Join us at the 2026 WERC Environmental Design Contest

Next Contest: April 12-15, 20256

The contest focuses on workforce development and is modeled after the engineering RFP. Students work on real-world tasks designed by our partners in industry and government. Teams build a working bench-scale apparatus, develop written and oral presentation skills, hone their teamwork skills, and discuss their designs with professional engineers.

Students participating in the last 35 years of the contest have gone on to work at the EPA, Chevron, become university professors, manage engineering firms and government agencies, and much more. Their memories of the WERC Environmental Design Contest bring them back as consultants, judges, and sponsors. 

2026 Tasks:

• After RO: Brine Management
• Power Plants: Recovering Water from Cooling Towers
• Bioremediation of Metals from Mining Waters
• NASA: Lunar Life Support: Logistics Containers
• Enhanced Evaporation for Produced Water
• Open-sourced Environmental Monitors
• Open Task: Teams select their own challenge

See https://linktr.ee/wercnm for contest videos