experience with foreign mentorship at the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG). Students will study the removal of emerging contaminants and characterize the risks associated with resource recovery from pilot-scale established and emerging wastewater treatment technologies at the Center for Research and Training in Sanitation (CePTS), which is co-managed by UFMG and the State Wastewater Company of Minas Gerais. Students will also investigate perceived values and risks through ethnographic research with community members and local stakeholders in the water and wastewater sector. The results of this research will support a new and growing field of interdisciplinary scientific literature on the topic of water, culture, and sustainability. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.