A group of seven students and three faculty members from TU’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, the Russell School of Chemical Engineering and the Collins College of Business have won federal funding through the Environmental Protection Agency’s People, Prosperity and the Planet grant competition.
The program supports environmental solutions designed by students that move the United States toward a sustainable future. Wellspring Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering Tyler Johannes serves as principal investigator of TU’s project. The Tulsa team received the EPA competition’s first phase grant of $15,000 to develop its design concept. TU also won $75,000 in Phase II funding at the National Sustainable Design Expo April 11-12 in Washington, D.C. A panel of experts convened by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) judged and scored each team’s design to determine the competition winners.
The objective of TU’s sustainability project is to develop a wireless device for monitoring water usage in hotel showers. The monitor will fit most new and existing hotel shower fixtures and wirelessly transmit hotel guest water usage data to a central hotel accounting system. Guests will have the ability to review their daily water usage online or with a smartphone application.