UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Five teams of graduate students have been selected as finalists in the Dow Chemical-sponsored Sustainability Innovation Student Challenge Award (SISCA) at Penn State. The program recognizes and rewards students for innovation and research of sustainable solutions to the world's most pressing social, economic and environmental problems.
The five finalist teams are:
-- “Building a Sustainable Material Information Model for Manufacturing Systems,” by Qais Hatim, Soundar Kumara and Christopher Saldan
-- “Comparison of the Potential Environmental Impacts of Phytosanitary Treatment of Wooden Pallets,” by Shirin Shahidi and Charles Ray
-- “Green Towers: Consumer Aquaponics Systems,” by Mike Zaengle, Dustin Betz, Jared Yarnall-Schane, Jon Gumble, Mike Ghen, Ken Palamara and Mark Ganon
-- “Li/S Batteries: Converting Environmentally Hazardous Industrial Byproduct Sulfur to High Performance Energy Storage Devices,” by Md Mahbubul Islam and Adri van Duin
-- “Sustainable Desalination and Water Recycling using Chemical Micropumps in Membrane Systems,” by Abhishek Kar, Rajarshi Guha, Hasin Feroz and Yuxi Meng
These teams were chosen as finalists based on criteria that included a proposal that clearly articulated a new and innovative concept; demonstrates balance of social, economic and environmental success; and has the potential for significant societal benefits and sustainability impact.