A Young Woman Going Against All Odds To Save Mother Earth

Engineering change through education

Did you know that dairy cows today are made to artificially reproduce so they can produce up to six or seven times more milk than they did a century ago?

Then there’s artificial ripening of fruits during off-season, overuse of pesticides in farming, and the list goes on.

A study published in April 2016 conducted on paddy farmers in Sungai Petani, Malaysia showed that about 80% of them practice unsustainable farming. And this is a common practice, even after the introduction of the Farm Accreditation Scheme in 2002.

Here’s the thing: We have a growing population, and so increased demand is outweighing supply (resources).

My question is, why are we operating in such a manner when we know that these actions will deplete the world’s resources at a rapid rate?

Engineering a change, together

Leaderonomics recently met one individual who believes that we can’t put the entire burden of creating a sustainable planet on the shoulders of authorities and that we ourselves can do something to save Mother Earth.

Meet Jayasubamani Arvi S. Moganakrishnan (Jaya). An engineer by profession, Jaya is now pursuing her PhD in engineering education. She is conducting research in education approaches for the personal and professional development of engineers, focused on design and sustainable development. As part of her research, she supervises student projects for multidisciplinary engineering design modules.

Engineers tend to speak the language of commercialisation. They can’t help it because before sustainable development was coined in 1987, businesses were economy-driven

With a deep-rooted passion for creating a sustainable living, Jaya is using her knowledge in engineering and her love for teaching, to equip engineering students with skills and knowledge to connect with the community around them while coming up with engineering solutions that will help address pertinent issues that affect the community and the environment.

Inspired by sugar and tomato

It all started when she was doing her Master of Energy and Industrial Sustainability studies in the United Kingdom (UK) and was working on an industrial symbiosis project. She described her project as a process of taking one industry’s wastes and turning them into a resource for another industry.

An example she gave was of British Sugar and British Tomato, UK’s sugar and tomato producers. Sugar production emits excessive nitrogen into the air, and that is harmful to us. The solution? Since nitrogen functions as a fertiliser, it can be used to stimulate growth and production of tomato crops in glasshouses. Remarkable, isn’t it?

Because of the exciting discoveries she made during her research, Jaya was fuelled with a burning desire to bring back what she had learnt to Malaysia.

Jaya talking to me about how her passion for sustainable development came about.

Place-based education

One approach Jaya thought about is encouraging the practice of sustainable development through education, i.e. through teaching.

Jaya utilises a technique of learning called place-based education. According to the Center for Place-Based Learning and Community Engagement, it is a form of immersive learning which “places students in local heritage, cultures, landscapes, opportunities and experiences, and uses these as a foundation for their study…”

Students are able to learn how to connect to the communities around them, cultivate problem-solving skills, develop a sense of responsibility towards the community, and be a change leader, all while applying theoretical knowledge.

Jaya wanted to expose her students to real life issues facing the community and looked for inspiration around her.

“The first thing that came to my mind were cleaners! Cleaning is a mechanical and chemical activity. You can bring a multidisciplinary angle to the problem and see how engineering can help,” she exclaimed in excitement.

Why cleaners?

Jaya relayed that one, toilet cleaners are required to arc their backs in order to clean toilet bowls, and that is already a physical stressor which can give way to musculoskeletal disorders. Two, because they are bending, their faces have a high dermal exposure to the chemicals found in cleaning agents and this causes respiratory and dermatologic diseases.

Since these cleaners clean numerous cubicles in a day, they may get tired of bending and may not clean the toilet bowls properly. This is unhygienic especially if there is a high volume of people using the toilets.

“The problem is not the cleaners, but the tool,” Jaya asserted.

Using this example, she encouraged her students to integrate the concept of design thinking with their engineering knowledge and determine how to resolve this issue.

Failure as a stepping stone

In 14 weeks, Jaya and her students managed to improvise a toilet-cleaning tool and grey-water reuse – used water from sinks or tubs that has not come into contact with fecal matter – for toilets.

