Nate Hardman
Vanuatu—a volcanic archipelago in the South Pacific—has a water problem. A natural spring bubbles up, providing fresh water for all, but sits atop a mountain.
Back in Grantham, the Collaboratory is working on a solution. Nate Hardman ’19, an engineering major, has spent the past four semesters as the student project manager leading a team of six to design a gravity-fed water system.
“We’re trying to capture the water the spring naturally produces,” explained Hardman.
The containment system involves 15 miles of pipe—without inhibiting the naturally producing spring—to provide water to 30 villages of 1,300 people.
“The Collab was one of the big selling points of coming to Messiah,” said Hardman. “Being able to learn about engineering and the application of being able to use what you’re learning in the classroom to a real-world problem to real-world people. Other places, you do a senior last-semester project, but in this way with four semesters, you’re more invested.”
Thomas Soerens, Messiah professor of engineering and faculty project manager, says he enjoyed working with Hardman the past couple years on the project. “I was really impressed how he stepped up both in technical work and in leadership of his team,” said Soerens.
Partnering with Friends in Action International, the Collaboratory hopes to install the system by the summer of 2020.
Meanwhile, Hardman started a job as an engineer at C.S. Davidson, Inc., a civil and structural engineering firm in his hometown of York, Pennsylvania. His Collab project, however, will pass on to the next group of Messiah students thanks to his thorough, dedicated preliminary work.