Studierende stehen konzentriert vor einem Laptop
The competition offers international water management students a valuable opportunity to test their expertise in a team. Photo: DWA, Credit: Alex Fettich

The world’s top students in the field of water engineering are from Austria. The student team of TU Wien took home the first prize at the fourth edition of the World University Challenge, which is organised by the German Association for Water, Wastewater and Waste (DWA) during the IFAT in Munich. The silver and bronze medals went to the teams of the University of Technology Nuremberg and Duisburg Essen University. Overall, 14 student teams took part in the contest.

The challenge gives highly motivated international water management and engineering students a valuable opportunity to apply their technical knowledge in a team and, above all, build their personal network with international experts from the water industry. “This approach also ties in very well with the funding aims of the Wilo-Foundation. That is why we are supporting the challenge for the fifth consecutive time and plan to continue our support in 2026.”

Die Siegerteams des DWA-Wettbewerbs auf der IFAT 2024
Happy winning teams at the DWA competition at IFAT 2024 Photo: DWA, Credit: Alex Fettich
Führung von Fachexperten der Wilo Gruppe zum Thema Wasser auf dem Messestand
Guided tour by experts from the Wilo Group on the subject of water at the trade fair stand. Photo: Wilo-Foundation

Before the award ceremony, students from Turkey and South Africa were invited by Evi Hoch (member of the Executive Board of the Wilo-Foundation) to an event hosted by the Wilo Foundation where they were given a warm welcome by Evi Hoch and learned more about the foundation’s social funding activities. Afterwards, technical experts of the Wilo Group gave the students a guided tour of the trade fair stand and shared their insights from the water sector. The event was also attended by two Germany Scholarship holders from the “Sustainable Water Management” master’s programme at Hof University.

The key objective of the University Challenge is to promote young water management engineers from China (Shanghai), India (Mumbai), South Africa (Johannesburg) and Turkey (Istanbul). In order to give the winning teams from these countries the opportunity to participate in the biennial DWA World University Challenge as part of the Munich IFAT, the Wilo-Foundation has been sponsoring their airfares and participation fees since 2016. Unfortunately, the team from India was unable to come to Munich this year due to visa issues. For the first time, IFAT Brasil, too, organised a University Challenge with 8 participating this year. The winners will also be attending IFAT 2026 in Munich with financial support from the Wilo-Foundation.

Evi Hoch (Vorstandsmitglied Wilo-Foundation) beglückwünscht das Siegerteam der TU Wien
The TU Vienna team took first place in the fourth World University Challenge. Photo: DWA, Credit: Alex Fettich