Student Project Perspectives

October 30, 2007

Week 1 - On My Way to South Africa

Hi, my name is Nicholas Pelletier and I am a junior biomedical engineering major. I will be completing my interactive project in Cape Town South Africa this B-term with twenty-two other students as well as two faculty advisors. Outside of school work, I am the president of the fraternity Phi Kappa Theta as well as a member of the student support network and the co-chair of the campus's Relay for Life.

The Cape Town Project Center

This is the first year that WPI has sent students to the vibrant city of Cape Town South Africa. Prior to 1995, South Africa had been under a system of racial segregation known as apartheid. This system caused severe separation in social classes within South Africa and still, till this day, leaves a lasting imprint on the city of South Africa. Over ten years after the end of apartheid, though, Cape Town is currently in a process of progress and renewal. Though some citizens are still upset with the current situation, the city is continuing to move forward. WPI recognized that a city such as Cape Town could truly benefit from the assistance of its students so it began the Cape Town project center. To be completely honest, when looking at all the different options with the project system, I can't tell you for sure why I chose Cape Town. I tried to ask myself where I will probably never have the chance to go again and Africa seemed pretty high on the list. As time has gone on, the idea of traveling to an area where travelers are warned to be extremely cautious has caused me to worry. It has been helpful to hear the stories of those who had attended the Namibia project center in years prior and had visited Cape Town as well. Also knowing that I am traveling abroad with such a great group of fellow students and faculty makes me confident that we are going to have a great experience in what many claim to be one of the most beautiful cities in the world.

My Project

One thing that is important to point out about the interactive project is that it is not right in your major field of study. The goal of this project is to create interdisciplinary teams that work to benefit society or humanity in some way. It is the hope that each of these students will bring a different background and knowledge that will benefit the project in some way. My project in particular is sponsored by the Transportation Department of Cape Town. I am working in a group of four students, two of which are mechanical engineers and one is an electrical engineer. Since the end of apartheid, providing proper public transportation to and from all the dynamic areas of the city has been increasingly difficult. The city currently has a very effective mini-van taxi system but it causes excessive congestion and pollution in the central business district or CBD. This system also connects with the city's current bus and rail system at the overcrowded interchange in the center of the CBD. Due to these factors Cape Town is looking to restructure the transportation in their central business district and elsewhere as well by using a more effective bus rapid transit system or BRT. What the Transportation Department is unsure of is exactly how to deal with these buses once they enter the CBD. Should the city create a large scale interchange structure to center the terminus in one location or is it better to spread the drop of points of the different routes over a city block which would be referred to as the "super block." Our project is to analyze these two methods from an engineering point of view by examining what has been done in other cities across the world and then make a recommendation for what would work best within the unique needs of the city of Cape Town.

Our work started at WPI where over the past seven weeks we have been preparing to go abroad through extensive research of BRT and the transportation situation in the City of Cape Town. We also conducted an interview over the phone with members of the transportation department to get a better grasp on the specifics of our project. With this information, we created an initial proposal with the work we intended to do in South Africa and also began refining a presentation to give to our sponsors a week after our arrival. At the same time as this research, all twenty-three students going to Cape Town were also enrolled in a course in which we discussed the history of Cape Town and what to expect while we are there. This course truly helped us to get a grasp on the city that we will be living in for the next two months. The combination of this research and the course truly prepared us for the trip we will undertaking.

Africa is Far

So as many times as you look at the plane tickets it is hard to comprehend how far of a journey the flight to South Africa was truly going to be. We have two stops, one in Senegal, and one in Johannesburg. In total the entire journey, door to door will hopefully take a little over twenty-four hours. Hopefully we have enough to keep us busy for the rest of the plane ride... some of us are really starting to wonder if we can make it another twelve hours....check back next week for info on what South Africa is truly like and how our first week of work has gone!

Until then...
-Nick (on my way to Africa)