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UNM engineers win 2nd place at RMWEA design competition

June 20, 2025 - Carly Bowling

Students from the Gerald May Department of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering won second place in the Rocky Mountain Water Environment Association Student Design Competition earlier this year.

The competition provides real-world design opportunities for students interested in water and wastewaster engineering sciences. This year’s project required students to provide a real-world design to help the J.D. Phillips Water Resource Recovery Facility in Colorado Springs meet potential future temperature requirements that would protect the downstream ecosystem. Teams were charged with finding cost-effective, sustainable and realistic solutions that could be implemented by the facility. To complete the challenge, they had to review regulations, analyze available effluent temperature data, compare energy use and greenhouse gas emissions to environmental benefits, and develop a thorough conceptual design.

The UNM student team members were Stephanie Campbell, Madison Cox, Paris Eisenman, Alina Fujinaka and Matthew Ellis. They worked closely with advisors Natalie Gayoso and Akshay Jain, environmental engineers at CDM Smith, a national engineering consulting firm. UNM faculty believe it may be the first time students from the University attended the competition.

The RMWEA Student Design Competition is open to students from universities in Wyoming, Colorado and New Mexico. The first-place team receives funding to attend the National Student Design Competition at the Water Environment Federation's Technical Exhibition and Conference.