UT Athletics and BASF announce winners of BASF Team Chemistry Challenge

Last Saturday, UT Athletics and BASF announced the winners to the Team Chemistry Challenge issued to full-time UT students asking them to submit ideas on how to lessen the environmental impact of a Texas Football gameday. Students were asked to outline the problem, offer solutions on how to lessen the impact and provide a detailed blueprint for the execution of the idea. Students also submitted a three-minute video, illustrating their team's personality and supporting their solution.

With $25,000 in prize money on the line, 24 student teams registered. Last Friday, five finalists presented to a panel of BASF and UT staff members. Ideas ranged from new parking solutions and recycling initiatives to harnessing piezoelectricity from fans' footsteps.

"BASF was extremely impressed with the ideas submitted for this challenge. The creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship demonstrate why UT is a core school for us from a talent recruitment perspective. We hope this challenge also helped the students and broader UT community learn more about how BASF creates chemistry for a sustainable future," said Tom Yura, senior Vice President of operations for BASF in Geismar, La., and executive sponsor of BASF's UT School Recruiting Team.

The grand prize winner was team Building Austin's Sustainable Future (BASF). Team members Tyler Fields, Keerti Kalra, Samual Kapust, Katelyn Kelsey, Chase Lansdale, Joshua Osuofa, Lily Nhoisaykham and Judge Sallans proposed the creation of a compostable paper water bottle, titled Mr. Bottle, that could be distributed on gameday and filled at water stations throughout Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium. The bottle produce feature a "mister" cap so it could double as a cooling device, improving the fan experience and safety and reducing the prevalence of plastic water bottles.

"As a part of the Grand Challenges Scholars group, I am interested in inter-disciplinary challenges," said Katelyn Kelsey, a freshman Biomedical Engineering major and member of the winning team. "I hope we can use our product in other events around campus and even in the city of Austin."

During their presentation, team Building Austin's Sustainable Future stated they wanted to come up with a simple and effective solution that could also provide a financial benefit to The University. They worked to come up with a sustainable option that would improve the gameday atmosphere for fans. Mr. Bottle would provide easier access to water, allowing fans to stay hydrated and gain relief from the heat during hot Texas afternoons.

"The Team Chemistry Challenge was a fantastic experience in tapping into the intelligence and creativity of students here at UT," said Merrick MyCue, UT Athletics Assistant Athletics Director for Events, Operations & Specialty Events Operations. "I'm not aware of another program that combines athletics, an industry partner, and students so close together and at the same time works on solutions to relevant problems."

"We ultimately chose this group because they identified a very real problem UT Athletics has on gameday, not only as it relates to sustainability, but also as it relates to the fan experience," said Lauren Lichterman UT Athletics Facilites, Events and Operations Administrative Associate. "They came up with a creative and effective way to combat the problem.

"At the Office of Sustainability, we are always looking for things created in different pockets at The University that we can scale up and implement campus wide," said Jim Walker, Director of Sustainability, UT Austin. "This type of project really shows how there are benefits beyond just athletics to The University and other groups across campus,"

The team was recognized during a special on-field presentation at the annual Orange-White Scrimmage on Saturday, April 19.

The second place team, Team ChemEstry, proposed a multifunctional ID card to replace paper tickets on gameday. Third place winner, Team Bevo Balloon, proposed a disruptive solution to solve the traffic congestion and parking problems associated with gameday with a mobile application that would track traffic in area garages.

"Team Chemistry", a term often used when talking about teamwork and sports, is the platform for this relationship as BASF and UT work to highlight the importance of team chemistry between players, coaches, fans and venues on and off the field.

Learn more about the BASF Team Chemistry Challenge here.

The University of Texas at Austin Athletics

UT Athletics and BASF announce winners of BASF Team Chemistry Challenge