FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - Three chemical engineering design teams from the University of Arkansas took first place in their respective categories during the 13^th Annual WERC International Environmental Design Contest held last month in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Each team received a $2,500 cash prize.

Sponsored by the Waste-Management Education and Research Consortium (WERC), the environmental design contest is unique in that student teams design solutions for problems that are actually occurring in industry and government. This year the UA seniors designed a new procedure to recover copper from semiconductor fabrication wastewater, created economically feasible alternative technologies for developing bio-products from forest thinning, and demonstrated a low cost, low energy seawater desalinization system.

Members of the copper recovery team were Bill Godbold, Josh Clark, Kevin Sharp, Matt Scott, Russell Dotson, Shayla Montgomery and Wes Hedges. The team members who developed bio-products from forest thinning were Charles Schaffer, Chestina Owens, John Buzzard, Joshua Mourot, Rachel Schkade and Rebecca Buckmaster, and the seawater desalinization system team was composed of Andres Meza, Brad Meador, Chad Smith, David Nelson, Jo Ellen Holt, Kate Howard and Nathan Mahurian. Chemical engineering professors Roy Penney and Greg Thoma served as faculty advisors to all three teams.

"We are very excited because in the seven years that we have participated in this contest, this is the first time all of our teams have taken first place," said Thoma, who received the outstanding advisor award at the 2002 competition. "Our students were well prepared for the tough questions that the judges asked, and their poise under pressure carried them through to their first place finishes."

Participating schools could choose up to five of 11 environmental issues to solve. Teams then created an extensive written report and poster presentation. During the contest, teams made both formal and informal presentations of their technologies and demonstrated a functional bench-scale model of the process to 80 leading experts from around the world. Judges critically analyzed every element of the team solutions, including regulatory, economic, safety, health and community issues, as well as evaluating the bench-scale products to determine the winners.

More than 400 students from universities in the United States, Mexico, India, Canada, and the Middle East participated in the competition. Sponsorship for the UA teams was provided by the Ralph E. Martin Academic Enrichment Fund.