(Stephenville)—Two seniors at Tarleton State University recently brought greater recognition to the university’s engineering and hydrology programs by winning a design competition organized by the Water Environment Association of Texas (WEAT).
Nicole Conner, an environmental engineering major from Hico, won first place and Chris Wilde, a hydrology major from Ballinger, won second place in the competition held April 11 in Fort Worth. This was the first time WEAT has offered the competition and universities from Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas were invited to participate.
“The efforts and performance of Nicole and Chris bring much honor to our university community,” said Tarleton President Dennis P. McCabe. “We have immense pride in them for their salient accomplishments.”
The main portion of the competition required participants to design an expansion to the Dallas Central Wastewater Treatment Plant that would increase the flow and quality of water leaving the plant.
“This is a true, real-world problem that students were given,” said Beth Jones, instructor in Tarleton’s physics, hydrology and engineering department. “Making the design even more difficult is the fact that Dallas Central is landlocked. This forced students to include decommissioning and demolishing current parts of the facility and replacing those areas with their modifications.”
In addition to designing an expansion, students were required to present their design to a panel of professional engineers. Students also had to undergo a 10-minute question-and-answer session regarding their design.
Conner and Wilde received an all-expenses paid trip to compete in the national competition hosted by the Water Environment Federation Technical Exhibition and Conference held Oct. 13-17 in San Diego. They were also awarded student memberships in the Water Environment Federation and personal trophies. In addition, the students brought home a traveling trophy for Tarleton to display until next year’s competition, as well as $1,000 for the university’s hydrology club. 