On March 4, 2022, a team of students from Batangas State University (BatStateU) made the Philippines proud by winning the first-ever World Engineering Day (WED) Hackathon, an international competition that drew entries from 125 student teams from 23 countries around the world. The BatStateU team emerged victorious, beating contenders including the University of British Columbia Okanagan in Canada and Egerton University in Kenya, who took second and third place, respectively.

Being the only team from the country to make it to the final round, Team WONDERPETS (Water remediation using metal-organic framework DERived from PET bottles) is made up of Ghia Luwalhati, Nicole Elizabeth Tan, and Reaner Jacqueline Bool, three brilliant chemical engineering students at Batangas State University (BatStateU), and their mentor, Dr. Reymark Maalihan of the University’s Material Testing and Calibration Center (MTCC).

Batangas State University (BatStateU) was invited by the World Federation of Engineering Organizations (WFEO) and UNESCO to showcase its brilliance on the global stage, through the WED Hackathon. The invitation was a testament to the University’s unwavering dedication to engineering education excellence, as demonstrated by its Center for Innovation in Engineering Education (CIEE), a trailblazer in advancing the quality and responsiveness of engineering education. The CIEE, alongside the Material Testing and Calibration Center (MTCC), the Analytical Research Center (ARC) and the Center for Technopreneurship and Innovation (CTI), played a pivotal role in fostering a collaborative environment that linked student groups with the University’s researchers and experts, propelling the University to the forefront of the competition.

The challenge of the WED Hackathon was to demonstrate a sustainable engineering solution addressing a global real-world problem. Tackling “Water Accessibility in a Changing Climate,” Team WONDERPETS devised a water pollutant adsorbent based on a metal-organic framework, chemically recycling terephthalic acid extracted from PET bottles. The resulting material is extremely porous, cost-efficient, and reusable; thus, making it a sustainable means of removing pollutants from water.

“[T]his entry was very interesting with the potentially transformative technology,” commented Dr. Marlene Kanga, Immediate Past President of the World Federation of Engineering Organizations (WFEO), as she announced the winners on World Engineering Day Hackathon during the finale of the WED 24 HRS Live broadcast in San José, Costa Rica. The solution offered by Team WONDERPETS not only supports the 2030 UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6: “Clean Water and Sanitation for All,” but also SDG 12: “Responsible Consumption and Production” for its plastic- recycling feature.

The WED Hackathon’s preliminary judges were 40 engineers from 16 nations. The final round brought together a distinguished panel of experts from prestigious organizations such as UNESCO, Engineers Without Borders, the International Federation of Engineering Education Societies, the International Network of Women Engineers and Scientists, the Global Engineering Deans Council, and the International Engineering Alliance to evaluate the entries using the highest standards of the International Engineering Alliance global graduate attributes and professional qualifications.

The WED Hackathon is organized by WFEO with UNESCO support, stimulating the inventiveness of young engineers to address engineering challenges developed by the World Federation of Engineering Organizations in collaboration with its partners in the international engineering community and the Engineers Without Borders international
network.

The WONDERPETS, one of six student groups from BatStateU that competed in the preliminary round in January, advanced to the final round in February along with eight other teams from Australia, Canada, China, India, and Kenya.

BatStateU – The NEU co-celebrated the World Engineering Day with UNESCO on March 4, 7, and 8, with the theme “Engineering Today for a Sustainable Tomorrow.”