March 2010: ESW-USF students go on wmnf.org with elementary and middle school students from Young Middle Magnet, Lawton Chiles Elementary and King's Kids as a part of their Water Awareness Research and Education project.

April 2009: ESW-USF participated in the 6th Annual EPA P3 EXPO on the National Mall in Washington, DC. The team successfully competed in the Phase II competition to win one of 6 two year awards worth $75,000 for their Water Awareness Research and Education project. Read more, click here.

EPA Administrator opens the 2009 P3 EXPO

Attending the P3 Awards Ceremony with other Phase 1 Winners

Receiving our Phase II Award which came with $75,000

Showcasing our award

October 2008: ESW won an EPA P3 Phase 1 grant: Water Awareness, Research and Education in East Tampa (WARE East Tampa): A pilot collaboration involving USF, Young Magnet Middle School and the East Tampa Community. Stormwater retention ponds play a vital role in flood and pollution control in communities throughout Florida and volunteer community programs have been successful at reducing local pollutant loads and maintaining pond health. This P3 award will establish a collaborative mechanism involving the University of South Florida, Young Middle Magnet School and East Tampa community members that effectively raises environmental awareness in East Tampa using stormwater ponds as an initial focal point.

Outputs from this project are:

• a) curriculum developed for students at Young Middle Magnet
• b) stormwater retention pond demonstration modules and tour
• c) baseline water quality data collection for three retention ponds in East Tampa and establishment of a sustainable water monitoring program
• d) preliminary assessment of sediment heavy metal concentrations;
• e) a report with proposed activities needed to advance this project. Participant surveys will be conducted at various times over the course of the project to evaluate its effectiveness.

For more pictures click here. Fore more information on WARE click here.

August 16th, 2008: ESW participated in the East Tampa Community Survival Day which attracted over 1,000 community members. The ESW booth provided brochures and information on energy tips, water conservation measures, chemicals in the home etc.. Many ofthe handouts were obtained from watermatters.org. The booth also had hands on activities related to stormwater ponds and water treatment processes which proved to be attractive activities for the kids and young adults.

April 12th, 2008: The first GREEN EXPO at the USF Sun Dome clocked 3,000 visitors and was the site where USF President Genshaft signed onto the American College and Univeristy President's Climate Challenge. Vendors, workshops, speakers, fun areas for kids, all of these were present at the 10 am - 4 pm event where ESW had a booth along with other USF student groups like SEA, EGB, and EWB. Click here for a full review and pictures from the event.

April 7th 2008: ESW teamed up with SMART to host the WWF-HP Climate Roadshow which included a presentation by WWF Chief Climate Scientist, Dr. Lara Hansen. Click here for a review and click here for photos.

January 2008: James Mihelcic speaks at USF. Click image to see video.

October 2007: USF Sustainability Partners consists of students, faculty and sataff at USF interested in making the campus a more sustainable healthy community. Join their facebook group: USF SUSTAINABILITY PARTNERS. Things that are coming up:

• A student informational session (November) bringing as many student groups on campus together to discuss activities related to sustainability.
• A faculty speed dating activity (December) bringing as many faculty together to share ideas on sustainability in their research and curriculum.
• EPA P3 Awards due December 15th, 2007. Click here for rfp.

June 2007: USF faculty and students participated in a NSF workshop entitled Complex Interacting Systems for a Sustainable Future held June 7th and 8th in Clearwater, Tampa. Click here for a review by ESW member Mr. Ken Thomas.

May 2007: ESWUSF is working with the OUTREACH COMMITTEE for the EWRI (Environmental Water Research Institute) Congress 2007 to be held in Tampa in May 2007. The Outreach activity will occur on May 16th at the Florida aquarium and will pair 125 K-12 Tampa Bay students with university students and professional mentors to work on activities related to the conference theme," Restoring Our Natural Habitat." Click here for more information.

April 2007: On April 13th, the USF Colleges of Business Administration and Engineering will hold the Second Annual Symposium etitled Building Sustainable Enterprise II: Opportunities for Positive Change Sponsored by the Exide Corporation. Click here for a review by ESW member Mr. Ken Thomas.

ESWUSF participated in the curriculum panel which includes Dr. Angela Lindner from the University of Florida. Dr. Lindner is the faculty advisor of the UF Engineers Without Borders chapter there.

March 2007: The Chapter is committed to increasing the campus resources wrt material pertaining to sustainability. One project includes identifying material for the library that can be used by faculty and students. The first piece of requested material was the DVD entitled Thirst which is distributed by Bullfrog Films. Click here for link on documentary.

November 2006: The USF ESW Chapter identified an international project in Guyana, South America. The group will work with an indegenous group called the Wai Wai in a 1.6 million acre site owned by the 200 community members. This area, Kanashen, is a pristine forest and in 2004 the community signed an agreement with Conservation International to help with its management. In October, the ESWUSF faculty advisor visited the site as part of a Conservation International Rapid Assessment Program (RAP). In addition to measuring water quality for research and the RAP, Dr. Trotz made initial plans with the village leader and CI for an ESWUSF project. More details can be found in the projects section. Pictures of visit here.

May 2006: The USF ESW Chapter will attend a pre-screening of An Inconvenient Truth, a movie by Al Gore on global warming. The promotional screening is on June 15 at Sunrise Old Hyde Park theater at 7:30pm. www.climatecrisis.net

March 2006: ESWUSF presented at the USF World Water Forum which featured Dr. Iring Sarnoff, Director of Friends of the UN. See the ORACLE report here.

In October 2005, Joniqua Howard attended the national ESW conference held in Texas:

The 2005 “Sustainability as Security: Engaging Education, Business, and Technology” Conference, was held at the beautiful green energy campus of the University of Texas at Austin. This four day conference reflected the growing concern for global food, air, water, agricultural, land, and energy security. Numerous representatives from the private, governmental, non-profit as well as education sectors participated in workshops that delved into various issues such as drinking water well construction, disaster management practices, community health, and education of our youth about issues impacting the world.

Also, ESW members and its partners stood together in solidarity to honor several Hurricane Katrina and Rita disaster victims by showcasing a benefit concert with both local and New Orleans bands. The benefit concert marked the highlight of the conference and raised money for the hurricane victims.

Highlights of the conference can be seen by visiting the following site: http://www.engr.utexas.edu/esw/conference.htm.