Neven Subotic Foundation—founded by international footballer Neven Subotic, together with SimScale—provider of the world’s first SaaS application for engineering simulation, have announced a competition for engineers to contribute to a newly-launched project to design and build safer sanitary facilities for schools in Ethiopia and other African countries. The goal is to develop a latrine that safely discards waste with adequate ventilation to prevent the spread of diseases.
“663 million people in the world live without clean water and access to basic sanitary facilities. The majority are based in isolated rural areas and spend hours every day walking to collect water for their families,” says Neven Subotic. “This not only prevents children from going to school or parents from earning a living, but also allows for the spread of potentially deadly diseases via water.”
These diseases develop and spread due to inadequate sanitation and hygiene, particularly through toilets. For reasons of groundwater protection and low water availability, the flushing and disposal of waste must be carried out without the use of water in many regions. Therefore, a VIP latrine (ventilated improved pit latrine) is used in rural or peri-urban areas in many developing countries. Such a latrine is a type of outhouse that uses the chimney effect to make insects and rotting gases “harmless”1.
Competition for Design Engineers
Aiming to create an optimized design of the latrines that can become standard in schools in Ethiopia and other African countries, the Neven Subotic Foundation partnered with SimScale to announce a competition for design engineers and mechanical engineers worldwide.
Participants are invited to submit improvements to the design of a VIP latrine. The organizers are providing a 3D CAD model of the latrine that is easy to edit and modify. Subsequently, the efficiency (air exchange rate) of the latrine needs to be calculated with the help of fluid flow simulation (CFD).
For the design optimization and simulation, SimScale is providing free access to its cloud-based platform through a free Community account. Hence, no special hardware, licence or installation is needed.
Simulation of a VIP latrine (source: SimScale)
“There are millions of people using this standard design of the latrine but barely any testing has been done, and to our knowledge, none with the precision of an engineering simulation tool. Therefore, the benefit of using CFD simulation will not only change the design of our own latrine but also provide best practices to other organizations and especially improve the health and safety of many people,” says Neven Subotic.
In order to launch the project as quickly as possible, SimScale and Neven Subotic Stiftung are seeking engineers with (computer-aided design) CAD and computer-aided engineering (CAE) experience to assist with optimization and simulation efforts.
Professionals interested in joining the challenge or learning more about the projects of Neven Subotic Foundation can join on the official page, where they can also register for a webinar to learn all the details.The first two places will be rewarded with $200 and $100 Amazon vouchers respectively.
Filed Under: Rapid prototyping
