In Photo: L to R. Kate Alexander, Waverly Seale, Victor Pham, Mark Peralta, Atoussa Farboud, and Christopher Tang. (source: https://bcwwa.org/site/awards/competition/sdc/overview)
Team Source Water Solutions, from the University of British Columbia (UBC), emerged as the winners of the 2023 BC Water & Waste Association (BCWWA) Student Design Competition (SDC). The team of third-year Environmental Engineering students included Kate Alexander, Waverly Seale, Victor Pham (team leader), Mark Peralta, Atoussa Farboud, and Christopher Tang.
BCWWA partnered with the City of Kelowna and posed the SDC real world challenge: Glenmore Landfill leachate is pumped to Kelowna Wastewater Treatment Facility and sulfides in the leachate cause issues in the collection system and treatment plant. As well, there is an emerging understanding of Per- and polyfluoroalkyl (PFAS) in the leachate. The SDC competition teams developed design solutions to address all these issues and submitted a design report and provided an oral presentation to a panel of four judges. The teams were evaluated based on their technical content, organization, delivery, and overall presentation. The Source Water Solutions team innovative solutions to tackle the Glenmore Landfill leachate sulfide and PFAs challenges was instrumental in their win.
The award ceremony for the winning team is set to take place at the BCWWA Annual Conference & Trade Show in Penticton, BC, on May 14-16, 2023. Furthermore, the team has also qualified for the Water Environment Federation’s Technical Exhibition and Conference (WEFTEC) Student Design Competition, scheduled to be held in Chicago, Illinois, on October 1, 2023. This competition will give the Source Water Solutions team the chance to showcase their skills and compete against other student teams.
The Source Water Solutions team also received significant support from their faculty advisor, Dr. Madjid Mohseni, and their industry advisor, David Lumb. The team is grateful to them for their contributions to the project’s success. Overall, the Source Water Solutions team’s achievement in the BCWWA Student Design Competition serves as a testament to their hard work and dedication to developing innovative solutions to environmental challenges.
Congratulations to Source Water Solutions!