Drexel students and water research
On Monday November 10th, 2014, water researchers from Drexel University, New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), and Rowan University came together to sign a memorandum of understanding (MOU), which initiates an alliance amongst these three universities to collaboratively tackle the complex challenges that affect water resources in the region. Dr. Charles N. Haas, LD Betz Professor of Environmental Engineering and Department Head of the Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering Department, represented Drexel at this event. He, along with Michel Boufadel, the director of NJIT’s Center for Natural Resources Development and Protection, and Anthony Lowman, Dean of Engineering at Rowan University are the co-founders of this partnership. This initial agreement is for three years with the intent to continue ongoing collaborations.
Water protection and management is vital to the growing metropolitan regions surrounding Philadelphia and New York City and many government, private, and advocacy agencies look towards university researchers to tackle challenges such as shrinking supplies, industrial contamination, and climate change. As populations grow and industry expands, more water is used and contaminants entering the water supply continue to increase and pose risks to animal and plant species as well as affecting human health.
This alliance, supported by the engineering colleges of all three institutions, will make it more accessible for industry to obtain guidance and solutions from highly skilled water researchers. All three institutions have very strong backgrounds in water resources research and policy; therefore this streamlined collaboration will enhance the ability of industry problems to be solved more efficiently and thoroughly. Industry representatives will be immediately directed to the appropriate researchers for the given problem and researchers will develop turnkey solutions to these problems.
The alliance will partner with industry and government representatives to develop technology solutions to their water use challenges. Translational research efforts will encourage researchers from all three institutions and all fields of engineering to work with economists, political scientists, sociologists, and legal experts to develop cross-collaborative solutions that not only address the physical problem(s) but also develop policy solutions and technology commercialization opportunities. Information will be disseminated through seminars and short courses that highlight unique expertise within each of the three institutions. A web portal for faculty and students will be developed in order to further enhance collaboration amongst these three institutions.
Dr. Haas, along with additional faculty from the Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering Department will be key participants in these efforts. Dr. Haas states, “This is a unique opportunity to develop a centralized hub of knowledge as it pertains to water issues in a heavily urbanized region. Researchers from these three institutions have made significant headway in addressing ongoing problems and this collaboration will take these efforts to the next level. Developing relationships between industry and academia are essential towards understanding how we can mitigate water resource and management problems in a society that will always face increased industrialization and commercialization.”
For more information on this initiative, please contact Dr. Charles Haas at haas@drexel.edu