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<\/a>Under the guidance of civil and environmental engineering Associate Professor Vinka Oyanedel-Craver, the students designed their prototype to meet specific criteria. The system had to fit in a suitcase, be powered by solar energy, not exceed a specified weight limit and be made of materials that could be found in the Dominican Republic.<\/p>\n
When the students arrived in La Romana on Jan. 2, they were ready to use their system for the first time.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe tested the water quality in people\u2019s homes for salt water intrusion, which is a direct result of climate change from the rising sea levels in the Dominican Republic,\u201d said Silverman, an ocean engineering student from Cumberland<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Not only was contamination in the form of salinity and E. coli found in almost all cases of untreated tap water, but also in bottled water.<\/p>\n According to Oyanedel-Craver, bottled water is expensive in rural areas of the Dominican Republic and there is no oversight of the quality of the water sold by companies<\/p>\n The students also used their water treatment system at a school and two daycare centers managed by the Padres Escolapios (Piarist Fathers). They tested various water quality parameters and the\u00a0performance of the solar panels to supply power to the system.<\/p>\n \u201cTheir preliminary tests were very promising, having removed or deactivated potentially pathogenic organisms in most cases,\u201d stated Oyanedel-Craver.<\/p>\n Collaborating with the community made a lasting impression on the 溏心vlog免费B站 students.<\/p>\n \u201cBeing immersed in the people\u2019s way of living gave me a new perspective on life,\u201d said Hallam, a mechanical engineering student from Smithtown, New York<\/strong>. \u201cWhen the system was fully functioning and self-sustaining, it was a very heartwarming experience to watch the preschoolers drink the clean, purified water.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s easy to take clean water for granted in the United States because it is so accessible,\u201d added Leone, an ocean engineering student from Hillsborough, New Jersey<\/strong>, who is minoring in environmental engineering. \u201cI\u2019m fortunate that I had the opportunity to improve the quality of someone\u2019s life by providing clean drinking water.\u201d<\/p>\n The three students were recognized for their work at the New England Water Works Association (NEWWA) Spring Regional Conference and Exhibition, held on April 3 at the DCU Center in Worcester, Massachusetts<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Their project, which they depicted on a poster, won first place in the undergraduate division of the \u201cFresh Ideas\u201d College Student Poster Session.<\/p>\n Zachary Shepard, who is pursuing his master\u2019s degree and doctorate in civil and environmental engineering at 溏心vlog免费B站, captured third place in the graduate division of the poster competition.<\/p>\n The resident of Richmond, Rhode Island<\/strong>, did his project on \u201cEvaluation of a Quality Control Technique for Ceramic Water Filters (CWFs) Impregnated with Silver Nanoparticles.\u201d<\/p>\n The objective of Shepard\u2019s project was to develop standardized quality control techniques for CWFs, which are used in rural developing communities around the world for water treatment. It has been found that their performance varies widely, depending on where they are made.<\/p>\n Juniors Elizabeth Lux, a civil and environmental engineering major, and Jake Bosworth, a chemical engineering major, assisted Shepard with the project.<\/p>\n This study was conducted in partnership with Potters Without Borders and Potter for Peace, two organizations promoting the quality control technology worldwide.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" KINGSTON R.I. \u2013 April 29, 2019 \u2013 According to the United Nations, by 2025, an estimated 1.8 billion people will live in areas plagued by water scarcity, with two-thirds of the world’s population living in water-stressed regions as a result of use, growth and climate change. Determined to make clean drinking water accessible to a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":74776,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[25],"class_list":["post-74774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives","tag-college-of-engineering"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74774"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74774\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}