Water Design Team Garners International Attention

By Denise Hansen

A student design team from University of Toronto’s Department of Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry has garnered international attention.

In April, the team took home top honors at the first annual student design competition organized by the Water Environment Association of Ontario (WEAO). Needing to employ innovation as well as practicality in their designs, teams competed in designing a replacement Sanitary Sewage Pumping Station and force main crossing for the city of Pickering. U of T’s first place finish against teams from McMaster University and the University of Windsor granted them a fully-sponsored trip to the United States to represent Ontario at the 82nd Annual Water Environment Federation Technical Exhibition and Conference (WEFTEC’09).

WEFTEC’09, which was held October 10 to 14, 2009 at the Orange County Convention Centre in Orlando, Florida, consisted of two different design competitions for the first time this year: the wastewater design competition and the environmental design competition.

The design challenge? Teams were asked to present designs in wastewater treatment and storm water management. Competing only in the wastewater design competition, the U of T design team placed second; an admirable achievement for a first-time team.

“It is truly wonderful to have a Canadian team participate in this competition for the first time and score second place,” said Rafiq Qutub, a member of the team and M.Eng. candidate in Environmental Chemical Engineering. “It is an honor to have worked along with my team members to represent U of T in this competition. I believe that Ontario universities in general and U of T in particular have a great potential in environmental engineering and in protecting our valuable water resources.”

Congratulations go out to all members of the University of Toronto’s Design Team including Sherif Kinawy, Luccia Gafarova, Rafiq Qutub, and Tony Tsui.