The future brings with it unprecedented demands for water, sanitation and infrastructure improvements, and engineers will be depended on to satisfy those needs, says Dr. Bernard Amadei, the founding president of Engineers Without Borders-USA (EWB) and co-founder of EWB-International networks.

EWB chapters partner with disadvantaged communities to improve their quality of life through implementation of sustainable engineering projects, while involving and training internationally responsible engineering professionals and students.

Amadei will serve as keynote speaker for the first Rice and Beans Banquet set for Oct. 13 at the University of Missouri-Rolla. The evening event is designed to celebrate the ongoing work by UMR’s EWB chapter and to recognize EWB’s corporate partners.

The student-led chapter, founded in April 2005, has completed nine design projects and site assessment trips to three countries. More than 80 students and 20 faculty and professional members have participated by constructing earthquake-resistant housing, composting latrines, water supply and distribution systems, shower facilities, and additions to school buildings.

“Considering the problems facing our planet today and the problems expected to arise in the first half of the 21st century, the engineering profession must revisit its mindset and adopt a new mission statement – to contribute to the building of a more sustainable, stable, and equitable world,” Amadei says.

Amadei, a professor of civil engineering at the University of Colorado-Boulder, says engineers also will play critical roles in addressing the complex problems associated with refugees, displaced populations, and the large-scale movement of populations worldwide resulting from political conflicts, famine, shortages of land, and natural hazards.

The Rice and Beans Banquet will begin at 6 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 13, at the Havener Center on campus. Tickets are $20 for adults and $10 for students. Reservations can be made by emailing Jennifer Hoffman at jahz9d@mst.edu or mailing Dr. Richard Stephenson, 119 Butler-Carlton, Rolla, MO 65409.