WERC Environmental Design Contest

The WERC Environmental Design Contest is a unique design competition that brings industry, government, and academia together in search for improved solutions to today’s environmental challenges.

Teams of students build working bench-scale models that are independently tested at the contest. Engineering professionals judge the contest and discuss with each team the finer points of design, including consideration of engineering design, economic and logistical feasibility, regulations, and public policy. The contest is an excellent real-world capstone design course that prepares students for industry and is an important part of ABET accreditation.

NMSGC is sponsoring Task 4: Lunar Regolith Dust Cleaning for Spacesuits. Upcoming at NASA are Extra Vehicular Activities (EVAs) (walking on the moon or Mars) to help space crews better understand how humans can live beyond Earth. An extremely challenging issue is how to clean the very fine dust that accumulates on spacesuits when the crew returns to their vehicle. Dust on the suits can cause serious problems in the cabin environment. NASA needs a cleaning system that will remove the dust from the suits before the crew enters the cabin. This task would be good for students in CHME, Materials, ME, and EE.

Grants available: Teams from New Mexico are eligible to apply for a grant from the NM Space Grant Consortium for up to $5000 to cover laboratory and travel expenses. Click here for more info.

Don’t live in New Mexico? Space Grant organizations in your state may have a similar grant for you.

To learn more about the tasks proposed, designed, and sponsored by industry and government agencies go to iee.nmsu.edu/2022-tasks-faqs/

The WERC Contest will be held in April 10-13, 2021. Registration opens October 1, 2021. To register for the competition, go to werc.nmsu.edu

For more information on registration fees, guidelines or FAQs, go to iee.nmsu.edu