Despite the evident passion demonstrated by her students, the project drew a lot of criticism, namely from the engineering community and also industry panel experts that came to assess their work. Their projects received low grades and Jaya’s students were dejected.

Some of the statements thrown at them were:

“Why design a toilet brush?”

“This is not engineering.”

“This is not investable.”

She later asked one of her students what her greatest lesson was from the entire experience, to which her student replied that it was a stupid idea because one, she’s a girl and two, the perceived simplicity or irrelevance of the project would not get the attention of the engineering industry that is more interested in making profits. So, what was the point?

“Engineers tend to speak the language of commercialisation. They can’t help it because before sustainable development was coined in 1987, businesses were economy-driven,” explained Jaya.

Steps of action

When Jaya was in the Museum of London with her husband, she came across an exhibit about The Great Stink.

The Great Stink was a time in London where the popular River Thames became a dumping ground for human, animal and industrial wastes. The pollution and foul stench created, fuelled the spread of water-borne illnesses and deaths.

She began tearing up as she imagined what it was like to be an immigrant and to die because of poor sanitation.

And it hit her!

“Even though it’s been 159 years, looking at these exhibits, you can feel history affecting you. The vividness, aesthetics and the symbolism affect you so much. I figured that’s it. I need to create this platform – a poetic space – for my students. A chance for them to have their say, just like how this image did to me.”

She did this by hosting an exhibition called, as quirky as it sounds, The Great Toilet Project. She designed the set-up in an aesthetically pleasing manner to symbolise sustainability.

Jaya standing next to some of the tools and materials used during ‘The Great Toilet Project’ exhibition. Here is she was telling me a bit about how the tools work.

She was pleasantly surprised by the turnout and the dialogue that took place among attendees.

Some of comments she received were:

“It’s a fantastic toilet!”

“The toilet is speaking to me!”

This was what Jaya wanted: A place of pedagogy.

Her ultimate goal through her research findings is to create a public sphere or poetic space on a national level, where people of all disciplines and industries can dialogue on sustainable development.

Her voice is beginning to get across as she recently presented about the learning model of The Great Toilet Project at the 3rd International Conference on Education 2017, and won the Best Presentation for Global Issues!

An impact she did not expect

At first, Jaya thought she had failed in her mission to leave a lasting impact unto her students.

But then, there was Priya Marappan, one of Jaya’s students who worked on the toilet brush project. Despite the negative sentiments received, Priya was optimistic.

When Jaya gave an opportunity to Priya to showcase her project in the exhibition, Priya took it. Staff and students who attended the exhibition were interested to hear what she had to say.

“One lecturer from the school of design said he will pass on this information during his classes,” Priya conveyed in excitement.

The public dialogue gave her the satisfaction she was looking for, after months of toiling on her project.

Inspired by the work she did with Jaya, Priya went on to design a solution which prevents motorcyclists from falling asleep while riding.
“Profit is one thing, but giving back to society is more important,” said Priya.

Priya’s story is a testament that Jaya managed to inspire and impact one individual.

This may seem insignificant to some, but impacting one individual is a step closer towards creating a domino effect of impacting an entire community.

Similar to the leadership philosophy we have here in Leaderonomics, we believe that the more youths we develop and inspire, the better our chances at creating great leaders who would be able to create a greater impact in the communities they serve – bringing about greater transformation.

In a nutshell

Jaya spoke with so much passion and drive in her eyes that I knew for a fact that she genuinely cared about the environment around her and sees engineering education as a gateway to saving Mother Earth.

Despite the criticisms and negativity she had to deal with initially, her relentless effort to create a platform of education and encouragement for students and the public to dialogue on how design and engineering is able to resolve community issues, is just praise-worthy.

Some may say her dream seems far-fetched, but I say, her passion, sense of purpose, determination and hard work will get her (or at least the people she impacts) somewhere.

She is truly an unsung hero to me.

Jaya’s parting message is this:

We need to create a platform or opportunity for these young minds to understand the issues around them and see how they can be a part of the agenda of resolving these issues, without a fear of whether they are right or not. “It builds a strong humanistic perspective towards engineering.