The project began in Helena Solo-Gabriele’s class. Solo-Gabriele, a professor of civil, architectural, and environmental engineering at the College of Engineering, encouraged the students to apply for the ASCE award and mentored the team throughout the process.
“It was fascinating to see students from different disciplines work together,” says Solo-Gabriele. She was proud of the way her students “came together to develop an innovative approach” and provided results that “are relevant in addressing potential contamination of the (Havana) water supply.”
While Google Earth provided updates only every couple of years due to restrictive Cuban policies, the team was still able to see progress from 2000 to 2016.
Westbrook recalls seeing the construction of new tanks throughout the years and tracking their operational status.
“In the first image we saw, there was nothing there,” she says. “Then, in the next image, there were a few tanks. And in a later one, we could see that there were multiple tanks and they were all in operation,” says Westbrook.
The problem that Havana is facing is largely due to a growing population serviced by the capital’s wastewater tanks.
“The Sistema Central is the biggest plant in Havana and should service 600,000 people but, right now, it is servicing 945,000 people,” says Sabrina, the lead researcher for the paper.
Sabrina and Westbrook were able to make these discoveries with the little information available to them by using internet searches and Google Imagery.
“Our study was limited mainly by the lack of available information regarding the wastewater infrastructure of Havana,” Sabrina says.
Despite these roadblocks, the team’s paper won first place and earned Sabrina—as the lead author—a complimentary one-year membership to ASCE, an opportunity to attend and present their study at the annual ASCE conference, and a travel stipend of $800 plus a $400 cash reward.
Following graduation, Westbrook is now pursuing a graduate degree at the University of Florida and continues to work remotely for Hazen and Sawyer, a water engineering company in Miami.
As of spring 2017, Sabrina was living in Brazil and exploring graduate school.
- ANDRES TAMAYO / UM News
