Researchers Unite to Solve Sustainability Issues in Sandpit Competition
Winners will seek solutions to issues like clean energy, drought
EL PASO, Texas (Aug. 28, 2023) — This past week was a blur for researchers who participated in the inaugural Research Sandpit. Hosted on The University of Texas at El Paso campus, participants were challenged to come up with innovative solutions to sustainability issues in 24 hours.
The event included scientists and engineers from UTEP and the Universidad Autónoma de Chihuahua (UACH) who formed international teams to address challenges in clean energy, water and soil and remote sensing. Teams received the challenges on Thursday afternoon and worked into the late hours of the night to come up with solutions. They pitched their ideas to a panel of judges the following Friday afternoon.
“This innovative platform not only fosters cross-disciplinary collaboration but ignites a collective pursuit of solutions to the most pressing sustainability challenges of our time,” said Kenith Meissner, Ph.D., dean of the College of Engineering and host of the event. “The research sandpit stands as a testament to our dedication to excellence in education, cutting-edge research and the impact that emerges when minds come together with a shared purpose.”
Thanks to funding from Microsoft, first and second place winners in each track received cash prizes of $15,000 and $10,000 to take their ideas to the next level.
Teams were judged based on the innovation, feasibility and potential impact of their projects. They also were evaluated for their expertise on the subject and overall presentation. Competition judges included representatives from UTEP, UACH, El Paso Electric, Microsoft, El Paso Water and Texas A&M AgriLife Research Center at El Paso.
Below are the winners of the inaugural Research Sandpit.
Water Track
1st Place - $15,000
Proposal: Constructed Wetland for Reusing of Desalination Waste
Team: UACH faculty Federico Villarreal, Miguel Méndez, Blanca Iglesias, Beatriz Rocha, Lourdes Ballinas, Sandra Rodríguez, Alan Álvarez, Cecilia Valles and María Elena Fuentes; and UTEP faculty in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry Wen-Yee Lee, Ph.D.; and student Jesús Ochoa.
2nd Place - $10,000
Proposal: WateReUse
Team: UACH faculty Linda Citlalli Noperi Mosqueda, Rocío Infante Ramírez, María Carmen Delgado Gardea, María de Lourdes Villalba, Miguel Ángel Méndez Alvarado, and Alejandra Villa Martínez; and UTEP Department of Computer Science faculty member Natalia Villanueva Rosales, Ph.D.
2nd Place - $10,000*
Proposal: Integrated Prototype for Recovering Reject Water from Reverse Osmosis Plants Using Greenhouse for High Recovery
Team: UACH faculty Graciela Ávila Quezada, María Del Rosario Baray Guerrero, Bertha Alicia Rivas Lucero, Juan Carlos Burillo Montufar, Juan Manuel Rodríguez Gaeta, Carmen Julia Navarro Gómez and David Humberto Sánchez Navarro; and UTEP Department of Civil Engineering faculty Alex Mayer, Ph.D.; Martine Ceberio, Ph.D., from the Department of Computer Science; and Leobardo Valera, Ph.D., from the Department of Mathematical Sciences.
Clean Energy Track
1st Place - $15,000
Proposal: Renewable Power to Gas to Power (RPGP)
Team: UACH faculty Cornelio Álvarez-Herrera, Javier Tovar-Facio and Jaime Adame-Gallegos; and UTEP Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering faculty Alejandra Castellanos, Ph.D.; Eric Smith, Ph.D., from the Department of Industrial, Manufacturing and Systems Engineering; Hugo Gutiérrez, Ph.D., from the Department of Geological Sciences; and Oscar Mondragón, Ph.D., from the Department of Computer Science.
2nd Place - $10,000
Proposal: On-demand Electricity Production from Lingo-cellulose Waste and Solar Energy
Team: UACH faculty member Raúl Orozco-Mena; and UTEP Department of Computer Science faculty Martine Ceberio, Ph.D.; Eunja Kim, Ph.D., from the Department of Physics; Yuanrui Sang, Ph.D., from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering; and Evgeny Shafirovich, Ph.D. from the Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering.
Remote Sensing and Soil Track
1st Place - $15,000
Proposal: Soil Monitoring Intelligent System (SMIS)
Team: UACH faculty Octavio Villalobos Graciela Ramírez Alonso, María Cristina Maldonado Orozco, Luis Ubaldo Castruita Esparza, Angelica Anahí Acevedo Barrera, Laura Raquel Orozco Meléndez and Luis Fernando Orduño; and UTEP Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering faculty members Aryzbe Nájera, Ph.D., Héctor Erives, Ph.D., and Miguel Vélez-Reyes, Ph.D.
2nd Place - $10,000
Proposal: Remote Sensing for Sustainable Communities
Team: UACH faculty Graciela Ávila Quezada, María Del Rosario Baray Guerrero, Bertha Alicia Rivas Lucero, Juan Carlos Burillo Montufar, Juan Manuel Rodríguez Gaeta, Carmen Julia Navarro Gómez and David Humberto Sanchez Navarro; and UTEP Department of Civil Engineering faculty Alex Mayer, Ph.D.; Martine Ceberio, Ph.D., from the Department of Computer Science; and Leobardo Valera, Ph.D., from the Department of Mathematical Sciences.
To learn more about the event, visit: utep.edu/engineering/researchsandpit/.
*Judges awarded two second place winners in the Water Track.
About The University of Texas at El Paso
The University of Texas at El Paso is America’s leading Hispanic-serving university. Located at the westernmost tip of Texas, where three states and two countries converge along the Rio Grande, 84% of our 24,000 students are Hispanic, and half are the first in their families to go to college. UTEP offers 169 bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degree programs at the only open-access, top-tier research university in America.
Last Updated on August 28, 2023 at 12:00 AM | Originally published August 28, 2023
By MC Staff UTEP Marketing and Communications
