Wesley Williams

Water Bros alum Hank Wolfe was back in the area for the summer and was able to drop into a design meeting to get some updates on how the Water Bros research is continuing.

I was pleased to attend this summer’s Appalachian Energy Summit in Boone, North Carolina, where Nils Horneff presented on some of the work he has done for Water Bros Desalination. Nils comes to us from KIT in Germany as part of the TE-Rex partnership with UNC Charlotte Energy Production and Infrastructure Center (EPIC).

May graduation was a big deal as Abby, Allison, Alex, Brad, Kyle and Nic all graduated.

Water Bros very own Abby McConnel was featured as graduation speaker and delivered a great speech.

https://engr.charlotte.edu/news/2023-05-11/advice-commencement-speaker-abby-mcconnell-first-year-niners

We also had our typical end of semester gathering of students and alumni at the house for food and games, but apparently we were having a really good time as I captured zero photographs of the event.

It was good to be back in person for the 2023 North Carolina Renewable Ocean Energy Program research symposium in late March. I was honored to receive the 2023 Edge Award for leadership in advancing marine energy because this group has been so supportive of my research and students over the years. The award came as a surprise, so I was fortunate to have Dean Keynton and the student research from Water Bros in attendance as well my NCROEP students for the awards ceremony. CSI were great hosts as always and I’m looking forward to more research opportunities in the near future.

March was a busy month, but I was glad to be able to return to volunteering with the FIRST Roboics Competition at the District Event in Mecklenburg County (Mar 17-19). Luckily the yellow hat and the lead robot inspector vest still fit and I even located a Bravo Team sponsor sticker in the wild. On Sunday, I was tracked down by my student Jenny Dam (FIRST alum from Team 4935 – T-Rex, based out of Olympic High School) before another surprise…I was given the volunteer award for the Mecklenburg County District Event. It was the icing on the cake after getting to reunite with so many good people after being off of the FIRST circuit for a couple of years. Great robots, a good team of inspectors, and some nice competition on the field made for a busy but fun weekend.

A nice writeup about the 4 teams in the Waves to Water DRINK Stage finale and link to a great video about the prize.

https://www.energy.gov/eere/water/articles/one-year-later-finalists-reflect-waves-water-prize