6/25/2026
Engineers Without Borders Illinois Chapter has received the 2026 EC Outstanding Society award from Engineering Council at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and The Grainger College of Engineering. This is the highest honor given to an engineering student organization at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
Engineers Without Borders Illinois Chapter has received the 2026 EC Outstanding Society award from the Engineering Council at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and the Grainger College of Engineering.
This is the highest honor given to an engineering student organization at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
Krish Parekh says he first heard about Engineers Without Borders (EWB) through the annual Quad Day event as a first-year student. “As an incoming chemical engineer,” he recalls, “I wanted to get experience on engineering projects, so EWB caught my eye. I attended their first information session, and I was keenly interested in frequent travel to communities to discuss engineering needs. This is what distinguished EWB-UIUC from most other engineering organizations, and motivated me to join the Woodford project, which travels more frequently compared to the international projects.”
Atticus Flassing, a rising junior majoring in civil engineering, also joined EWB in the fall of 2024. He was inspired by his parents, who met while working for the Peace Corps in Guatemala. “Both learned from the experience and got to do some great work for the communities that hosted them. EWB has a similar mission, and I want my work to contribute to projects that help people. EWB also seemed like a great way to get experience working on real engineering projects and meet other people interested in similar work.”
In describing EWB, Rory Presto says “It’s easy to assume that this club is only applicable to Civil Engineering students, but we involve every part of the project process, which is highly interdisciplinary. We do everything from marketing, fundraising and applying to grants to structural design, pipeline design, water resources engineering and learning about different engineering standards per country we work in. We have a large variety of things to do, which offer a great mix of soft and hard skills to add to your resume, and are also very focused on the educational development of our members. We offer workshops that cover everything from contextual engineering to the basics of AutoCAD.”
The Community Engineering Corps (CEC) is a domestic segment of EWB with the mission to bring “underserved communities and volunteer engineers together to advance local infrastructure solutions in the United States.” It is an alliance with Engineers Without Borders-USA, the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), and the American Water Works Association. Currently, the CEC team at the Illinois chapter is working on the Woodford Project.
The community in Woodford County, IL, has a water treatment plant facility that doesn’t function properly, and the potable water contains high levels of arsenic and iron. Currently, the plant has experienced extensive pipe rusting, and sand filter media is lost during backwashing.
The system, which has been operating since the late 1800s and was last updated more than 25 years ago, serves the entire community, comprised of a few hundred residents, the majority of whom are either elderly on fixed incomes or low-income residents. The community applied to the CEC, and their project was approved and forwarded to the Illinois EWB chapter. EWB-Illinois will provide blueprints, cost estimates and a project plan. The village will then use these to apply for project funds through the State Revolving Fund (a program run by the Illinois EPA).
Flassing and Parekh serve as leads for the project, which kicked off in February 2025. Illinois students work alongside engineers and water treatment plant operators from CEC and the firm Maurer-Stutz, who are experienced with similar projects and licensed to sign and stamp off on documents when needed.
As with other EWB projects, community participation will be crucial to success in Woodford. The team is working with community leadership, a water treatment plant operator from CEC, and an engineer from Maurer-Stutz. The group is working to identify and analyze information that's relevant to the project, like the monthly operating reports from the water treatment plant and Illinois EPA documents, like notices and inspections, the community has received. Members also plan to begin hosting open meetings so that community members can ask questions about the project. These meetings are required by the Illinois EPA for the project to be eligible for loans from the State Resolving Fund.
EWB has a high bar to meet in order to conduct projects in Illinois. According to Flassing, the team must produce documents that ensures the project meets environmental, hydrological and historical compliance set by the state and federal government. Work on the construction permit (which will begin after the project plan is submitted) will require additional documents, such as a road use agreement, a noise control plan and a stormwater pollution prevention plan. Review for these documents can take anywhere from a week to a bit over a month. Review of larger documents, such as the project plan and construction permit, could take up to three months, or even longer.
The international teams don't have to deal with this paperwork as much. Of course, international projects have other difficulties, like planning site visits, and waking up at 6 am for virtual meetings with in-country contractors.
Flassing laughs. Thankfully, we’re good friends with one of the campus Red Bull ambassadors. — Atticus Flassing