Purdue News

April 7, 2000 Environmental team takes first place, wins $12,000 LAS CRUCES, N.M. – Purdue University students won $12,000 in cash prizes at the 10th Annual WERC Environmental Design Contest held April 3-6 at New Mexico State University. WERC, a consortium for environmental education and development, hosted more than 350 university and high school students and 80 judges for a unique competition that combined real-world environmental problems and students' creative solutions. This year, WERC presented seven tasks from public and private sites around the nation, and the teams could choose to solve any of the six environmental challenges. Twenty Purdue students and advisers Inez Hua, Loring Nies and Ronald Wukasch participated in three of the six tasks. The team won first place in task 3, pipeline waste removal, and task 4, jewelry manufacturing waste disposal; and second place in task 8, metal recovery from an open pit mine. Purdue took first-place overall honors, and a total of $12,000 in prize money, as well as the Waste Nuclear Services traveling trophy that is awarded to the top winner each year. "We attribute the success to teamwork, dedication and the devotion of our advisers," said team member and senior environmental engineering major Megan Chikota. Purdue competed against schools including Clarkson University, Montana Tech, New Mexico State University, Pennsylvania State University, Oregon State University, University of Arkansas, University of Missouri/Columbia and University of California/Riverside. The winners were determined by judges' ratings based on a written report, and oral and poster presentation and a working bench-scale model. The teams were required to address regulatory, economical, health and public relations issues and incorporate them into their reports. Experts tested the resulting samples of the bench-scale design to determine how successful the students were with their cleanup efforts. "The hours we spent on this are unbelievable," said Purdue team member Constance Danner,"but all of the time and effort paid off." Team members were Chikota, Danner, Kimberly Cole, Steve Ernst, Harmon Henderson, Anna Lyssandridou, Christina McMaken, Joyce Atcheson, Tony Halsey, Alicia Hightower, Marshawn Merriwether, Courtney Mickunas, Trisha Wilson, Alice Brassart, Christopher Cailles, John Dickerson, Andy Lutz, Greg Pope, Marta Puckett, and Jeremy Todd. "The contest was truly a success, because it not only provided real-world challenges, but the teams demonstrated a number of innovative, applicable ideas that sponsors will use," said Abbas Ghassemi, contest director. For more information on the Design Contest or WERC, visit the WERC Web site. Writer: Alison Sawyer, WERC media specialist, 1-800-523-5996, asawyer@nmsu.edu