A team of students from Civil Engineering and the Urban Landscape program were recognized for a project they produced for the fourth annual Campus RainWorks Challenge. The competition was hosted by the EPA and work from 77 teams from 26 different states were reviewed. Projects needed to “show how managing stormwater at its source can benefit the community and environment by reducing the burden on local water infrastructure, managing local flooding, reducing urban heat islands, and lowering energy demands.”

Students were encouraged to learn about the impacts of climate change on their campus and to design projects specifically to deal with the resiliency of their home institution. The project submitted by the Northeastern team was titled “Recharging the City: Social Experience and Programmatic Flexibility”and it received an Honorable Mention in the Demonstration Project Category. The project ranked in the top three of the 48 projects submitted from schools across the country.

The project improves upon Northeastern plans for the development of William E. Carter Field with the specific goal of leveraging stormwater management infrastructure to address local environmental issues, increase site resiliency, and improve the social and environmental context of the site’s location in the City of Boston. The student team included  Aaron Barbosa, Gregory Coyle (Civil Engineering); Jacob Abhishek (Sustainable Building Systems); Sean Kline, Sally Li, Molly McNally, Shane Sullivan (Landscape Architecture); and Traver Normandi (Environmental Studies & Economics).

The team was mentored by NU Faculty members Ed Beighley, Annalisa Onnis-Hayden, both from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (College of Engineering); Michelle Laboy from the  School of Architecture (College of Arts, Media & Design); Jerry Ziola and David Whelpley of College of Engineering (Facilities Division).