Going on its 35th year, New Mexico State University’s WERC Environmental Design Contest was held in April with 30 teams from across the country participating.
The contest challenges college students to solve pressing environmental problems with real-world applications. More than $38,000 in cash prizes, provided by sponsors, are awarded to the teams, with NMSU students among the winners.
“It’s a thrill I cannot describe,” said Ginger Scarbrough, WERC program manager. “Seeing hundreds of people gathered with the shared goal of global sustainability and walking through the bench-scale area where students proudly showcase their working prototypes, it’s truly inspiring.”
The contest features multiple awards categories, including flash pitch sessions, sustainability innovation, and the prestigious Intel’s Terry McManus Outstanding Student awards. Teams competed in six technical tasks, judged on both written and oral presentations, as well as prototype performance.
“My team is on task three which is fungi bioremediation of mining waters,” said Jeme Chavez, from Washington University in St. Louis. “We developed a semi-passive three-segment system with three different fungal strains, with the intention of absorbing copper, zinc and manganese.”
Chavez’s bench-scale prototype featured three segments with contaminated water flowing through them and coming out clean after the third step.
The other five design challenges are Task 1, Post-Wildfire Watershed Restoration; Task 2, Hydrogen-based DERMS Grid-tied Technologies; Task 4, Life Support Systems, Mitigating Dust in Lunar Habitats; Task 5, Produced Water Recovery; and an open task for teams with their own solution to environmental challenges. The awards for each task are provided through event sponsors.
“The students don’t just come up with a theoretical solution, they build it, test it and refine it,” Scarbrough said. “They apply what they’ve learned in class to real-world situations. That’s where the learning truly happens.”
Throughout the four-day competition, teams move on to final rounds and ultimately after a final day of tallying, the winners are announced.
The 2025 competition results included first-place awards across both regular tasks and bench-scale categories, with multiple universities earning top rankings in each. California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo distinguished itself by taking first place in the regular categories for Task 1 and Task 2 while Iowa State University earned first place in the Task 1 bench-scale competition and Task 3 bench-scale competition.
NMSU secured first place in the Task 2 bench-scale competition, and Michigan Technological University topped the regular Task 3 category. The University of Idaho achieved a double win, taking first place in both the regular and bench-scale categories for Task 4. Louisiana State University followed suit with first-place finishes in both the regular Task 5 and its corresponding bench-scale competition. Finally, the University of Arkansas won both the regular and bench-scale portions of Task 6.
The recipients of the prestigious Intel’s Terry McManus Outstanding Student Awards include Xavier Drennon from Texas A&M University- Kingsville, Chloe Sharp from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Naiqui Armendariz from NMSU.
Preparations have begun for the 2026 competition, which will take place April 12-15. Each year’s tasks are based on emerging problems that don’t currently have solutions, giving students a chance to break new ground in environmental engineering.
“We’d love to see more schools participate,” Scarbrough said. “This competition helps students see how their discipline can make a difference in sustainability, and many return year after year with new ideas and passion.”
For more information on the WERC Environmental Design Contest and full list of winners, visit werc.nmsu.edu.
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CUTLINE: New Mexico State University students Alejandro Garcia, from left, Robert Sohm, Ryan Evans, Luis Ponce and Jorge Macias demonstrate their bench-scale prototype at the WERC Environmental Design Contest. (NMSU Photo)
CUTLINE: Louisiana State University students demonstrate their bench-scale prototype for judges Brittany Cheben, third from right, from Chevron and Scott Reinert, second from right, from El Paso Water at the WERC Environmental Design Contest held at New Mexico State University. (NMSU Photo)
CUTLINE: California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo students demonstrate their bench-scale prototype for judges Marty Howell from Souder, Miller, and Associates and Aravind Mannarswamy, right, from Cummins at the WERC Environmental Design Contest held at New Mexico State University. (NMSU Photo)