Past Winners

Awarded: BCWWA’s 53rd Annual Conference & Trade Show in Victoria, BC. The team placed first in the water environment division at the 2025 WEFTEC Student Design Competition in Chicago, Illinois.

Project statement: assessing the feasibility of different green and grey infrastructure to improve stormwater runoff quality for the City of Coquitlam.

Team members: Jaden Gauw, Jaden Mah, Kajal Mishra, Cindy Chow and Megan Slot.

Awarded: BCWWA’s 52nd Annual Conference & Trade Show in Whistler, BC, and WEFTEC 2024 Student Design Competition in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Project statement: Develop a design solution to address rainfall quality and improve runoff quality, using Blue Green infrastructure for the City of Vancouver.

Team members: Elizabeth Liu (team lead), Harshvardhan Shaw, Nicolas Cho, Benjamin Buchheit and Claire Merchant.

Awarded: BCWWA’s 51st Annual Conference & Trade Show in Penticton, BC, and competed internationally at the WEFTEC 2023 Student Design Competition in Chicago, Illinois.

Project statement: Develop a design solution to address landfill leachate discharging to a wastewater treatment plant.

Awarded: BCWWA’s 50th Annual Conference & Trade Show in Victoria, BC. The team also placed second in the wastewater design division at the WEFTEC 2022 Student Design Competition held in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Project statement: Develop a centralized biosolid facility for the Regional District of Nanaimo.

Team members: Parsa Mivehchi, Ben Alberga, Caelan Accili, Ramzi Hijazi, and Mohamed El Badrawy.

Awarded: BCWWA’s 49th Annual Conference & Trade Show. The team placed third in the 2020 WEFTEC Student Design Competition environmental category.

Project statement: Provide two innovative solutions to control and treat onsite rainfall runoff from townhomes in the Cambie Corridor.

Team members: Noah Fanos, Brett Mikkelsen, Jacob Riedl, Robin Jory, Liam Kirchner, and Felix Motard.

Awarded: BCWWA’s 48th Annual Conference & Trade Show in Victoria, BC. The team placed first in WEFTEC Student Design Competition environmental category.

Project statement: Complete a comparative analysis and design of two treatment, conveyance, and disposal solutions for aircraft de-icing fluid runoff and stormwater runoff at the Vancouver International Airport (YVR).

Awarded: BCWWA’s 47th Annual Conference & Trade Show in Penticton, BC. The team placed first in WEFTEC Student Design Competition environmental category.

Project statement: Submit a design to upgrade Ellis Creek in the City of Penticton, aiming to better equip the Creek to deal with the effects of climate change.

Awarded: BCWWA’s 46th Annual Conference & Trade Show in Victoria, BC. The team placed second in WEFTEC Student Design Competition wastewater category.

Project statement: Design a secondary treatment upgrade for the Tsawout First Nation wastewater treatment plant (WWTP).

Team members: Kit Caufield, Brad Jenks, Tim Burton, Jennika Javinson, Antonio Castro, and Gregory Vettese.

Project statement: BCWWA’s 45th Annual Conference & Trade Show in Whistler, BC. The team placed second in WEFTEC Student Design Competition wastewater category.

Project statement: Design a treatment process for the Resort Municipality of Whistler’s (RMoW) wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) to reduce the amount of phosphorus discharged to the Cheakamus River with the treated effluent.

Awarded: BCWWA’s 44th Annual Conference & Trade Show in Kelowna, BC. The team placed third in WEFTEC Student Design Competition wastewater category.

Project statement: Design a resource recovery system for the City of Kelowna’s wastewater treatment plant (WWTP), which will focus on anaerobic digestion of fermented primary sludge and waste secondary sludge to produce biogas.

Awarded: BCWWA’s 43rd Annual Conference & Trade Show in Whistler, BC. The team placed first in WEFTEC Student Design Competition environmental category.

Project statement: Design a baseflow augmentation facility and water quality treatment facility in Northeast Coquitlam which will sustain minimal baseflows to Star Creek, keep water temperatures low and address water quality. In addition, produce options for the sizing of the two facilities based on the extent of source control applications on single family lots within the catchment area. Evaluate these options using quantitative and qualitative criteria and present your recommended approach with reasons.

Awarded: BCWWA’s 42nd Annual Conference & Trade Show in Kelowna, BC. The team placed first in WEFTEC Student Design Competition environmental category.

Project statement: Design a pilot-scale microalgae cultivation and harvesting system for installation at Metro Vancouver’s Sustainability Academy – Annacis Wastewater Centre. Develop concepts and budget for the longer term goal of co-locating operational-scale microalgae cultivation processes at Metro Vancouver’s Iona Island wastewater treatment plant.

Team members: Laith Furatian, Michal Simhon, Christopher Lawson, Connor Wilson, and Rony Das