As part of an honors class, a group of undergraduate students studied — through interviews, research and first-hand experience — how towns like New Albany, Clarksville and Jeffersonville, Indiana, benefit from and can better promote kayaking, concerts and other riverside activities.

They worked with the U.S. National Park Service – Rivers, Trails and Conservation Assistance program to conduct river town reviews. The program’s team effort approach to looking with “fresh eyes on enhancing tourism and outdoor recreation” helped these communities explore how they can further realize the benefits of the Ohio River and the development of the 270-mile Ohio River Recreation Trail from Portsmouth, Ohio, to West Point, Kentucky.

“I think the main takeaway is that there is so much potential for the Ohio River and the communities that surround it,” said Forest Clevenger, a political science major who worked on the project. “By focusing on recreation, it not only reinvigorates the economies of these communities, but it makes it so that conservation (of rivers) is an economic asset and something that is supported.”

The results of the students’ research, including observations, models, maps and photos from their trips to the Ohio River Greenway, currently are on display at the main branch of the Louisville Free Public Library. The exhibit, “River of Life: Cities and Towns Along the Mighty Ohio,” is expected to run through the summer.

“The students’ work in this exhibit uses photos and explorations to understand past initiatives that encouraged river recreation,” said David Wicks, who taught the class and also is director of River City Paddle Sports. “They put a lot of work into this and it really shows. Their work could help shed new light on the role of rivers – how they shape and grow our towns.”

The exhibit also spawned an offshoot project called “Ripple Effects: Exploring Water in Louisville.” That project began with a photo contest that asked kids in grades K-12 to capture their feelings about water on film. The goal is to learn more about youth attitudes toward water — what it means to them, its role in their everyday lives and how they engage with it.

Mary Brydon-Miller, professor in the UofL College of ����ֱ�� and Human Development, will prepare a summary of the main themes that come out of the entries to present as part of an upcoming National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration forum on extreme rainfall and community resilience.

“The important thing is the engagement of youth across the Louisville metro area in thinking about the importance of water in our community,” she said. “And asking kids to tell that story in a creative way will tell us a lot about how they see water’s role in their lives.”

Winners of the photo contest will be announced at Louisville Waterfront Park on June 21 and featured in another exhibit at LFPL this fall as part of the Louisville Photo Biennial.

More information on the exhibit, including sponsor listing, is available on , as well as more information on .

The master’s student was outside in the summer heat, filling 500-gallon tanks with potable reclaimed water at the Metropolitan Sewer District’s Floyds Fork Water Quality Treatment Center. The four tanks were heading to four Louisville craft breweries, where the water would be used in some new brews as part of a pilot project.

Shipman, 22, knew better than just about anyone that it was ready to drink. So on that hot July day, he took a couple of gulps.

“And I’m still standing here,” he laughed.

Shipman is one of 20 University of Louisville Speed School students who had a part in the water pilot project, which has been named Next Round Brewing (motto: “Good as New, Great for Brew”). He is using the project for his master’s thesis.

Next Round is a joint effort among UofL, MSD, Louisville Water Co., the breweries, the Kentucky-Tennessee Water Environment Association, the Kentucky-Tennessee section of American Water Works Association and Isopure Corp., the world’s leading manufacturer of FDA-registered equipment for dialysis water treatment, which built the purifier. The goal was to find a way to turn something no one would consider drinking into something everyone would want to drink.

Milad Ebrahimi, a Speed School doctoral graduate who works as an MSD regulatory compliance analyst, had the idea about a year ago. He proposed a capstone project for seniors in the chemical engineering department: What are the best ways to remove enough contaminants from treated wastewater to make it drinkable?��

Five teams of four students each took on different challenges for the small-scale wastewater treatment system, including experimenting with chemicals and filters, adding copper ions and water softeners and zapping the water with UV light. Ebrahimi and his team took the best ideas from each student group and incorporated it into Next Round’s water purification system.��

“They all did a great job,” he said.

The team tested the water, tweaked the system, then tested it again, then tweaked it again. This happened over and over and over and over until, by July, lab tests showed the water met the standards for drinking water. It’s the first time this has been successfully done in Kentucky and Tennessee, Ebrahimi said.

“This process is not fast,” Shipman said. “But quality and safety is not to be rushed.”

An informational video about Next Round emphasizes that the amount of water on Earth is finite, and parts of the world are already struggling with the demand for clean drinking water.��

“Inspiring and promoting dialogue about diversifying our nation’s water portfolio is an important part of a national water strategy,” Ebrahimi wrote in an article describing the project.��

The four breweries — Gordon Biersch, Holsopple Brewing, Akasha Brewing and Apocalypse Brew — will serve their beer Aug. 18 at Louisville’s Waterfront Park during the celebration of water event sponsored by the Water Professionals Conference.��

“The source isn’t really quite as important as what comes out,” said Nick Landers of Gordon Biersch.��

Read about the breweries in this WFPL .��

Check out more about this project here:

The ISLP features a multi-disciplinarian gathering of students working to solve a problem in a foreign culture. Past trips have been to Belize, Botswana, Croatia, the Philippines, and Trinidad and Tobago.��

The Peru ISLP trip was established in part through a relationship with the Andean Alliance for Sustainable Development. AASD is an organization that puts academics and indigenous cultures together to share and collaborate. The students are working on a water project.

“What we’re trying to do is to figure out what we can reasonably do to help them and what the community can accomplish,” said Thomas Rockaway, professor in the civil and environmental engineering department and director for the Center for Infrastructure Research, who is leading the team.

Michael Keibler and Mary Andrade in Speed’s Co-op and Career Development Office, initiated the trip to increase the number of global opportunities for engineering students. This coincides with the development of a global engineering track for co-op students that launches this fall.��

“This is truly a community-based service learning experience and immerses our students in Peruvian cultures, lifestyles, and guides them on how to critically think about the engineering aspects of global problem-framing and solving,” said Keibler. “We are excited about the collaborative effort with the AASD and look to continue to build on the community relationship, and ISLP relationship, for many years to come.”

For Mechanical Engineering junior Melanie Babin, the ISLP offered an opportunity to help in less developed areas to find sustainable, long-term solutions to environmental and technological issues.��

“I believe that technology can improve the quality of life without obscuring traditions and harming the environment,” she said.

Chemical Engineering junior Peyton Paulson said she was optimistic that her team could find a solution that not only satisfies the problem now, but that is modular for the next group to work in the community.

“Upon arriving, we hope to conduct interviews to help further our assessment of the situation,” said Paulson. “We want to know all aspects of the problem before truly forming a ‘solution.’ We want our work to be long lasting and impactful. Whatever solution we outline or implement, we want locals to be happy and eager to maintain it.”

The students and faculty members left July 29 and are set to return August 16.