New Mexico State University will host the 26th annual International Environmental Design Contest Sunday, April 3, to Wednesday, April 6, at the New Mexico Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum in Las Cruces.
NMSU’s WERC, a Consortium for Environmental Education and Technology Development, will host the contest, which gives students the chance to feature their innovative designs to real-world problems.
The contest urges students to create technological solutions to environmental challenges, and merges government, private sector and academic interests. This year students can choose from four different tasks – open task, haul truck tires, treatment of wastewater for reuse and environmental design-meet the Internet of things.
Roseann Thompson, NMSU WERC research scientist, said every year’s contest is unique with the changing tasks.
“The sponsors are always looking for innovation to solve current environmental challenges they have at their sites,” Thompson said. “And it is very unusual to have teams that come up with the same approach to resolving the problem. The students really think outside the box and come up with very interesting ways to help the sponsoring sites.”
On Tuesday, April 5, the public is invited to attend the contest to view the experiments and high school teachers and advisers are welcome to discuss the potential for creating a high school version of the contest by participating in a feedback session with Paul Andersen, executive director of WERC, from 1 to 2 p.m.
This year, 19 teams from nine schools are participating including California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, Louisiana State University, Northern Arizona University, Ohio University, University of Arkansas, University of California, Riverside, University of Idaho, University of New Hampshire and University of New Mexico.
For more information on the contest visit http://www.ieenmsu.com/outreacheventsinternational-environmental-design-contest2016/.
Information from NMSU