At the EWB-USA International Conference in Louisville, Kentucky, our very own Uganda project won the EWB-USA's Best in Show award for their film "Water for Mulobere." Produced and filmed by Beth Anderson (center in photo) from the University of Minnesota's Institute on the Environment, the film captures the Uganda team's implementation of a solar-powered water supply system for the Hope Integrated Academy in Mulobere, Uganda. As part of the closing banquet dinner, the film was shown to all of the attendees of the conference. Congratulations to the Uganda project, and a special thanks to Beth Anderson for her fantastic design of the film!

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The annual Tony Diggs Excellence Award for Innovation honors University of Minnesota student groups that fostered creativity in their programs or events. Student groups must have impacted the campus community, the student group itself, and individual members through their outstanding innovation. Awards were also based on the group's tolerance of ambiguity while developing their innovation, as well as the overall quality of the application.

The 2010 Tony Diggs Innovation award honors the Haiti Plastics Research Project. "Founded on innovation, the plastics project originally planned to melt plastic waste into products in Haiti. When melting plastic became dangerous due to noxious fumes, and travel to Haiti became very difficult, the plastics project 'zoomed-out' to look at the big picture of their project. To broaden their project's applications, the team brilliantly redesigned their project -- rather than melt plastic, why not burn it? Correctly implemented, a plastic incinerator can reach temperatures at which no noxious fumes are emitted. Furthermore, these temperatures can purify water -- a beneficial resource for 1/2 of the world that is under water stress."

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The annual Tony Diggs Excellence Award for Outstanding Service/Philanthropic Project honors the University of Minnesota Student group which has best demonstrated their efforts in planning and executing a successful service/philanthropic event evaluated on general participation and attendence, program purpose, use of resources in planning and carrying out the event, marketing techniques, event evaluation techniques, member involvement in event planning and execution, utilization of strengths and identification of shortcomings, increased appreciation of differences, benefit provided to organization(s), campus, and/or community, and the overall quality of the nomination.

The 2010 Tony Diggs Oustanding Service/Philanthropic Project honors the Uganda project. "As part of the team's Phase III, the Uganda project implemented 60 efficient wood-burning stoves to reduce indoor air pollution along with six systems of micro-irrigation kits to conserve scarce water. Constructed of local materials, these systems are replicable. To ensure a sense of ownership in the community, the stoves are maintained by a 'Clean Air Team', consisting of secondary school members in the area. An undergraduate research team made of UofM students remained behind after implementation to perform extensive monitoring of the indoor air pollution, stove use, and micro-irrigation kit efficiency."

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The annual Tony Diggs Excellence Award for Outstanding Service/Philanthropic Project honors the University of Minnesota Student group which has best demonstrated their efforts in planning and executing a successful service/philanthropic event evaluated on general participation and attendence, program purpose, use of resources in planning and carrying out the event, marketing techniques, event evaluation techniques, member involvement in event planning and execution, utilization of strengths and identification of shortcomings, increased appreciation of differences, benefit provided to organization(s), campus, and/or community, and the overall quality of the nomination.

The 2009 award honors the Guatemala project. "This group developed a 130,000 liter tank and accompanying rainwater harvesting system to install at a village's school in Guatemala. Eighty students worked on the project and ten members traveled to Guatemala to implement the system. The tank more than doubled the village's water storage capacity. The 2,500 residents benefit by having greater independence from their water supply and for the children, lack of water is no longer a reason to miss school."

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EWB–USA recognizes a number of premier chapters each year. The chapters are chosen based on the following criteria: Technical preparedness, presentation and design; Cultural awareness and sensitivity; Community Education and participation; Health and Safety for the community and the chapter; Administrative attentiveness and following EWB-USA procedures and guidelines.

The CSWEA Student Design Competition is intended to promote "real world and hands on" design experience for students interested in pursuing an education and/or career in water/wastewater engineering and sciences field. This competition requires teams of students to design and present a program meeting the requirements of the problem statement. There are two levels of competition; a conventional Wastewater Design category which includes traditional wastewater design projects and an Environmental Design category which includes contemporary engineering design topics like sustainability, water reuse, wetland construction and Engineers Without Borders projects.

The 2009 CSWEA Student Design Competition Team award honors the Uganda project's Phase II implementation and was presented to Grete Schmalle, Eric Hettler, Steve Hankey, and Adam Both.

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The annual Tony Diggs Excellence Award for Outstanding Service/Philanthropic Project honors the University of Minnesota Student group which has best demonstrated their efforts in planning and executing a successful service/philanthropic event evaluated on general participation and attendence, program purpose, use of resources in planning and carrying out the event, marketing techniques, event evaluation techniques, member involvement in event planning and execution, utilization of strengths and identification of shortcomings, increased appreciation of differences, benefit provided to organization(s), campus, and/or community, and the overall quality of the nomination.

The 2008 award honors the Uganda project. "This group sent six students and two professionals to Uganda, where they designed and constructed a rainwater system and a dry composting sanitation system for the Hope Integrated Academy. After four weeks of hard work, the completed projects now provide daily drinking water and improved ecological toilets to over 250 students."

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"Working with a group called the Minnesota Academy from Minnesota, UMN travelled to Ghana to implement their designs for a solar powered water supply system for the school and the surrounding community. They engaged the community and the school in the project. They have continued work from afar and the school in Ghana has begun working on rainwater harvesting which has been initiated by the school and the community."

EWB-UMN's Haiti Project won the Keen Footwear "Stand For Competition" grand prize of $25,000 for their plastic water sachet recycling project. The Stand competition awarded $150,000 to three categories with three grand prize winners. There were 321 entries to the Stand For division in which activists were to submit sustainable design ideas for the competition.

The project focused on the design and implementation of constructable and maintainable batch systems for recycling of plastic water sachets made of High Density Polyethylene (HDPE). HDPE water sachets are a primary means by which Haitians transport their drinking water. These sachets are discarded onto streets and in-between homes, a major environmental problem. The project, in conjunction with the NGO SOIL (Sustainable Organic Integrated Livelihoods) researched methods for the re-melting and re-molding of HDPE water sachets into durable footwear for Haitian children.

The annual Tony Diggs Excellence Award for Outstanding Service/Philanthropic Project honors the University of Minnesota Student group which has best demonstrated their efforts in planning and executing a successful service/philanthropic event evaluated on general participation and attendence, program purpose, use of resources in planning and carrying out the event, marketing techniques, event evaluation techniques, member involvement in event planning and execution, utilization of strengths and identification of shortcomings, increased appreciation of differences, benefit provided to organization(s), campus, and/or community, and the overall quality of the nomination.

The 2007 award honors the EWB-UMN Ghana Project. "This group sent six students and a professional mentor to Ghana to create and build a solar-powered sanitary water distribution system for an elementary school. The system is now an inexpensive, safe, self-sufficient, and reliable source of sanitary drinking water for the students and staff at the school, as well as the surrounding community."

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EWB–USA recognizes a number of premier chapters each year. The chapters are chosen based on the following criteria: Technical preparedness, presentation and design; Cultural awareness and sensitivity; Community Education and participation; Health and Safety for the community and the chapter; Administrative attentiveness and following EWB-USA procedures and guidelines.