The WONDERPETS all-girl student team of Batangas State University (BatStateU) has bagged first place with its water pollution reduction solution in the 2022 World Engineering Day Hackathon supported by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
The Filipina-led team composed of Chemical Engineering students Reaner Jacqueline Bool, Ghia Luwalhati, and Nicole Elizabeth Tan was declared the first place winner of the global tilt on World Engineering Day, March 4, 2022.
The student trio represented the Philippines and competed amongst 125 university teams from 23 countries that participated in the competition.
Team WONDERPETS, which stands for Water remediatiON using metal-organic framework DERived from PET bottleS, proposed an engineering solution to reduce water pollution.
The team’s winning entry used metal organic frameworks or MOFs, which are “novel adsorbents, to turn recycled plastic bottles into a type of sponge that is extremely porous, making it an effective means of removing pollutants from water.”
The team’s solution aims to target the UN Sustainable Development Goals 6 and 12, with the former focused on providing clean water and sanitation for all and the latter on responsible consumption and production.
Organized by the World Federation of Engineering Organizations with UNESCO support, the World Engineering Day Hackathon (WED) encouraged engineering students to work in teams towards engineering solutions for global, real-world problems with this year’s theme, Build Back Wiser – Engineering the Future.
The Filipino students bested eight finalist teams from five countries in the finals, including the runner-up teams from the University of British Columbia Okanagan in Canada and the Egerton University in Kenya, among others.
The World Engineering Day Hackathon was judged by 40 engineers from 16 countries in the preliminary round and, in the final round, by six judges from UNESCO, Engineers Without Borders, the International Federation of Engineering Education Societies, the International Network of Women Engineers and Scientists, the Global Engineering Deans Council, and the International Engineering Alliance.
Last year, three university teams from the Philippines won the Haquathon 2.0 (H20) while University of Asia and the Pacific (UA&P) students delivered the Philippines’ first win at the global Estée Lauder Companies (ELC) Hack4A11y Virtual Hackathon.
9 Filipina startup leaders and their enterprises were honored in this year’s celebration of International Women’s Day.
SEND CONGRATULATIONS in the comments below to the WONDERPETS all-girl student team of Batangas State University (BatStateU) for bagging first place in the 2022 World Engineering Day Hackathon and FIND OUT more about the team’s winning entry here.
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