Sustainability is central to all engineering projects and is becoming even more critical as our concern for environmental health is exacerbated by climate change and the need to produce “green” energy and conserve precious resources. Our global environment and economy are so inextricably intertwined that engineers must consider environmental impact in every financial decision they make, which is why the College of Engineering at New Mexico State University is committed to providing engineering students with the resources they need to address this challenge.
Given the growing importance of sustainability, it’s no wonder that undergraduate students in all fields of engineering who can highlight their experience solving environmental issues will be in the highest demand. If you are or know an undergraduate-level engineering student who wants to gain this valuable experience and, at the same time, make a real environmental difference, the WERC Environmental Design Contest might just be the perfect competition to foster an understanding of environmental issues!
The WERC Environmental Design Contest was founded over three decades ago by New Mexico State University’s College of Engineering, creating an opportunity for college students that has led to careers in academia, major engineering firms, and government agencies such as the EPA. Engineering professionals who have participated in the WERC competition have called it “an engineering education opportunity of a lifetime.” Modeled after an engineering Request for Proposals (RFP), this competition asks students to spend 3-6 months as “professional engineers,” creating a complete engineering design, including bench-scale testing and a business plan for full-scale implementation. It also gives students the chance to pitch their business plans during an exciting event called “Flash Talks”, a Shark-Tank-inspired setting where students give a 3-minute pitch of their designs to judges who pose as “investors.”
The contest culminates with oral presentations and bench-scale demonstrations in Las Cruces, NM, April 16-19, 2023. Winners are eligible for an award pool of $30,000 for their solutions, and top papers are published in IEEE’s Xplore journal. As an amazing bonus, students competing in the WERC Environmental Design Contest have the opportunity to meet with academic, government, and industry experts, providing them with valuable networking contacts to advance their research and potential career opportunities.
In 2022, a student reflected, “The interaction with the judges made this an even greater learning experience that we will carry into our careers. They helped us understand practical limitations and issues based on their real-world experiences.”
For the 2023 competition, students can choose from six project topics – “tasks” – all of which are designed by businesses and organizations with an immediate interest in competitors’ solutions to real-world problems. There are tasks for most fields of engineering. A seventh open task is also available for teams who want to select their own challenge to solve. The tasks this season are:
- Beneficial wastewater reuse for rural communities
- Vehicle-to-grid resiliency
- Reducing water loss in mine tailings facilities
- Detecting microplastics in reservoirs
- Ammonia recovery from produced water
- A NASA task – to be determined
- Open task
How to Get Involved
Interested in the WERC Environmental Design Contest? Check out their guidelines to see if you or your team would be eligible. Sign up for their informational webinar on either July 20, 2022, or August 10, 2022 at 12:00PM Mountain Time to learn more about how to get started!
Informational webinars are 45 minutes long and give future competitors an introduction to the contest and the “hows” and “whys” of getting involved. Faculty, government, and industry speakers will be present to explain how the tasks are developed, how teams receive mentoring from professional engineers, and strategies for participating in the competition!
The college experience is changing in ways we couldn’t have predicted even one year ago. Many schools have gone partially, or totally, virtual. Students, on and off-campus, must contend with quarantine and heightened safety measures. As parents and students navigate this dynamic landscape, many are discovering that even with pandemic-related tuition freezes, decreases, and discounts, college is still very expensive.
With average annual tuition at nearly $10,000 for public universities and $35,087 for private, according to USNews, financial aid is of top priority. Fortunately, academic competitions offer tens of millions of dollars in scholarships and grants each year. Below is a list of competitions that have big cash prizes that can help you pay for college.
Bow Seat Ocean Awareness Student Contest – prizes of up to $1,500
Brower Youth Awards – 6 awardees receive $3,000
Career Safe Youth Safety Video Contest – CTE students 13 and older, scholarships of $3,500-7,500
Center for Unsung Heroes Discovery Award – prizes totaling $14,000
Courageous Persuaders – high school contest with scholarships of up to $3,000
C-SPAN StudentCam Documentary Competition – cash prizes totaling $100,000
CyberPatriot – more than $50,000 in scholarships to winning teams
Davidson Fellows – scholarships of 10,000 – 50,000
Diamond Challenge – awards $100,000 in prizes
Exploravision – up to $10,000 prize
Fleet Reserve Association’s Americanism Essay Contest – up to $5,000 award
George S. & Stella M. Knight Essay Contest – prize of up to $5,000
Intel International Science and Engineering Fair – prizes and awards totaling nearly $5 million
John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Essay Contest – prize of up to $10,000
Junior Science and Humanities Symposium – regional awards of up to $2,000, national awards of up to $12,000
Mathworks Math Modeling Challenge – team scholarships of $5,000 – 20,000
Modeling the Future Challenge – awards $60,000 in prizes
National Peace Essay Contest $2,500 prize
NCF Envirothon – Top 3 teams received awards totaling $30,000
NFPA Fluid Power Robotics Challenge – $40,000 scholarship (10,000 per year)
Patriot’s Pen Essay Contest – up to $30,000 scholarship for high school, $5,000 for middle school
Poetry Out Loud – up to $20,000 in scholarships
Regeneron Science Talent Search (STS) – individual prizes of $2,000 – 250,000 in prizes
Scholastic Art and Writing Awards – scholarships of up to $10,000
Teendrive 365 Video Challenge – up to $15,000 award
The American Rocketry Challenge – $100,000 in prizes for winning teams
We the Students Essay Competition scholarships of up to $7,500
You Be The Chemist Challenge – up to $12,000 prize
Youngarts’ National Arts Competition – up to $10,000 award
Find other big prize competitions in the Institute of Competition Sciences (ICS) database.