Spring Break
UNH students win 2008 Environmental Design Contest in New Mexico
Cameron Kittle
Issue date: 4/29/08 Section: News
A class of 14 UNH students won first place at the 2008 Environmental Design Contest in Las Cruces, N.M., on April 9 after developing a plan to retrofit a building in Phoenix, Ariz.
The judges of the contest were impressed enough with the presentation that the team has been invited to attend and present at the Environmental Protection Agency Science Forum in Washington, D.C., held from May 20 to May 22.
The class, which is required for senior environmental engineers like Hillary Schmidle, included writing a 26-page paper for the judges, making a large poster to sit behind them during their 15-minute PowerPoint presentation, and constructing bench scale models of three innovative technologies. All the hard work paid off though, according to Schmidle.
"The ability to travel to New Mexico and compete against other schools was like nothing I have done before," said Schmidle. "It was such a great learning experience to work with a large group and really put effort into a real-world problem."
The UNH team, named "Retrolutions," was made up of business students and environmental engineers. They were given the option of five different tasks for the contest and chose to modernize an existing commercial building and make it more energy efficient.
Since the students could not actually go to Phoenix to perform their tests, they had to research some important facts about the city, such as Phoenix's population and climate, before they could recommend that the building's occupants learn more about how to cut their high demands of energy and water.
Their project was titled "E.A.R.T.H.," which stands for Education, Awareness, Reduction, Technology and Holistic Approach. The three new technologies that the students developed to help the building diminish energy and water concerns were a gray water recycling system, a solar concentrating energy production system and a compressed air-enhanced evaporative cooling system.
Jeffrey Sohl and Jenna Jambeck serve as professors and faculty advisors to the group, though the two teach in different fields. Sohl is a professor of entrepreneurship in the Whittemore School of Business and Economics (WSBE) and Jambeck is an assistant research professor of civil and environmental engineering.
The judges of the contest were impressed enough with the presentation that the team has been invited to attend and present at the Environmental Protection Agency Science Forum in Washington, D.C., held from May 20 to May 22.
The class, which is required for senior environmental engineers like Hillary Schmidle, included writing a 26-page paper for the judges, making a large poster to sit behind them during their 15-minute PowerPoint presentation, and constructing bench scale models of three innovative technologies. All the hard work paid off though, according to Schmidle.
"The ability to travel to New Mexico and compete against other schools was like nothing I have done before," said Schmidle. "It was such a great learning experience to work with a large group and really put effort into a real-world problem."
The UNH team, named "Retrolutions," was made up of business students and environmental engineers. They were given the option of five different tasks for the contest and chose to modernize an existing commercial building and make it more energy efficient.
Since the students could not actually go to Phoenix to perform their tests, they had to research some important facts about the city, such as Phoenix's population and climate, before they could recommend that the building's occupants learn more about how to cut their high demands of energy and water.
Their project was titled "E.A.R.T.H.," which stands for Education, Awareness, Reduction, Technology and Holistic Approach. The three new technologies that the students developed to help the building diminish energy and water concerns were a gray water recycling system, a solar concentrating energy production system and a compressed air-enhanced evaporative cooling system.
Jeffrey Sohl and Jenna Jambeck serve as professors and faculty advisors to the group, though the two teach in different fields. Sohl is a professor of entrepreneurship in the Whittemore School of Business and Economics (WSBE) and Jambeck is an assistant research professor of civil and environmental engineering.
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