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EPA Awards Grants for Students to Design Sustainable Technologies to Help Environment and Economy

Release Date: 10/26/2011
Contact Information: Ben Washburn, (913) 551-7364, [email protected]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

(Kansas City, Kan., Oct. 26, 2011) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has awarded $15,000 grants to the Missouri University of Science and Technology in Rolla, Mo., for two teams of students to design solutions to challenges in the developed and developing world. One team will develop a window ventilation system to keep energy costs down. The other team is developing a system for transmitting electrical power that reduces energy loss from switching back and forth between AC and DC current.

The awards were given through EPA’s People, Prosperity and the Planet (P3) Program, a national competition that challenges students, working together on interdisciplinary teams, to design and build sustainable technologies that improve quality of life, promote economic development, and protect the environment. A total of 45 grants have been awarded to colleges and universities across the country for the 2011-2012 Phase I competition.

The competition begins in Phase I with the award of $15,000 grants to student teams who focus on a wide range of categories including water, energy, agriculture, built environment, and materials and chemicals. After working on the project for eight months, the teams will take their designs to the 8^th Annual National Sustainable Design Expo on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. At the expo, the projects will be judged by a panel of experts and a select few will be awarded P3 Awards and Phase II grants up to $90,000 for students to further their designs, implement them in the field, or move them to the marketplace.

Applications are being accepted through Dec. 22, 2011, for the next round of Phase I awards for the 2012-2013 school year. In addition to the categories above, teams can also propose innovative ideas for green infrastructure and designing clean cookstoves.