Ashely Tenesaca ’20 wins Davis Projects for Peace
Tenesaca, undergraduate research assistant in the ROC HCI lab, will use the grant to create a water supply system in Zimbabwe for a project titled “Water for Peace: Solving Mukwerera Conflict through Provision of Sustainable Water Supply.”
Dhoro and Tenesaca will also mitigate conflict, but in a vastly different way. They’ll use their $10,000 grant to create a water supply system in Zimbabwe. Dhoro is an electrical and computer engineering major from Masvingo, Zimbabwe, and a graduate of the Waterford Kamhlaba United World College in Swaziland. Tenesaca is a computer science major from New York City.
he solution proposed by Dhoro and Tenesaca is to build a borehole that will serve villagers, their livestock, and people from surrounding areas, and allow villagers to pursue projects such as gardening through the winter months.
“Many catastrophes began as a small issue that was ignored, and this is something we are trying to avoid,” Tenesaca says. “We hope to learn from the locals about their take on the issue and work together toward an appropriate solution. We also hope to develop a long-lasting relationship with the community as we continue working with them beyond this project.”