Some 30 middle school and high school students from four countries met by teleconference at North Dakota State University, Fargo, USA to present research from a six-month wastewater recycling project.
The International WateRediscover Conference involved five teams from Bangladesh, India, Uganda and the United States where they were given 15 minutes each to design, fabricate and test wastewater recycling units following the engineering design process.
NDSU will stream the teleconference live at http://134.129.203.38/tcs
“The primary objective of WateRediscover is to entice our younger generation to science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education.” – Achintya Bezbaruah assistant professor civil engineering NDSU/WateRediscover project director
“This will also give our students in the U.S. the opportunity to interact with their peers from across the globe.”
A group of ninth and 10th graders from the West Fargo Public Schools represented the U.S.
Dr. Bezbaruah has worked with West Fargo students on wastewater recycling projects in the past, but expanded it to an international scale this year. International graduate students at NDSU helped him propose the project to schools in their home countries. Dr. Bezbaruah hopes to expand the program to more countries next year.
Event speakers included: NDSU President Dean L. Bresciani; David Flowers, superintendent of the West Fargo, N.D., USA School District, and Dr. Eakalak Khan, chair of the civil engineering department at NDSU. Jay Garland, director of the microbiological and chemical exposure assessment research division of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, will join by telephone from Cincinnati, Ohio.
Dr. Bezbaruah worked last year with a group of middle school students from West Fargo, N.D., who won a NASA design challenge for wastewater recycling and a trip to view the final launch of the Space Shuttle Atlantis.
