Friday, May 19, 2017 | By Lindsay Cashin
A group of third and fourth year UBC Civil Engineering students, competing as team UBSeaTec, placed first at the 2017 BC Water & Waste Association (BCWWA) Student Design Competition.
This year’s competition challenged students to create a feasibility design for a wastewater treatment upgrade to the Tsawout First Nation’s plant on Vancouver Island. The teams were required to submit design reports and give an oral presentation, and were evaluated on their technical content, organization, delivery, and overall presentation. UBSeaTec’s winning design used an MBBR (moving bed biofilm reactor) approach, and successfully made use of existing infrastructure, allowing for an easy to operate, robust and simple to maintain system.
As the winning team, UBSeaTec is now invited to participate in the BCWWA Annual Conference and Trade Show, BC’s largest water and wastewater conference, happening in Victoria at the end of this month. They will also compete at the Water Environment Federation’s Technical Exhibition and Conference (WEFTEC) Student Design Competition happening in Chicago this fall. Congratulations to team members Kit Caufield, Brad Jenks, Tim Burton, Jenikka Javison, Antonio Castro and Gregory Vettese on their outstanding performance at the competition!