Thursday, February 14, 2008

Merrimack College engineering students designing hurricane-safe housing

Six Merrimack College civil engineering students plan to head to the Dominican Republic to help design safe and economical housing in the Caribbean seaside country, according to the school.

Merrimack student and Dominican Republic native Franklin Miguel and five other students plan to travel to Luz Consuelo, a community near Santo Domingo in March. The students intend to design economical housing that can better withstand harsh weather conditions, such as hurricanes and earthquakes. In the country's poorer communities, houses are not built to withstand such extreme weather, so residents often face the risk of injury and homelessness, the school said.

The project is funded by the Davis Educational Foundation, a Falmouth, Maine-based nonprofit that gives grants to New England colleges and universities. Exact details of the funding were not released.

Founded in 1947, Merrimack College sits on a 220-acre campus in North Andover. It is a private college, which enrolls 2,500 students from 26 states and 17 countries.