Ohio University is considering implementing some of the sustainability projects OU students pitched for the Eco Challenge during Fall Semester.
The Eco Challenge is a competition that had OU students working together to come up with projects that would tackle energy inefficiencies on campus. The winning idea to install new LED lights around The Convo has already been approved and is currently being evaluated by University Planning and Space Management.
“These will not be in, or part of the sustainability plan, but will contribute to the energy reduction goals of the sustainability plan,” Steve Wood, the associate vice president for Facilities Management and Safety, said in an email.
Steven Wise, a senior studying mechanical engineering, Bridget Kilbane, a senior studying accounting and business pre-law, Kevin Moberg, a sophomore studying marketing and management, and Melinda Nelson, a 2016 OU alumna, came up with the winning idea.
“The challenge helped us all to utilize teamwork and leadership skills in a new way. Partnering the College of Engineering with the College of Business required us to work with others with a different background, mindset and problem-solving approach than ourselves,” Nelson said in an email. “It required us to trust each other with various tasks in the projects and use our skills to bring our project together as a whole.”
University officials hope to work on two of the other projects suggested during the challenge, though there is no set timeline for implementation for any of the projects.
One other project idea includes adding aerators, which attach to the end of faucets to help prevent splashing and conserve water, to sinks in academic facilities. The other being considered is to change the lights along the bike path to LED lights.
Students in the Robe Leadership Institute, through the Russ College of Engineering and Technology, and the Select Leadership Development Program, through the College of Business, came together for the first time for the challenge. The two programs are separate but contain similar goals.
“For a long time, (we’ve) tried to get the students together,” David Bayless, professor of mechanical engineering and the director of the Robe Leadership Institute, said. “Last February, Dan (Squiller) was in town, and we had lunch. We both wanted to get the students together as well. Dan came up with an idea of hosting a challenge, and it all exploded from there.”
Six teams, each made up of two engineering students and two business students, worked to find sustainability issues throughout campus and find solutions for those problems. They had eight weeks to finalize their projects with coaching and help from Tim Reynolds, executive director for the Walter Center for Strategic Leadership, Bayless and Dan Squiller, CEO of Verengo Solar, a solar systems provider based in California, and class of ‘79 alumnus from OU.
At the end of eight weeks, the teams had to do an oral presentation for their projects to the judges: Bayless, Reynolds, Squiller and Wood.
The judges said they wanted to give the students a real-life experience in creating solutions that would actually work and pitching their ideas to a panel of judges.
The four judges said this year is just the beginning for the challenge.
“We want to expand the reach and message of the challenge. We want to attack real issues, find ways to give back and find more opportunities to do things like the Eco Challenge,” Reynolds said.
