In the Community

A HELPING HAND

Handwashing stations combat COVID-19

Day of service benefits community

MSOE’s annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service continued this year with more than 100 students participating in a variety of service projects to honor the life and legacy of King and serve the Milwaukee community. Ten student organizations helped facilitate the projects which included putting together 1,000 health, hygiene and winter care packages; creating 15 fleece tie blankets; and decorating greeting cards and placemats. All of the materials were donated to La Causa Inc., Milwaukee Christian Center, United Community Center and YMCA Metropolitan Milwaukee. From there, the care packages were distributed to additional organizations based on urgent needs. “Because of their lack of plumbing infrastructure, the Navajo Nation has one of the highest rates of COVID cases,” said Katie Ashley, architectural engineering student. “One way to combat this is handwashing.”

Ashley and her classmate, architectural engineering major Sarah Ceurvorst, were tasked with improving the design of prototype handwashing stations for the Navajo Nation to combat the spread of COVID-19 across the reservation. The prototypes were designed by teams from the International Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Foundation (IWSH) and DigDeep. Ashley and Ceurvorst enhanced the design to make the prototypes lighter and used off-grid methods to prevent the water from freezing. The units hold a 200-gallon tank of water which will serve a six-person household for one month.

Both Ashley and Ceurvorst were drawn into the project to be able to help a community in need.

“I’ve loved every second of using the skills that I have to directly benefit another human being,” said Ceurvorst.

The stations will be ready for deployment to the Navajo Nation summer 2021.

I gave the shot!

MSOE nursing students were approved to administer COIVD-19 vaccines to the community. The students are gaining clinical experience by administering vaccines in partnership with the Franklin, Wis. Health Department at the Milwaukee County Sports Complex.

COMMUNITY-POWERED RADIO

WMSE celebrates 40 Years

WMSE 91.7FM, MSOE’s very own radio station, is celebrating its 40th anniversary in 2021. With its all-volunteer DJ staff and free-format programming, WMSE is part of the very fabric that makes up Milwaukee’s rich musical tapestry. The station is 100% supported by the community and is free-form. You’ll find music that isn’t played anywhere else and with a major focus on the local music community. Programming is made up of almost every genre possible and every show is hosted by a volunteer DJ.

WMSE’s roots go back to 1922 when a broadcasting license was issued for WIAO to the “School of Engineering of Milwaukee” and the Wisconsin News newspaper, which was owned by Hearst Corporation. A few years later the station changed frequency and call letters, and became known as WSOE. Another frequency and call letter change occurred, this time to WISN. A series of moves, locations, purchases, call letter changes, and responsibilities occurred over the following decades. And finally, on March 17, 1981, WMSE as we know it today, was born and began broadcasting from MSOE’s Krueger Hall as opposed to the basement of MSOE’s Margaret Loock Residence Hall.

Stream WMSE today through the TuneIn app or at wmse.org, or listen over the airwaves in southeastern Wisconsin at 91.7FM.

The international STEM Learning Ecosystems Community of Practice (SLECoP) has selected the Greater Milwaukee STEM Ecosystem (GMSTEM) to join the global movement of leaders devoted to ensuring that STEM education is a priority for all in their communities with an emphasis on the equity envisioned to support a world-class STEM education.

The GM-STEM application was led by MSOE, the Milwaukee Tech Hub Coalition, Northwestern Mutual and STEM Forward on behalf of the seven county Greater Milwaukee region. These organizations are working to launch GM-STEM with the purpose of creating a unified effort across the region to enable STEM partners to share, build knowledge and connect to ensure efforts in K–20 STEM pipeline development are effective and reflect the community as a whole. Local companies, nonprofits and community organizations are invited to join the ecosystem. Visit surveymonkey.com/r/WC2ZCJV to complete a landscape analysis survey and provide contact information.

Global movement prioritizes STEM education

Sustainable food resource

The MacCanon Brown Homeless Sanctuary now has an operational prototype of an aquaponics system developed by MSOE electrical engineering senior Nicholas Brnot. The completion of the aquaponics prototype brings the homeless sanctuary another step closer to its plan of ensuring the sanctuary is able to provide food and resources to the individuals who live in the 53206 neighborhood, which comprises Milwaukee’s most impoverished zip code. The prototype contains a fish tank, a swirl filter that creates a whirlpool in the small tank that allows fish debris to settle at the bottom, a biofilter to help bacteria break down the smaller waste from the fish into valuable nutrients for the plants, and growbeds, which include LED lights and racks for plants to grow. The prototype’s 250-pound tank can hold about 50 pounds of fish. The future full-sized tank was sized for 200 pounds of fish. Brnot, an electrical engineering major, began the project in his freshman year as part of the University Scholars Honors Program.