Mali Water Pump Project

Natalie Carne - Team Leader

Natalie is a Mechanical Engineering Major from Dayton, Ohio. Natalie is very involved on campus, currently serving as the President of the Society of Women Engineers and the National Society of Professional Engineers, Treasurer of the American Society of Mechanical Engineering, and a member and officer of Kappa Alpha Theta. Natalie spent the summer of 2007 with Duke University-Engineering World Health, repairing broken medical equipment, installing new equipment, implementing a maintenance plan, and teaching the staff and nurses the proper use of the equipment in Tanzania, Africa. She spent last summer as an intern at Ethicon Endo-Surgery, working on a stomach stapling device to find the root cause of a problem with the device. She also was able to join the Phase I team on their trip to Mali last summer, giving her a great background on the project. As is evident from all of her experience and involvement, Natalie is highly motivated, hard working, and extremely organized. She is a hands-on learner, and hopes to attend graduate school for biomedical engineering.

Benjamin Bruce

Ben is a Mechanical Engineering Major from Louisville, Kentucky. On campus, he is involved in Sigma Alpha Epsilon and the American Society of Engineers. Ben served as a Technology co-op at General Electric (GE) Consumer and Industrial, leading and managing changes being implemented to save money and designed a systems level accelerated test to simulate the life of a system in a short time. At GE he was also an Engineering Design intern, where he worked on the design of new products based on marketing requirements with senior design engineers. Ben hopes to find a job that utilizes the engineering skills he has obtained from class and his work experience, but wants to focus his efforts on working with people.

Jason Hardesty

Jason is a Mechanical Engineering Major from Columbus, OH. He is currently serving as the Secretary of Men Against Rape and Sexual Assault, as well as a member of both Kappa Alpha Order, and Tau Beta Pi, the national engineering honors fraternity. Jason spent two summers as an Intern at Smoot Elford Resource, a construction management company in charge of re-building various Columbus Public Schools. While there he inspected mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems for compliance, and developed a procedure for keeping track of the status of each school’s construction. Jason spent last summer as a co-op at Honda R&D America’s, Inc. in the Side Crashworthiness group. He assisted a team of engineers in setting up and evaluating the safety performance of upcoming automobiles in side crash scenarios. After graduation he hopes to find an enjoyable hands-on job that will directly affect the lives of people, and allows him to use his creativity.

Samantha Papa

Sam is a Mechanical Engineering Major from Sagamore Hills, OH. She is active in the Society of Women Engineers, Alpha Delta Pi, Tau Beta Pi, and St. Mary’s Parish and Catholic Campus Ministry. Last year she was a Greek Life Guide, and she served as the Greek Week chair for Alpha Delta Pi this semester. She spent the summer of 2007 as an engineering co-op at Ashland, Inc. where she implemented a central maintenance management system, assisted with the design of a hopper for a new mixing tank, and wrote authorization for capital expenditure proposals. She also spent last summer as a corporate intern at Caterpillar, Inc. where she managed five high school interns, lead a sub team to improve film storage carousel efficiency and accuracy, created and implemented a database to gather and centralize continuous improvement card data from a group, and wrote and installed a lifting manual for heavy parts in a storage supermarket. After graduation, Sam will move to Savannah, Georgia, to work for Georgia Pacific LLC.

Chase Williams

Chase is a Mechanical Engineering Major from West Chester, Ohio. He spent last summer actively involved with Campus Crusade for Christ in Lusaka, Zambia, where he communicated with Zambian college students to share spiritual beliefs and build up relationships. Chase is a hands-on learner and his strengths lie in trouble-shooting and correcting problems. His innate ability to think outside the box and explore every idea that comes to mind are the key to his problem solving. Largely in part to the experience he had last summer, Chase hopes to work for Campus Crusade for Christ overseas in Africa or the Middle East for the year following graduation. Chase’s experience in Zambia was one of the things that drew him into this project, and he hopes to use some of his experiences there on our project.