Department of Chemistry

The University of Utah’s Wilkes Center for Climate Science and Policy recently hosted their annual Climate Solutions Hackathon - an event where great minds come together to find creative solutions to a specific climate-related problem. This year’s hackathon was focused on finding solutions to the various aspects of water resources. Graduate and undergraduate students from a range of disciplines were challenged to team up and develop a proposal and presentation within 24 hours. The teams of three to five had one day to create and propose an innovative, data-driven solution via a slide deck and short presentation promptly due the next morning.

Chemistry graduate students Zinan Yu, Thibaut Martinon, Maryam Amirpour, and Maria Quiros placed third out of sixteen participating groups and were awarded a prize of $1000 with their innovative proposal titled “PhosCycle”. Their proposal focused on the issue of agriculture, nutrient scarcity, and pollution, which affects a considerable amount of fresh water in the U.S. Their solution, in summary, is to secure existing water resources from further nutrient pollution by implementing the use of phosphate-capturing buoys, simultaneously addressing increasing global insecurity of fertilizer by remediating and reusing phosphate from water sources.

“The hackathon taught us a great deal about fast-paced problem-solving, teamwork, and adaptability under pressure,” said Maryam Nobles. “One of the most surprising takeaways was realizing how much we could accomplish in just 24 hours—something new for most of us. It also provided a valuable perspective on how academic research can be translated into real-world applications, industrialized, and structured to attract funding for underexplored yet critical issues.”

Congratulations to Zinan Yu, Thibaut Martinon, Maryam Amirpour, and Maria Quiros!