News & Events

Summer 2023

• July 2023: Graduate student Ian Song presented "First-Principles Analysis of Gas Extraction from Water using a Hollow Fiber Membrane Module" at the International Water Association Membrane Technology Conference in St. Louis, Missouri.
• June 2023: Trenton Brown successfully defended his M.S. thesis titled "Experimental Validation of Convection-Enhanced Brine Evaporation: Trials at Bench-Scale and Pilot-Scale" on June 13th. Congratulations Trenton!
• June 2023: Natasha gave the keynote presentation “Innovations in nation building and attainment of sustainable development goals: The roles of Academia and Industry” at the Faculty of Engineering and Technology International Conference at the University of Ilorin in Ilorin, Nigeria.
• May 2023: Graduate student Jenn Hoody and Natasha spent a week in Kenya exploring a new research area focused on cooling and dehydration technologies for food loss reduction.

Spring 2023

• May 2023: Mustafa Kaddoura's paper "Design comparative analysis of convection-enhanced evaporation systems" has been published in Applied Thermal Engineering.
• March 2023: PhD student Jenn Hoody has been awarded a Circularity Impact Program Fellowship as part of the NSF Research Traineeship Program, and PhD student Carolyn Bernemann has been awarded an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship. Congratulations Jenn and Carolyn!
• March 2023: Ibrahim, Carolyn, and Natasha went to Nigeria to visit dialysis clinics and other in-country partners for our peritoneal dialysis fluid compounding project.
• February 2023: Nallely Guillen Rodriguez successfully defended her M.S. thesis titled "Modeling of a Solar Thermal Energy Input for an Optimized Convection-Enhanced Evaporation System" on February 9th. Congratulations Nallely!
• January 2023: Graduate student Ali Abdelkawi and Natasha traveled to India over winter break to visit field sites of brine management technologies and work with our industrial partner QuadSun Solar.

Fall 2022

• November 2022: Ibrahim and Natasha attended the American Society of Nephrology annual conference and presented their poster titled "Using Design Ethnography to Identify Barriers to Dialysis Access in Lagos, Nigeria" with Dr. Michelle Rheault from the UMN Medical School Department of Pediatrics. 
• October 2022: Mustafa Kaddoura successfully defended his PhD thesis, titled "Convection-Enhanced Evaporation: Modeling and Optimal Control for Modular Cost-Effective Brine Management," on October 20. Congratulations Dr. Kaddoura!
• October 2022: Natasha presented at the International Desalination Association World Congress in Sydney, Australia, on graduate student Mustafa Kaddoura's work titled "Modeling, optimization, and control of convection-enhanced evaporation for brine volume reduction."

Summer 2022

• August 2022: To continue field testing for the brine management project, Trenton Brown and Ian Manning returned to the Brackish Groundwater National Desalination Research Facility in New Mexico.
• July 2022: Mustafa Kaddoura's paper "Optimization of convection-enhanced evaporation (CEE) using generalized cost ratios" has been published in Water Research. Congrats Mustafa!
• July 2022: Graduate students Trenton Brown and Ali Abdelkawi spent the week at the Brackish Groundwater National Desalination Research Facility in New Mexico to begin field testing for the brine management project.
• July 2022: Natasha and graduate student Carolyn Bernemann traveled to Bogota, Colombia, to attend a peritoneal dialysis training session held by the International Society of Nephrology's Saving Young Lives initiatives, where they also explored dialysis treatment service models in the context of many Latin American countries
• June 2022: Graduate student Mustafa Kaddoura presented "Modeling and Optimal Control of Convection-Enhanced Evaporation (CEE) System for Cost-Effective Brine Volume Reduction" at the European Desalination Conference Desalination for the Environment: Clean Water and Energy in Gran Canaria, Spain.
• June 2022: Micki Grover and Jenn Hoody's work on "Developing design ethnography interviewing competencies for novices" was presented at the ASEE Annual Conference in Minneapolis. This work is a collaboration the between the Wright Lab and Dr. Carlye Lauff in Product Design.

Spring 2022

• May 2022: Ben Szot successfully defended his M.S. thesis, titled "Using Low-cost Sensors to Verify a Fully Mixed Peritoneal Dialysis Solution for On-site Production in Low- and Middle-Income Countries," on May 24. Congratulations Ben!
• March 2022: The paper "Encapsulation technology for decentralized brewery wastewater treatment: A small pilot experiment" has been published in Bioresource Technology. This work is part of an ongoing collaboration with Prof. Bill Arnold and Prof. Paige Novak in the Department of Civil, Environmental, and Geo- Engineering at UMN and Prof. Jeremy Guest from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

2021

• November 2021: Graduate students Asma Ahmed and Matt Chosa traveled to Navajo Nation in Arizona to research brine management in conjunction with desalination for drinking water.
• August 2021: Graduate students Mustafa Kaddoura and Matt Chosa's paper "Mathematical modeling of a modular convection-enhanced evaporation system" has been published in Desalination. This work was in collaboration with our industrial partner QuadSun Solar. Congrats all!
• June 2021: Natasha's paper "Embedding Usage Sensors in Point-Of-Use Water Treatment Devices: Sensor Design and Application in Limpopo, South Africa," a collaboration with researchers from MIT and University of Virginia, has been published in Environmental Science & Technology.

2020

• December 2020: Wright Lab, along with our industrial partner QuadSun Solar, are excited to have been named as one of the quarterfinalists in the U.S. Department of Energy’s American-Made Solar Desalination Prize.
• October 2020: Natasha's paper "Chemical contamination of drinking water in resource-constrained settings: global prevalence and piloted mitigation strategies" was published in Annual Review of Environment and Resources.
• Natasha's paper "Impact of low-cost point-of-use water treatment technologies on enteric infections and growth among children in Limpopo, South Africa" has been published in The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. This work is a huge international collaboration with researchers from the University of Virginia, Emory University, University of Venda, Duquesne University, and University of Toronto.
• January 2020: Graduate student Ben Szot, research scientist Ibrahim Yekinni, and Prof. Wright traveled to Lagos, Nigeria, to further explore the context of kidney dialysis in Nigeria, building on findings from Ibrahim and Jackie's previous trip.

2019

• November 2019: Undergraduate researcher Jackie Warehime and research scientist Ibrahim Yekinni traveled to Lagos, Nigeria, to begin research into the context of dialysis treatment and service models in Nigeria.