Melbourne, 10 October 2012

The 15th International Riversymposium in Melbourne, Australia, featured the first-round final of the Australia-Netherlands Water Challenge. Five bright Australian students competed in a poster presentation session, showcasing innovative ideas to enhance flood resilience in their country.

While all presented ideas will be taken forward for further development in the coming months, it was Kevin Loh (far left), Masters student in Integrated Water Management at the University of Queensland, who was announced winner by jury chair Frank Heemskerk (far right), Executive Board Member of Royal HaskoningDHV.

Kevin’s proposal for a smartphone app that would greatly expedite the handling of insurance claims after a flood event, reducing both psychological and economic damage, was judged to have great potential.

Kevin was invited to further develop his app in the Netherlands and was presented a return ticket, sponsored by KLM Royal Dutch Airlines.

(Winner Kevin Loh (middle) in front of his poster presentation together with Gregor van Essen (right), organizer of the Holland Water Challenge and Paul Hart (left) of RoyalHaskoningDHV.)

The Australia-Netherlands Water Challenge is a joint initiative with the International Water Centre in Brisbane (www.watercentre.org). Participating Dutch organisations are Van Oord, Royal HaskoningDHV, Fugro, Netherlands Embassy, Rabobank, KLM and HydroLogic.

More information: www.hollandwaterchallenge.nl/australia-2012-2013. 

Some 30 Masters and PhD students from NUS, NTU and the NUS/TU Delft Double Degree Program gathered in Singapore for an informal “Meet & Greet” with representatives from the Dutch water sector.

The beautiful outdoor setting of the Aquatic Science Centre provided the perfect setting for students to meet and interact informally with the professionals, learn about their activities and explore career opportunities.

The event kicked-off with short presentations about the 2nd edition of the Singapore-Netherlands Water Challenge by Vladan Babovic (Director, Singapore-Delft Water Alliance), Gregor van Essen (Director, Holland Water Challenge) and Martin Smouter (Area Director Asia, Van Oord). They called upon students to make an active contribution by proposing their “Adaptive Solutions for Climate Change”.

Companies and organisations represented include Van Oord, Fugro, Deltares, Delta Marine Consultants, Imtech Marine, PWN Technologies, Singapore-Delft Water Alliance, DutchCham/Netherlands Water House, Optiqua Technologies and the Netherlands Embassy.

Check here for more details about the Singapore-Netherlands Water Challenge.

All pictures from the event can be found at: http://www.facebook.com/Nusdeltares/

Thanks to the partnership with the International Water Centre, the Program Committee of the International Riversymposium has granted a dedicated session to the Australia edition of the Holland Water Challenge (the “Australia-Netherlands Water Challenge”).

In the session, selected students from the first phase of the challenge will showcase their ideas through an interactive 10-minute poster presentation. All session attendees are invited to join the discussions. The winner will be presented with a return-ticket to the Netherlands, sponsored by KLM Royal Dutch Airlines.

Selected students are:
- Kevin Loh (School of Engineering, The University of Queensland)
- Angela Werner (Sustainable Minerals Institute, The University of Queensland)
- Heni Kurniasih (School of Land & Environment, The University of Melbourne)
- Daniella Niddery & Charles Upton (School of Chemical Engineering, The University of Queensland).

Website of the 15th International Riversymposium: www.riversymposium.com

The second edition of the Singapore-Netherlands Water Challenge is now open for participation! Under the theme Adaptive Solutions for Climate Change, we are inviting students worldwide with an interest in environmental sustainability and climate adaptation to propose solutions relating to their own local environment.

This year the programme is again supported by a broad group of companies, universities and government institutes from Singapore and the Netherlands. Main parters are Van Oord, NUSDeltares, PUB and Singapore-Delft Water Alliance. Award sponsors include Fugro, Boskalis, Surbana, Hydronav, Royal HaskoningDHV, YJP Surveyors, DutchCham and the Netherlands Embassy.

Participating students are offered a host of attractive benefits and rewards, such as an invitation for the Grand Final in Singapore, one-on-one contact with experts from industry and academia, several on-campus events and a chance to win the prestigious Singapore-Netherlands Sustainability Award.

It was a remarkable sight during the official opening dinner of the Holland Water Week in Shanghai as five Chinese students took the limelight in the impressive ballroom of the Oriental Riverside Hotel. Enjoying their personal moment of fame, they went from table to table toasting with the many senior government and corporate representatives attending the event from China and the Netherlands.

Just a few hours earlier, these ambitious young water engineers had been on stage to compete for the top honours in the final of the Holland Water Challenge, a competition among the top universities in China in the field of water technology. Launched in January 2010, more than 40 students from 6 universities competed in four consecutive rounds of interviews and presentations, to come-up with the most innovative and commercially attractive proposal for the application of a new water technology.