Bernard Amadei, founder of Engineers Without Borders, says enough is enough and it's time for a change.

Amadei, a professor at the University of Colorado spoke to engineering students last night and challenged them to "reinvent engineering."

He said instead of concentrating on developing high-tech innovations for already wealthy nations, engineers should switch their focus to low-tech and high impact systems for poor countries.

"Our world today has too much high-tech and low impact type of technology, and it's about time we focus on low-tech and high impact," Amadei said.

By low-tech he means providing clean water, energy, and shelter to areas that need it most.

The organization wants engineers to shift from designing large projects such as the Three Gorges Dam in China, which will displace two million people, to small projects that improve lives, said Amadei.

In San Pablo, Belize, the town's water supply consisted of a train of girls going back and forth from a local stream to fill large jugs everyday.

Amadei and a team of engineers designed a water pump from 200-year-old technology to bring water to the village.

This simple project allowed girls to go to school, instead of having to gather water all day, he said.

Another invention came in the form of a ceramic pot that uses properties of simple thermodynamics to keep vegetables cool so they keep longer.

"When you take a thermodynamics (class) you think, 'This will never pay off,' but this (pot) did pay off," Amadei said.

He said engineers must stop being arrogant and believing they know the solution to every problem. Instead, they must become humble and open their minds to new ways of approaching a situation.

The University chapter of Amadei's organization was started this semester and already has more than a hundred people on their mailing list, junior in engineering Amit Pathak said.

Pathak decided he wanted hands-on experience in engineering, not just working out equations, and became involved in the organization.

"I'm inspired," said junior in engineering Dan Griffin. "He's so right; we as engineers are trained to serve the rich people, but not the five billion poor people."

He said he always wanted to help the world, but wasn't sure how. He plans to get involved in Engineers Without Borders as soon as possible, and to use his technical knowledge to make a difference.

"Let's prove to the world that we (engineers) are not nerdy, and we can do good and change the world," Amadei said.