Three University of Waterloo Chemical Engineering students will be flying to Calgary soon as a result of winning the Walmart Green Student Challenge. Alan Thai, Arthur Yip, and Jake Yeung were selected from over 100 idea submissions and beat out five semi-finalist groups in the final eliminating round presented to five of Canada’s top CEOs. In this contest, Walmart challenged postsecondary students to come up with a completely different look at a business with significant sustainability benefits. Naturally, it was also extremely important that the innovations be cost effective, either saving money or generating revenue. A prize of $30,000 was offered for the top idea and $30,000 for the winning students’ school. The fourth-year students have modest plans for their shares of the winnings.
The winning plan incorporated wind, solar and hydrogen cells to power what was dubbed a ‘sustainable hub’. The plan was designed to power the lights, forklifts, fridges and cash registers normally found in Walmart stores by using a smart electricity grid. The idea was aided by incentives from the government associated with many of these technologies, making them much more cost effective. It is expected that some excess energy could be sold to the grid, particularly during blackouts when more energy could be saved and then sold. The trip to Calgary will allow Alan Thai, Arthur Yip, and Jake Yeung to tour a new Walmart distribution centre where their idea will be implemented.
Hailing from Toronto, Vancouver and Calgary respectfully, Alan Thai, Arthur Yip, and Jake Yeung undoubtedly had vastly different upbringings. However, studying chemical engineering no doubt combined their different perspectives with knowledge to create a feasible solution to the environmental problems which are facing us in the not-so-distant future. Like these students, we are prepared to solve everything and anything society and the world, throw at us.
UW Chemical Engineering students bring back top prize in environmental challenge
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Shyoughi
It’s a good thing that you have shared this kind of information for those people to learn about. They can surely promote some ideas on how are they going to apply these things on their work that would help them in attaining desirable results.