Tarleton wins first place at WEAT Student Design Competition

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Wednesday, May 27, 2020

STEPHENVILLE, Texas — Tarleton State University’s environmental/civil engineering team captured first place in the recent Water Environment Association of Texas Student Design Competition.

Teams in the annual competition, held this year on a virtual platform, represented nine Texas universities and one from Mexico.

Tarleton’s five environmental and civil engineering students topped Texas Tech and Texas A&M, which finished second and third, respectively. Other high-profile schools at the meet included UT Austin, the University of Houston and Tecnológico de Monterrey.

The team, led by John Lozano (Tarleton BS in environmental engineering, May 2020), designed upgrades for the city of Pflugerville’s wastewater treatment plant. The team’s faculty mentor, Dr. Kartik Venkataraman, associate professor in the Department of Engineering and Computer Science, said the project was a real-world design topic assigned by the WEAT coordinators.

Team members included Lozano, recent graduates Lucas Ringo and Josh Rangel, and seniors Shannon Lawless and Cruz Trujillo. They began work on their design in September 2019 with mentorship from Tarleton alums and 2018 third-place WEAT SDC winners Kevin Flinn and Ty Riebe and their supervisor, Tina Hanson, all from Garver Inc.

“The SDC was scheduled to be held in Fort Worth in April,” Venkataraman noted, “but was moved to a virtual setting due to covid-19. Despite the move, the team made an excellent professional presentation of their final design and submitted a comprehensive design report.”

Tarleton advanced to represent the WEAT Member Association at the National Water Environment Federation Technical Exhibition and Conference (WEFTEC) scheduled for October in New Orleans.

Tarleton, founding member of The Texas A&M University System, provides a student-focused, value-driven education marked by academic innovation and a dedication to transform today’s scholars into tomorrow’s leaders. It offers degree programs to more than 13,000 students at Stephenville, Fort Worth, Waco, Midlothian, RELLIS Academic Alliance in Bryan, and online, emphasizing real-world learning experiences that address societal needs while maintaining its core values of tradition, integrity, civility, excellence, leadership and service.

Contact: Phil Riddle
817-484-4415
[email protected]

A founding member of The Texas A&M System, Tarleton State is breaking records — in enrollment, research, scholarship, athletics, philanthropy and engagement — while transforming the lives of nearly 17,000 students in Stephenville, Fort Worth, Waco, Bryan and online. True to Tarleton’s values of excellence, integrity and respect, academic programs emphasize real world learning and address regional, state and national needs.
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