Student Teams: UW Aquaponics

Interested in helping make food more sustainable? Like gardening? Like fish whether they are swimming in an aquarium or on your dinner plate? Want to engineer green technology? Want to make a difference in your community? Then join UWAQ. University of Waterloo Aquaponics (UWAQ) is a launch pad for aquaponics in Southern Ontario. Aquaponics is a biomimetic technology that reproduces the symbiotic relationships between bacteria, plants, and fish. It creates a closed-loop cycle that replaces the need for pesticides and many artificial nutrients used in conventional agriculture.

Our upcoming projects include the UWAQ Workshop in March 2014. The aim of this workshop is to provide networking opportunities to the aquaponics community, share ideas and experiences, and introduce the general public to the fundamentals of aquaponics. We will continue to improve our current system, Nereus, give lectures to interested parties (past talks have included the Durham Region Aquarium Society), and further expand our knowledge of aquaponics. We are also exploring potential designs for a second system.

We build and maintain structurally sound systems that can sustain their own ecology. This involves a variety of engineering challenges that we face in the design, construction, and maintenance of aquaponic systems. To maintain the equilibrium of the system, water quality and organism interaction must be monitored and controlled. Collecting this data gives us insight into the health of the system and provides a basis to optimize the design of future systems. Many varieties of engineering are drawn upon to make aquaponics technologically possible.

This technology is just beginning to be implemented in Ontario, so join the wave of innovation! There are opportunities to focus on technical work (e.g. building and maintaining aquaponic systems) and also social outreach (e.g. preparing workshops on aquaponics and giving tours to elementary/secondary school students). We are open to anybody interested regardless of experience or program.

If you are interested in learning more about us, check out our website at http://aquaponics.uwaterloo.ca or contact us via email at internal.uwaq@gmail.com.