Engineering Students Earn Second Place at Provincial Water Design Competition

A team of University of Guelph engineering students earned second place at the 2024/25 Water Environment Association of Ontario (WEAO) Student Design Competition (SDC), showcasing innovative solutions to wastewater challenges. 

The annual competition gives students the opportunity to tackle real-world design problems in water and wastewater engineering and science. This year’s challenge was hosted in partnership with the City of Barrie, and focused on biosolids capacity and nutrient recovery at the Barrie Wastewater Treatment Facility. 

The U of G team, including Chloe Lin, Josie Murray, Tess Muller and Katrina Shields, advised by Dr. Bassim Abbassi, developed a long-term biosolids management strategy with two key goals: enhancing anaerobic digester capacity and performance using nanotechnology, and improving biosolids dewatering through a state-of-the-art thermal hydrolysis process. 

Competing against undergraduate and graduate-level teams, including a group of M.Sc. and PhD students who placed first by just one point, U of G’s undergraduate student team was recognized for technical strength, clarity and professionalism of their written and oral presentations.