SDC

Welcome to the CWEA Student Design Competition Webpage

• Each year, CWEA hosts a Student Design Competition to promote real-world design experience for students interested in pursuing education and careers in water and wastewater engineering and science.  The competition is intended for both undergraduate and graduate students and tasks students to design and present a problem statement and engineering solution they have worked on as a team.  Teams prepare a written report and oral presentation for the chance to win the first-place award of $1,000 to be divided between the team members and a travel allowance of up to $4,000 for the team to participate and compete at the national WEFTEC Student Design Competition in New Orleans in 2024. A second-place award of $500.00 will also be awarded if more than three teams compete in the annual competition.
• Design projects generally fall into one of two categories: wastewater or water environment design.
  • Wastewater design projects traditionally address challenges within a water resources recovery facility (e.g. hydraulic capacity design, upgrades to existing treatment systems, biosolids handling, etc.)
  • Water environment design projects address challenges within the broader water environment (e.g. water reuse, stormwater management, wetland construction, etc.)
• All projects are evaluated against each other by industry professionals using the same guidelines and scoring rubrics.  Reach out to Committee Chair Tom Howard at tom.howard.water@gmail.com or check the full guidelines below for examples of qualifying projects.