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I realized today that I haven´t talked much about why I´m in Nicaragua in the first place, so here goes-

I just graduated from the University of Dayton with my mechanical engineering undergraduate degree, and I have a summer off until I start graduate school at the University of California, Berkely for my PhD in mechanical engineering. I (obviously) couldn´t spend such a pivotal summer in Ohio with all the interesting engineering opportunities that I had available to me that would prepare myself for graduate school. Another co-op with GE was possible, so was an opportunity to do research for an engineering school in Germany (although a hard program to get in to). I had been considering the ETHOS program for awhile, and I only didn´t do it last summer because I had a co-op lined up with GE. My roomate Jon did, and it was highly recommended by several engineering faculty at UD and several engineers in the field (some in hiring positions).

Taken from the ETHOS website-
"ETHOS is founded on the belief that engineers are more apt and capable to serve our world appropriately when they have experienced opportunities that increase their understanding of technology's global linkage with values, culture, society, politics, and economic development. ETHOS seeks to provide these opportunities through international service internships as well as through collaborative research and hands-on classroom projects that support the development of appropriate technologies for the developing world. The internships allow students to utilize their skills and education to help solve real issues facing people in less-developed communities; collaborating with them as a positive force for improving their quality of life. "

So, I decided to spend my summer on a tripple-threat cultural imersion, spanish language lesson, and engineering internship (of course focusing on the social and economic impacts of renewable energy projects in developing nations). The cultural imersion part is sort of a vacation from the world I know to take my mind of the fact that I just moved out of the UD Ghetto, my favorite place in the entire world, and make myself forget that I just graduated. The spanish language lesson is because I always wanted to be bilingual, and finally the engineering part will of course help me professionally.

It turns out it was a better choice than I knew, becuase the individual I want to work for at Berkeley, Dr. Dan Kammen, has several students in his lab visiting Nicaragua for the summer to work on a company that uses wind turbines in rural electrification projects (Suni Solar is very similar, using photovoltaics for rural electrification). Dr. Kammen is actually not in the department of mechanical engineering, but in the Energy and Resources group. He also heads up RAEL - the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory. Simply put, he deals with renewable energy systems. So, I´ll get to meet some of his students, and maybe even Dr. Kammen himself (he mentioned he may visit).

That´s all folks, it´s dinner time.

Vince