Around 50 University of Exeter students took part in this year’s Climate and Environmental Emergency Grand Challenge, tackling major real-world problems with support from leading water industry experts at South West Water (SWW) and Sutton and East Surrey (SES) Water plc.
The week-long initiative, designed to immerse students in collaborative, problem-led learning, saw participants working in teams to address challenges facing the water sector. Thanks to Centre for Research in Environment, Water and Waste’s partnership with SWW, students benefited from direct input from two leading experts, SWW Demand Strategy Manager Carmen Snowdon and SES Water Innovation Manager Jeremy Heath, who helped shape and judge the competition.
Professor Pete Melville-Shreeve, convenor of the programme, and CREWW research theme lead, said:
“We’ve run this format several times, and this year’s involvement from two leading water experts unlocked some great outcomes for the students.”
Their challenge, focused on tackling water inefficiency through everyday infrastructure issues, prompted creative solutions from multiple teams.
One of the standout projects came from the Aquaguard team, led by second-year Geography student Rhea Vergeer Hopley and first year engineer Japheth Teklemichael, that addressed a “leaky loo” challenge, proposing an innovative solution to reduce water waste.
Carmen and Jeremy said: “We were deeply impressed that the students came up with a number of genuinely innovative ideas, and we’re looking forward to developing these solutions further with them.”
Grand Challenges is a project week in which students work in interdisciplinary groups with other like-minded peers to design innovative solutions to real world challenges.
The Grand Challenge programme: https://www.exeter.ac.uk/students/grandchallenges/