Spring Break
Engineers take first in design competition
OSU engineering students travel to New Mexico to compete in Environmental Design contest
Candice Ruud
Issue date: 4/10/08 Section: News
This week, 21 OSU engineering students traveled to New Mexico to compete in the 18th annual International Environmental Design Contest (EDC) at New Mexico State University and came home with first prize.
According to the press release, students from as far away as Bogazici University of Istanbul, Turkey came to show off their ability to create new and innovative environmental technologies.
The contest gave these students the opportunity to gain experience with everyday problems and solutions that face the world in today's environmentally conscious culture.
The students participating spent almost all of winter term preparing for the contest.
OSU, which outnumbered all other schools in its number of competitors, divided its students into four different tasks for the course of the competition.
Casenya Groner, Colin Hildebrandt, Bader Aboalsaud, Navin Prasad, Mary Hamlin and Kelsey Yee competed in task five: separation of water from emulsified oil.
Emily Thornley, Ian Gluck, Nicholas Horres and Ryan Moore took on task one: innovative technologies for an existing commercial building.
Zeus Brunner, Alison Petti, Matthew Cunningham and Andrew Traverso competed as a team in task three: inland desalination operation and disposal in rural, isolated communities.
Matthew Bertram, Matthew Coblyn, Jason Munion, Birdie Cornyn, Kaylan Smyth, Colin Hildebrant and Faraz Ebrahimi were members of the fourth team, competing in task four: sampling strategy for spinach.
"Our team didn't win, but task four got first place," said Ryan Moore, a freshman in bioengineering. "And one of our professors won a lifetime achievement award."
"We're floating on cloud nine," said Colin Hildebrandt, a fifth year senior in chemical engineering and a member of the group who won task four.
The team was awarded $2,500, which will most likely go towards funding next year's trip to New Mexico.
The basis of their task came from the 2006 outbreak of E. coli in spinach that killed three people and sickened over 200. The team created a cartridge that helps detect E. coli contamination in spinach.
"It had a big impact on the bagged spinach industry and so companies, farmers, processors and distributors are all looking for ways to prevent or identify E. coli on the spinach. Sampling became a big priority," Hildebrandt said.
Other than the team's success, one professor was also rewarded for years of hard work bringing students to the contest more or less single-handedly.
"Our professor Goran Jovanovic got a lifetime achievement award. He has been bringing students to the competition on his own since its inception," Hildebrandt said.
"It's a competition that allows students to focus on a project that is related to real world problems and solutions. It allows us to do hands-on work, and it's a good experience for students to get to work on real life work outside of academia."
Candice Ruud, senior reporter
news@dailybarometer.com, 737-2231
According to the press release, students from as far away as Bogazici University of Istanbul, Turkey came to show off their ability to create new and innovative environmental technologies.
The contest gave these students the opportunity to gain experience with everyday problems and solutions that face the world in today's environmentally conscious culture.
The students participating spent almost all of winter term preparing for the contest.
OSU, which outnumbered all other schools in its number of competitors, divided its students into four different tasks for the course of the competition.
Casenya Groner, Colin Hildebrandt, Bader Aboalsaud, Navin Prasad, Mary Hamlin and Kelsey Yee competed in task five: separation of water from emulsified oil.
Emily Thornley, Ian Gluck, Nicholas Horres and Ryan Moore took on task one: innovative technologies for an existing commercial building.
Zeus Brunner, Alison Petti, Matthew Cunningham and Andrew Traverso competed as a team in task three: inland desalination operation and disposal in rural, isolated communities.
Matthew Bertram, Matthew Coblyn, Jason Munion, Birdie Cornyn, Kaylan Smyth, Colin Hildebrant and Faraz Ebrahimi were members of the fourth team, competing in task four: sampling strategy for spinach.
"Our team didn't win, but task four got first place," said Ryan Moore, a freshman in bioengineering. "And one of our professors won a lifetime achievement award."
"We're floating on cloud nine," said Colin Hildebrandt, a fifth year senior in chemical engineering and a member of the group who won task four.
The team was awarded $2,500, which will most likely go towards funding next year's trip to New Mexico.
The basis of their task came from the 2006 outbreak of E. coli in spinach that killed three people and sickened over 200. The team created a cartridge that helps detect E. coli contamination in spinach.
"It had a big impact on the bagged spinach industry and so companies, farmers, processors and distributors are all looking for ways to prevent or identify E. coli on the spinach. Sampling became a big priority," Hildebrandt said.
Other than the team's success, one professor was also rewarded for years of hard work bringing students to the contest more or less single-handedly.
"Our professor Goran Jovanovic got a lifetime achievement award. He has been bringing students to the competition on his own since its inception," Hildebrandt said.
"It's a competition that allows students to focus on a project that is related to real world problems and solutions. It allows us to do hands-on work, and it's a good experience for students to get to work on real life work outside of academia."
Candice Ruud, senior reporter
news@dailybarometer.com, 737-2231
Note: writers will not reply to comments.
Comments by registered users are approved by default.