🧪👏WERC Bench-Scale Demonstrations!
Day 3 of the WERC Environmental Design Contest saw teams presenting their bench-scale demonstrations to our wonderful team of judges! Each team had such amazing projects!
🔥 Poster Presentations!
The 2nd day of the 36th annual WERC Environmental Design Contest gave teams a chance to present their posters and network with judges. Thanks to all of the judges and staff that helped make our event a success!
📝Task 7 teams to propose their own ideas to address real-world challenges...
Passive Sampler to Detect Vibrio,
SPACE-CRYO,
Ion Propulsion and Solar & Weather Balloon Technologies,
Removing Microplastics from Impacted Stormwater,
and Low-Energy, Nature-Based Graywater Reuse.
🤩 As Day 1 of the 36th annual WERC Contest kicked off, teams were met wtih an amazing performance from the Mariachi Aguilas de Juan de la Cruz! 🎵 Teams also had chances to present their flash pitch ideas and were treated to dinner as they heard from our wonderful WERC team!
🌧️💲In an effort to make a positive impact on low-income communities, WERC's "Open-Source Environmental Monitors" project tasks students with designing low cost sensors that can monitor potential dangers in air quality, food contamination, and other environmental areas.
💧☀️Up to 12 barrels of saline water are produced with every barrel of oil that's pumped from the ground. WERC's "Produced Water: Enhanced Evaporation" project works to find ways to evaporate this byproduct, with goals of eventually finding ways to beneficially resuse this water.
🌙🚀 As NASA’s Artemis Program to develop a long-term presence on the Moon for humanity, vital resources need to withstand extreme temperature and pressure conditions. WERC's "Survive the Night - Logistics Containers in Space" project aims to create containers for this purpose.
💧🪨The WERC "Bio-inspired Critical Mineral Recovery from Mining Waters" project functions to extract critical minerals (like copper) from previously underutilized mining waters. This process has positive effects on the green economy, supply chains, and even national security!
☀️🌧️Evaporation in powerplants losses hundreds millions of gallons of water yearly. The WERC "Power Plants: Recovering Water from Cooling Towers" project tackles this problem by working on a water vapor recovery system which can substantially reduce this water loss!
💧🌫️ Reverse Osmosis (RO) is one of the go-to's for treating water, but the brine it produces can be difficult to dispose of in dry areas. WERC's "After RO: Brine Management in the Desert" project works to provide innovative solutions for a wider application of RO in dry regions.
👷⚡️ El Paso Electric Co. is a technical sponsor that has helped develop the WERC Power Plants: Recovering Water from Cooling Towers project by providing support to our university students, integrating technology solutions for the purpose of using energy more efficiently.
✨We are so thankful to Freeport-McMoRan for being a platinum sponsor!
🪨💧Freeport-McMoRan seeks to minimize environmental impact. One way they do this is by helping bring the WERC Bio-inspired Critical Mineral Recovery from Mining Waters project to life!
Collaboration at its coolest (and hottest). ❄️🔥
NMSU’s HRTM and WERC Design Contest are partnering April 12-15, 2026, to test a national NASA design challenge—putting undergrad engineering students’ designs to the test using walk-in freezers and warming ovens.
✨WERC is very grateful to have Chevron's continued support as a platinum sponsor!
💧⚡️Chevron focuses on creating affordable, reliable, and cleaner energy. By sponsoring the WERC Enhanced Evaporation of Produced Water project, Chevron is working towards a cleaner future!
✨We are so thankful to the City of Las Cruces for their sponsorship as a platinum sponsor!
☀️The City of Las Cruces is a community full of inclusivity and cultural diversity and home to New Mexico State University and the WERC Environmental Design Challenge!
💎✨WERC is proud to have the support of the NM Space Grant Consortium as our diamond sponsor!
🚀The New Mexico Space Grant Consortium is dedicated to promoting science, technology, engineering, and math in education. They continue to drive innovation in aerospace and beyond!
🚀 WERC is going to the MOON! 🌕 Big thanks to our Diamond Sponsor: New Mexico Space Grant Consortium for supporting the future of space innovation! 🙌💫 Teams from Idaho State, Texas A&M, Cal Poly SLO, and NMSU are taking on the challenge of lunar dust removal.
Exciting challenges ahead at the 35th WERC Environmental Design Contest! 🌎⚡
A huge thank you to El Paso Electric Company and Las Cruces Utilities for sponsoring this important task and supporting innovation in sustainable energy! 🙌🔋
Leading by example ... NMSU Industrial Engineering Student Ambassador Wakeel Abiola completed multi-course specializations in Six Sigma, Scrum Master, Wharton Business, as well as courses in Data Science and Leadership -- all at his own pace, funded by the e3 Initiative.