{"id":2067537,"date":"2023-01-25T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-01-25T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/live-cs-engineer-magazine.pantheonsite.io\/?p=2067537"},"modified":"2023-01-25T13:15:30","modified_gmt":"2023-01-25T19:15:30","slug":"new-expert-judges-join-international-student-design-competition-for-sustainable-solutions-wege-prize","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/csengineermag.com\/new-expert-judges-join-international-student-design-competition-for-sustainable-solutions-wege-prize\/","title":{"rendered":"<strong>New Expert Judges Join International Student Design Competition\u00a0for Sustainable Solutions, Wege Prize<\/strong>"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Wege Prize has announced the addition of two experts of diverse backgrounds to join the international panel of judges for the worldwide student competition for sustainable and circular innovation. The new judges include sustainability journalist Deonna Anderson, formerly of GreenBiz, as well as the renowned former professor and consultant in agriculture and natural resources, Braj Singh.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Kendall College of Art and Design of Ferris State University (KCAD), which organizes Wege Prize, has announced the added judges as it expands its acclaimed competition. For more than a decade,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.wegeprize.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Wege Prize<\/a>\u00a0has attracted and inspired talented college students around the globe to collaboratively design innovative solutions that combat the world\u2019s \u201cwicked problems\u201d \u2014 everything from hunger and pollution to poverty and climate change \u2014 by creating innovative, real-world concepts that can support the future circular economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-gallery alignleft has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"312\" height=\"387\" data-id=\"2067539\" src=\"https:\/\/live-cs-engineer-magazine.pantheonsite.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/short-cv-BK-Singh18.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2067539\" srcset=\"https:\/\/csengineermag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/short-cv-BK-Singh18.jpg 312w, https:\/\/csengineermag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/short-cv-BK-Singh18-242x300.jpg 242w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 312px) 100vw, 312px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><strong>B. K. (Braj) Singh<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"426\" height=\"640\" data-id=\"2067538\" src=\"https:\/\/live-cs-engineer-magazine.pantheonsite.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/DeonnaAnderson-1.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2067538\" srcset=\"https:\/\/csengineermag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/DeonnaAnderson-1.png 426w, https:\/\/csengineermag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/DeonnaAnderson-1-200x300.png 200w, https:\/\/csengineermag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/DeonnaAnderson-1-280x420.png 280w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 426px) 100vw, 426px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><strong>Deonna Anderson<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>For the 2023 cycle of Wege Prize, which has drawn a record number of competing teams, the new judges bring diverse perspectives and complementary expertise to Wege Prize\u2019s full complement of 10 core judges \u2014 more than ever before \u2014 to reflect the growth of the student competition. Joining the distinguished roster of core judges from around the world for 2023 is&nbsp;<strong>B. K. (Braj) Singh<\/strong>&nbsp;who advises on solutions to global challenges in agriculture production, natural resource management, and human capacity enhancement and is a former professor in soil science and plant nutrition at EARTH University in Costa Rica. Joining Singh and the other judges is&nbsp;<strong>Deonna Anderson<\/strong>, who recently joined&nbsp;<em>Next City<\/em>&nbsp;as editorial director after working as senior editor at&nbsp;<em>GreenBiz&nbsp;<\/em>focused on the circular economy. Previously she contributed to&nbsp;<em>YES!&nbsp;<\/em>Magazine and NPR affiliate station KLCC. Deonna has previously worked with the Wege Prize team to interview the finalist presenters in 2021 and 2022, which are on the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@WegePrize\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Wege Prize YouTube<\/a>&nbsp;channel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Other recently added judges for the preliminary phase include the two leaders from the acclaimed Grand Rapids Public Museum in Michigan:&nbsp;<strong>Stephanie Ogren<\/strong>, vice president of science and education, and&nbsp;<strong>Jannan Cotto<\/strong>, who is Anishinaabe curator for the museum\u2019s collections department. In late 2021, Wege Prize also added design pioneer&nbsp;<strong>Tom Newhouse<\/strong>&nbsp;and sustainable business expert&nbsp;<strong>Bill Stough<\/strong>&nbsp;to their core judging roster. (More details follow below, and all the judges and their bios may be found at&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.wegeprize.org\/judges\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">http:\/\/www.wegeprize.org\/judges<\/a>.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe are pleased to welcome Deonna Anderson and Dr. Braj Singh to our judging process, bringing their varied talents to Wege Prize and its student teams,\u201d says Gayle DeBruyn, KCAD professor and Wege Prize organizer. \u201cThe students gain invaluable insight from our jurors, helping bring to life the student teams\u2019 original, collaborative solutions to how products are made and consumed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With an international pool of judges representing a vast array of subject matter areas and unique experiences in the circular economy, sustainable business, clean energy, industrial design, STEM education, and other fields, the student teams find valuable guidance and enrichment, adds DeBruyn. \u201cIt is all about learning, learning, learning \u2013 each student comes away with new insights to distinguish their real-world solutions through the competition process,\u201d she says.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To date, Wege Prize has awarded more than $300,000 in cash prizes to the competition\u2019s winning teams, helping advance collaborative innovation among disciplinary, cultural, and institutional participants, all helping spark a more sustainable and circular economy. With the assured guidance of the competition\u2019s expert judges, the resulting solutions \u2014 including many that go on to join incubators and earn startup funding \u2014 address climate and environmental impacts, social and economic disparities, and cycles of waste, hunger, and poverty.&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Wege Prize has announced the addition of two experts of diverse backgrounds to join the international panel of judges for the worldwide student competition for sustainable and circular innovation. The new judges include sustainability journalist Deonna Anderson, formerly of GreenBiz, as well as the renowned former professor and consultant in agriculture and natural resources, Braj [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4972,"featured_media":2067540,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11121,1840],"tags":[42680,42679,31201,26735,18948],"acf":[],"views":21,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/csengineermag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/AdobeStock_350473158-scaled.jpeg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/csengineermag.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2067537"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/csengineermag.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/csengineermag.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csengineermag.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4972"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csengineermag.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2067537"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/csengineermag.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2067537\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csengineermag.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2067540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/csengineermag.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2067537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csengineermag.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2067537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csengineermag.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2067537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}