Sanghavi Volunteers with EWB to Supply Clean Water, Infrastructure

Kavin Sanghavi (BS ‘16), a product manager at Booz Allen Hamilton, uses his engineering and project management experience to help others across the globe. As a member of the Engineers Without Borders (EWB) DC Professionals Chapter, he volunteers to create community-driven solutions that meet basic human needs. “We’re focused on helping underserved communities, some overseas, to gain access to clean water, infrastructure, learning centers, and energy solutions,” he says.

Kavin was involved with EWB at Carnegie Mellon and joined the professional chapter after meeting a fellow member in DC. “I’d had such a positive experience with the student chapter that I was excited to join and get involved,” he adds.

Over the past five years, he’s traveled globally to build relationships with communities in need of assistance—and to discuss long-term solutions that are in the best interest of each community. While there, Kavin shows people to build, maintain, and operate infrastructure systems on their own, eliminating future reliance upon EWB. “We provide training manuals and connections and coach them through management and maintenance training.”

During a trip to Peru, Kavin began a plan to assist people who were walking 1-2 miles per day just to acquire water that was safe to drink. They traveled to avoid waterborne illnesses resulting from contaminated water in their own villages. “Through EWB, we aim to identify a source for clean water for these people—and to create a distribution and treatment system within their community within the next three years,” he adds.  

Kavin mentions that his interest in assisting others through engineering was encouraged at CEE. “The department always supported our student EWB work and helped us to build relationships and connections that benefitted our projects.” He’s grateful to Professor Kelvin Gregory for supporting EWB-CMU and for helping students to process data while in the field.  

In addition to knowing that he’s directly helping others, Kavin explains just how much he enjoys seeing people who are grateful for the support EWB provides. “We always get a warm welcome and hospitality from community members. They know we’re a resource that will help to meet the needs of their community and they want to help with the projects.”