Interested in how to get involved in student sustainability efforts on campus? Check out the attached presentation! It provides an overview of student groups/RSOs and other recurring sustainability events. Enjoy! 

A brief introduction to Water Environment Federation - American Water Works Association (WEF-AWWA) Student Chapter UIUC

We have been involved in organizing events and meetings that orient students towards the water industry. 

Listed below are some of our past activities:

1. Organizing regular general meetings with water companies based in Champaign and the Greater Chicago Area.
2. Organized an annual conference 'Diving Into The Water Industry' featuring presenters from different fields within the water industry.
3. Organizing office visits for students to water companies and also field visits to local water treatment plants.
4. Involvement with WEF and its divisional organization Central States Water Environment Association (CSWEA). Every year, we take part in the WEF student design competition. Last year, our project 'Flood Mitigation Strategies for Houston, TX' won the category for Environmental Design and was selected for presentation in WEFTEC 2019, the annual conference of WEF.

The goal of this project is to further develop the relationship between the university, the Illini Algae Club and its students, the Agricultural and Biological Engineering Department as well as other departments, and the Abbott Power Plant. Using a pre-established waste to algae remediation system used in experimental design, we will apply this system to a real-world use. We will do this through the use of a semester project focused on remediation of university wastewater that can be scaled up into a larger scale project in the future that the club can build off of. Our goal is to provide the foundation of active student involvement for which our organization can grow.

We will do this by first analyzing how well our small-scale systems can work with the local Abbot Power Plant waste. This further enhances our cooperative relationship with the Abbott Power Plant. Once we determine feasibility of the system, then the students can design and build a larger scale system at the local power plant that can reduce their waste as well as produce some renewable energy for the university. This will provide the ability of students to make their own choices with our small-scale experiment as well as allow them to create a vision of their own for the club’s future larger scale activities.