NC State graduate students are doing important research to tackle major issues in our environment.

On March 6, students shared their work at the Environmental, Water Resources and Coastal Engineering (EWC) Symposium. 

Nearly 40 graduate students created research posters to present to colleagues, faculty, prospective graduate students and a panel of judges.

“The symposium is a great way for us at CCEE, to show the great research we’re doing, whether it’s in coastal, environmental or water resources, and how it makes impacts to the communities,” NC State graduate student Jenero Knowles said.

Knowles is studying extreme storm tide scenarios and their impact on critical infrastructure in coastal areas. This research provides valuable insight for coastal hazard assessment and supports resilience planning for future storms.

Graduate student Assata Harris is studying toxicity in drinking water, as well as its effects on human health. She, too, emphasized the importance of collaboration at the symposium. 

“I think it’s really cool to see how the students come together, with the help of the faculty, to put on an event like this,” Harris said. “It really is a space for us to share our research and see what everybody else is doing.”

Knowles said the symposium also gives prospective graduate students a chance to see how research can impact their future careers. 

“This is a great way for students that are interested in research, but may not know much about research,or how it might be impactful or even useful to their life,” Knowles said. “I think this event is something they might want to come to, just to get a glimpse of exposure, or determine, ‘This is what I want to do in grad school.’”

Abigail Boyer took home the first place prize for her poster “An Agent-based Modeling Framework to Assess Exposure to Emerging Contaminants for Direct Potable Reuse Programs.”

“It means a lot to have my work recognized at a symposium that showcases such impressive research from across our department,” Boyer said. “It’s been really rewarding to work on this project and have the opportunity to share it with others, especially as interest in water reuse continues to grow.”

Congratulations to the following graduate student winners:

• Abigail Boyer, 1st Place, “An Agent-based Modeling Framework to Assess Exposure to Emerging Contaminants for Direct Potable Reuse Programs.”
• Sarah Grace Lott, 2nd Place, “Community-Informed Modeling of Storm Surge Adaptation on Barrier Islands.”
• Brynn Jewell, 3rd Place, “Assessing U.S. Natural Gas Transmission Constraints Under Net-Zero Energy System Scenarios.”
• Atia Tamsi, People’s Choice Award, “Temporal Generative Adversarial Networks Scenario Generation and Optimal Scheduling for Hybrid Offshore Wave Farms.”
• Jenero Knowles, Finalist, “Identifying the Extreme Scenario of Tropical Cyclones for Coastal Communities.”
• Nicole Arrigo, Finalist, “Spatial and Temporal Controls within a Coupled Spectral Wave and Circulation Model.”