Engineering students attack real-world challenges at N.M. event
By Stephanie Laird
Athens NEWS Campus Reporter
April 7, 2008
Two teams of Ohio University students are presenting their innovative solutions to real-world environmental problems at the 18th annual International Environmental Design Contest this week at New Mexico State University in Los Cruces.
Students from the United States, Canada, Mexico and Turkey are participating in this highly competitive contest, including nine students from OU’s Russ College of Engineering and Technology. The students, along with faculty advisers Daniel Gulino and Darin Ridgway, both associative professors of chemical and bimolecular engineering, departed Friday for the conference.
The host organization, WERC – A Consortium for Environmental Education and Technology Development at NMSU, was created by the U.S. Department of Energy to provide students hands-on engineering experience. Recently, WERC joined two other centers – the Southwest Technology Development Institute, a renewable energy research and development group, and Carlsbad Environmental Monitoring and Research Center, a nuclear waste-management and monitoring center – to form the Institute for Energy and the Environment at NMSU.
Each year, 20 to 30 universities participate in this comprehensive and multi-disciplinary event, designing a real-world approach to handling an environmental issue currently facing government, industry and/or end-users. The teams prepare four different presentations – a written paper submitted for audit prior to the contest, a 15-minute oral presentation, a poster and a working bench-scale model – of their approach to a panel of judges comprised of environmental professionals.
Teams have a chance to win cash prizes of up to $2,500, and they gain real-world, hands-on experience in handling environmental challenges, while networking with industry representatives, many of whom are sought-after employers. There are also a handful of prestigious awards student teams can win.
Task One of this year’s EDC – Innovative Technologies for an Existing Commercial Building – will be addressed by OU’s first team.
According to team member Leigh Ann Buzzard, a fifth-year senior with a major in chemical engineering and a minor in biological sciences, “with respect to our project, environmental design is using innovative technologies to retrofit an existing building and decrease the building’s environmental footprint, or make it more ‘green.’” The building they are designing for is theoretically located in Phoenix. Their task involves “making the building more electrically efficient while making sure the improvements are economically feasible. This also includes investing into products, such as low-volatile organic compound carpeting, that improve indoor air quality,” she said.
They are presenting their design of an air exchanger that will be added to the theoretical building’s existing HVAC unit, said Buzzard.
A second team of OU students will tackle Tack Three – Inland Desalination Operation and Disposal in Rural, Isolated Communities.
This task asks students to address dwindling fresh water supplies in many regions of the country that lack enough natural resources to meet the population growth, economic development and agricultural needs. They were asked to design a lower-cost system which would be both economical and reliable, and which may incorporate novel technologies and approaches in their solution, according to the NMSU Web site.
Other tasks will be addressed at this year’s EDC, including a Sampling Strategy for Spinach, which entails the development of a simple and practical sampling strategy to detect a certain bacteria in spinach.
Abbas Ghassemi, IEE executive director and chemical engineering professor at NMSU, said he has been involved with the EDC from the beginning, working to develop a competition that would encourage the current generation of scientists and engineers to tackle scientifically challenging real-world environmental problems, and require them to converse and communicate their concept to government, industry and academic environmental professionals.
“In order for us to continue to grow, while leaving this planet a better place for our offspring, we have to continue to do the things we do smarter, in a more resource-efficient manner, in order to protect our environment,” he said. “This can only be done through innovation — by looking at how we can do what we do differently so the environment can co-exist with economic growth.”
Ghassemi believes the consumer shouldn’t have to think about being environmentally friendly, energy-efficient, or have to pay a premium to save the planet. Rather, he contends, science and technology should innovate so the consumer doesn’t have to sacrifice or make significant changes in their behavior.
In looking for the next good idea for government, industry or end-users, to an environmental problem, students put their concept onto a working scale to test their design, said Ghassemi. “Some succeed while other’s don’t.”
For him, this contest is unique in that it is a real-life experience; student approaches to tasks have to have some degree of reality and possibility of application for outside individuals, which goes beyond the hypothetical learning they encounter through much of their academic career, he said.
Buzzard agreed about the benefits of this sort of endeavor.
“I think environmental design is important because it not only helps preserve our resources and natural aesthetics, it also shows future generations that our generation is capable of making a positive difference in our world,” said Buzzard. “It is also something that everyone can contribute to.”
University funds and donations, including support from the Provost’s Undergraduate Research Fund, covered the majority of the participants’ cost in this four-day contest running from April 6-9. Students began working on their designs fall quarter; for their labors they receive three credit hours, recognition, travel opportunities and the possibility of winning cash or other awards for the success of their innovative approach.
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