Engineering Education Arms Wren with Problem-Solving Skills

A recent graduate in civil and environmental engineering, Emily Wren’s activities at Duke were many: the American Society of Civil Engineers concrete canoe design contest at the Carolinas Conference, engineering honor societies Tau Beta Pi and Chi Epsilon, and the E-Team, a group that mentors freshman engineers. But it is her involvement with Duke’s Chapter of Engineers Without Borders (EWB) that she most relishes.

“EWB is what I believe in the most,” Wren said. “It offers the opportunity for students to be leaders, apply their education and see the world—something engineers don’t always have the opportunity to do.

“You help people along the way, of course, but you get so much out of it.”

Wren was a member of the team that traveled to Indonesia after the tsunami of December 2004. The Duke engineering team built an aerator to boost the yield of shrimp hatcheries in Lamnga, a small village that has traditionally depended on shrimp harvests for their livelihood.

Budding Builder

For Wren, it all began when, in the 7th grade, she decided she wanted to be a construction worker. In high school she volunteered with Habitat for Humanity and renovated houses through her church in Arlington, Va.

“I wanted to build buildings from all different angles,” Wren said. “I was fascinated by art, architecture and construction.”

A combination of her own analytical nature and her parents’ encouragement led her to push her interest in construction in an academic direction. Still, she knew little about engineering.

After a summer internship in aerospace design and materials sciences at MITRE, a not-for-profit government contractor in Mclean, Va., she enrolled at Duke as an undergraduate, starting out as a mechanical engineer. She soon realized, however, that civil and environmental engineering was a better fit for her interest in buildings.

Making a Connection

Now a recent Duke graduate, Wren’s experiences as an undergraduate engineer led her to her greatest strength: connecting with people and ideas.

“I’ve enjoyed my time as a civil engineer at Duke,” said Wren, who graduated in May 2006. “I’ve had the opportunity to develop technologies to solve problems in developing countries.

“It’s great that as an undergraduate, you can really explore what you ultimately want to do. The level of involvement I had as a leader of EWB and other student organizations made me realize that I love that kind of managerial/executive role and that I wanted to pursue business.”

An independent study afforded Wren the opportunity to delve further into issues raised by her experiences, including low-income housing and the challenge of sustainable innovation.

“How could we use innovative design principles to more quickly provide cheap, stable housing after disasters?” Wren wanted to know.

Her effort was originally motivated by the tsunami and Hurricane Katrina. Wren took part in an interdisciplinary course, Natural Disasters: Rebuilding from Ruins, developed in response to the U.S. disaster. The course landed her in St. Bernard Parish, La., one of the places hardest hit by the storm, for a spring break engaged in the cleanup effort.

Her independent research under the guidance of Assistant Chair of Civil and Environmental Engineering David Schaad culminated in a paper covering many of the sustainable building techniques and materials now available, and their compatibility with one another.

Her paper just scratches the surface, Wren said, but it provided a foundation that other students are now set to build upon. Her findings and the ideas behind them inspired Schaad to submit a grant proposal to the EPA’s P3 competition. The proposal was selected, and students in several classes will work on sustainable housing designs this year, which will later be pitted against the designs of other teams in a national competition in Washington, D.C.

“Emily did an excellent job providing an initial framing of the problem that will be tackled as part of the P3 contest, and it is possible that some of her ideas will influence the final designs,” said Schaad, who will lead the P3 effort.

The experience also solidified Wren’s views about the unlocked potential afforded by sustainable building techniques.

“Sustainable construction is not just an environmental movement; it’s really a technology that can be harnessed to increase the standard of living or ability to own property while addressing environmental concerns,” Wren said. “It’s the engineering and technological advances that have allowed the development of these new building materials--which have spawned new building techniques--that could really change the housing industry.

“The question is how to get those technologies into homebuilding, which is by nature a decentralized industry.”

Armed with the problem-solving skills of an engineer, Wren is on what she describes as the “fast-track” to business school. She began working this fall as a consultant at The Boston Consulting Group, a global strategy firm for Fortune 500 companies worldwide, in their Atlanta office. Her ultimate goal: CEO of a real estate and commercial urban development company.