Reported by Yuchen Shi
November 1, the finals of the 1st Future Engineers for Water and Environmental Safety (FEWES) International Student Competition was successfully held at MIG Finance Building, Binhai New Area, Tianjin, and the competition lasted for two days. The competition is sponsored by Nankai University’s Sino-Canada Joint R&D Center on Water and Environmental Safety (SCWE), and co-organized by Tianjin TEDA Science and Technology Co., Ltd. and Shenzhen Shenfubao (Group) Tianjin Investment and Development Co., Ltd.. Nankai University’s Vice Chancellor Yidan Li,Associate Director for Water, Sanitation and Hygiene at UNICEF Kelly Ann Naylor, and Tianjin Science and Technology Association’s Vice President Lizhu Zhang attended the competition’s opening ceremony and gave speeches.
Experts from the academic and industrial circles also attended and watched the roadshow and Q&A of the competition. Guests include representatives from Binhai New Area’s Science and Technology Commission, China Academy of Water Sciences, Tianjin Institute of Engineering Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen Research Institute of Nankai University, Zhongshan University, Guizhou Academy of Sciences, Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, Jiangnan University, Northeast Petroleum University, Xi’an Petroleum University, China Water Conservancy Association, China Resources Capital Management Co., Ltd., Haixing Shengchuang (Shenzhen) Holdings Co., Ltd., Shandong Haihe River Basin Water Resources Administration, Orient Landscape Investment, etc..
In the competition, 13 teams entered the finals. Below is the list of winners:
The first prize:
Sand-based water filters for point-of-use arsenic removal
Team members: Sun Yisheng, Xu Chenyang, Kate Smith (Tsinghua University)
The second prize:
Low-cost Automatic Identification of Organisms in Water using a Custom Microscope & Deep Learning
Team member: Jason Deglint (University of Waterloo)
Fabrication and evaluation of novel nanofibrous composite membranes for point-of-use water treatment
Team members: Chen Sihao, Tian Yuxiao, Yang Chen (Nankai University)
The third prize:
Low-cost Free chlorine sensor
Team member: Vinay Patel (McMaster University)
Inverse-vulcanised materials and flow filtration for remediation of heavy metal contaminated water
Team members: Bowen Zhang, Jessica Smith, Samuel Petcher (University of Liverpool)
Microbial electrolysis cells for high electric current and sludge-free treatment of municipal wastewater
Team member: Hui Guo (McMaster University)
November 2, Vice Mayor of Binhai New Area’s People’s Government Qinglin Xia and Chair of FEWES Judging Committee Edward McBean attended the closing ceremony and gave speeches.
The 1st Future Engineers for Water and Environmental Safety (FEWES) International Student Competition focuses on low-cost water technology with environmental and/or public health benefits (e.g., first flush device for rainwater harvesting, compost toilet, house-hold water treatment facility for low-income family, water component sensor etc). This is an international competition and participants are challenged to design and implement innovative low-cost water technologies. The competition witnesses the rapid development of Nankai University and College of Environmental Science and Engineering, responds to the country’s call of “Construction of Beautiful Village” and “Toilet Revolution”, positively makes effort to the construction of China’s “Belt and Road”, and promotes the international cooperation among college students.