Arup K. SenGupta, the P.C. Rossin Professor and Chair of the department of civil and environmental engineering

Arup K. SenGupta, the P.C. Rossin Professor and Chair of the department of civil and environmental engineering, has been chosen to compete as a finalist in the Mondialogo Engineering Award Symposium in Berlin, Germany, in May.
An international jury meeting in Stuttgart, Germany, in March selected SenGupta to give a presentation on Providing arsenic-free water in remote villages in West Bengal, India.
Mondialogo, a joint venture of UNESCO and DaimlerChrysler, promotes dialogue, understanding and exchange among young people of different cultures.
The symposium is the organization's first worldwide contest for engineers who are developing sustainable technical improvements in developing countries.
Proposals were received from 111 research groups at universities around the world. Forty finalists were chosen to travel to Berlin to compete. As many as 20 awards, totaling 300,000 euros in prize money, will be given out. Winners will be announced during a ceremony at the end of May in Berlin.
Projects will be judged for technical excellence, sustainability, feasibility and intercultural dialogue among members of the research group.
The symposium will include workshops on sustainable development, panel discussions and presentations, as well as tours of Berlin and of DaimlerChrysler facilities.
SenGupta has developed a cheap, effective system that removes arsenic from drinking groundwater. With help from students and professors at Bengal Engineering College in India, he has installed his system in 135 villages in the state of West Bengal, India.
The World Health Organization estimates that as many as 100 million people in India and Bangladesh drink groundwater that contains toxic levels of arsenic.
WHO calls this phenomenon the largest mass poisoning of a population in history.