Wyoming Team Wins Regional Student Design Competition

May 25, 2011 — The UW student team sealed the top regional position in the Rocky Mountain Water Environment Association (RMWEF) Student Design Competition. The University of Wyoming, College of Engineering and Applied Science team, comprising of team members Emily Huth of Salt Lake City, Utah, Darrin Harris of Louisville, Colo., Colin Reinert from Alpine, Wyo. and Afiya Walker from St. Augustine, Port-of-Spain, will receive an all-expense paid trip to the national competition this fall. The Snowy Range team beat out two teams from Colorado State and one team from the University of Colorado to receive top honors. The team worked independently under the mentorship of advisor Dr. Jonathan Brant, assistant professor in the Department of Civil and Architectural Engineering.

The RMWEF design competition promotes “real world” design experience for students interested in pursuing an education and/or career in water/wastewater engineering and sciences. The design competition is based on problems relating to the environmental field including sewer design (collect and distribution system analysis), wastewater treatment plant expansions, biological treatment, reuse, constructed wetlands, sustainability efforts, etc. The scope and extent of the project is at the senior or graduate level for engineering/science students in a design or capstone course.

The UW team project involved developing a preliminary design for upgrading the wastewater treatment plant for the Cities of Littleton / Englewood, Colorado for removing phosphorous. As part of their project the team had to come up with three different designs and provide the Littleton/Englewood staff with one recommendation. The recommendation was based on cost, ability to meet the effluent standard for phosphorous (0.135 mg/L) and its ability to be integrated into the existing treatment plant. In addition to these constraints the design must meet all of the existing goals/objectives that the plant is currently operating under. The national competition will be held October 11.

 

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