The WERC Environmental Design Contest began in 1991 as part of the Waste-management Education and Research Consortium—a collaboration between the Department of Energy, Sandia National Labs, New Mexico State University, the University of New Mexico, and Dine College. It was a progressive program to prepare engineering students to manage and prevent waste through hands-on learning.
Now in its 36th year, WERC has expanded far beyond waste management. Today’s contest challenges students nationwide to design solutions at the Water, Energy, and Climate Nexus. Alongside waste reduction, teams focus on energy efficiency, water conservation, recycling, and resource recovery.
The WERC Environmental Design Contest is a national collaboration among industry, government, and academia to inspire solutions to today’s environmental challenges.
Each year, undergraduate teams respond to real-world Requests for Proposals (RFPs) written by our industry and agency partners. Open-ended by design, these tasks reflect emerging environmental needs and encourage innovation, creativity, and practical engineering solutions.
Students act as consulting engineers, responding to real-world RFPs with research papers, presentations, and working bench-scale demos.
Since 1991, the contest has been held annually at New Mexico State University, drawing students nationwide and abroad, with many professors returning year after year for the unique opportunities it offers.
