Strengthening the Future of Water Power through Collegiate Competitions

[Applause] look at any picture of the students winning that competition and that is just it's just Irreplaceable this is a unique moment it's a historical moment that there has been so much interest in renewable energy and I feel that we should capitalize on this opportunity where everyone is coming together and trying to do something so that we can sustain uh literally life on Earth for coming Generations as we transition to a clean energy future we need a diverse and skilled Workforce across all clean energy sectors one of the ways the water power Technologies office or wpto is supporting Workforce Development is through Collegiate competitions these competitions help address real world problems that are important to the industry and provide Hands-On learning experiences to complement what students might already be doing in classrooms young professionals with new ideas and a passion for the work are critical to the continued success of the hydropower and Marine energy sectors the Collegiate competitions aim to cultivate just that the talent the drive and the knowledge and skills needed for a successful career in this space wpto first entered the Collegiate competition space in 2019 with the Marine energy collegate competition looking at Marine energy the it's a nent industry very new and it's still really very much so in the R&D phase um and so getting students at a university level interested in it and helping to really do a lot of that research which then can be taken into the real world into industry um is so necessary for that industry to be able to progress but it's not only new industries that experience Workforce challenges and so wpto created the hydropower collegate competition a few years later in order to get more students focused on hydropower educated on hydrop power we need to get it in schools and one of the ways to do that is to Intrigue them with competition these competitions provide an opport Unity for students to learn about different Renewable Energy Technologies gain experience addressing real world problems learn about different careers in water power and meet and network with members of the hydro and Marine energy Industries I quite simply would not be working here at Ona right now if it weren't for the Marine energy Collegiate competition it was through the competition Forum that I learned that Ona was hiring and through connections I had made with the competition coordinators that I was able to directly network with Ona and end up getting hired into my dream job directly out of graduating University with the science the technical skills it's hard to have a language that you can span very easily so having something very concrete that we were all working on together was a somewhat unique experience within the Sciences itself like I think it's not even just about hydr power water power I think it's a part of scientific education Brit large to have everybody work on something together and see how like the things from the classroom are actually applied two real world situations clean energy Industries like hydropower and Marine energy need many talented Engineers but in order to be truly successful these industries also need environmental scientists business managers and communicators among others this is why collegia competition teams must be multi-disciplinary and evolve team members with different skill sets helping competitors understand that a diverse mix of skills background and experiences are required to move the water power industry forward Innovation is the key we need to continue to innovate uh be very creative uh be critical thinkers in regards to solving those problems they're not textbook uh challenges and so therefore we can't have textbook Solutions and so by uh nurturing these uh best practices and these common uh ideas and then uh going to the next step to create some of these innovative solutions is so important and valuable if you're passionate about Hydro power Marine energy or the clean energy transition we have a space for you in our Collegiate competition Community let's learn together and support one another as we work diligently to advance these Technologies whether you are looking to form a team Mentor student competitors or higher competition alumni there are many ways you can get involved visit the water power Collegiate competitions website now and see how you can contribute to our Clean Energy Future