Last week I participated in the first Future Engineers for Water and Environmental Safety (FEWES) International Student Competition which took place in Tianjin, China. This competition focused on low-cost water technology with environmental and/or public health benefits and was hosted by the Sino-Canada Joint R&D Center on Water and Environmental Safety (SCWE). 13 teams from China, Canada, and the United Kingdom each presented their solutions to a panel of international judges from China, Canada, Singapore, the United Kingdom, and the United States for 20 minutes, followed by 5 minutes of questions. The judges had the task of choosing one first place prize, two 2nd place prices, and three 3rd place prizes.

My proposed solution and demo placed second! If you like to learn more about my work check out the project page. I’m extremely grateful to the FEWES Organizing Committee for hosting and funding this event and for the judges to take time out of their busy schedule for evaluating all the teams. I also want to congratulate the other five teams who also received a prize as well the remaining six teams for making it to the finals. It was a pleasure to spend time with other researchers from around the world and learn about what others are doing to solve major engineering problems related to water and environmental safety.

FEWES_deglint

The competition was one week long and included free days for exploration so a number of the international teams visited the Forbidden City in the center of Beijing as well as the Great Wall of China which is located to the north of Beijing. I did not anticipate visiting these iconic landmarks so it was a pleasant surprise since the Chinese architecture is something I have never experienced before.

greatwall_canadians

I thoroughly enjoyed my trip to Tianjin and Beijing and look forward to going back to China again some time in the future.

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