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This study of constructed wetland design investigated relationships between macrophyte species selection and planting density for water quality improvement. A lab-scale wetland was compared against a pilot-scale wetland in San Antonio, Texas, at Mitchell Lake to measure differences in effluent water quality improvement using three native macrophyte species. Using a novel, two-phase method, a targeting macrophyte was identified from among Olney’s bulrush (Schoenoplectus americanus), hardstem bulrush (Schoenoplectus acutus), and California bulrush (Schoenoplectus californicus), based on its marked capability for improving water quality factors, then it was planted in varied majority densities to compare differences in treatment effectiveness. The results showed that the planting density with 50% giant bulrush, 25% Olney’s bulrush, and 25% hardstem improved conductivity removal by 34% and increased dissolved oxygen by 3713% as compared to the Mitchell Lake pilot-scale results. The 70% and 90% majority density plantings (giant bulrush) were not shown to be as effective for the tested parameters, indicating diminishing returns as the vegetation density increasingly becomes a monoculture within the system. The results of this study showed that this complementary approach to wetland design displayed significant improvement in certain treatment parameters than the evenly planted species distribution of the pilot study. These findings demonstrate that the constructed wetland design can be optimized by selecting and planting macrophytes based on their effectiveness in targeting site-specific water quality concerns by capitalizing on their individual traits within complex wetland systems. 

The SUCCESS project’s main goal is to recruit, retain, and graduate low-income STEM students at WVU Tech and this abstract contains updates for Year 2. The recruitment activities started in early 2021 and continued during the summer of 2021 to form Cohort 1 and during the summer of 2022 to form Cohort 2. Currently, there are 19 scholars/students in the program. 12 new students (10 Computer Science (CS) and 2 Information Systems (IS) majors) were accepted in Fall 2022 and these 12 students are forming Cohort 2. 6 students were accepted into Electrical Engineering (EE) (4), Computer Engineering (CpE) (1), and CS (1) programs in Fall 2021. 2 EE and 1 CS students entered the program in Spring 2022. Two students (both EEs) stopped out of school for mainly their personal issues. These 7 students are forming Cohort 1. So far, scholars have completed at least one entrepreneurship course, attended career fairs, met with industry mentors, and attended senior design presentation events. Some of the scholars work with faculty on research projects. Students are actively engaging with the IEEE/ACM student branches and some of the scholars took leadership positions in these organizations. The SUCCESS team is regularly collecting and analyzing feedback from scholars to ensure that the necessary improvements are implemented. Every semester, scholars’ feedback is collected through pre-, mid-, and post-surveys. These surveys provide insights into scholars’ course/program performance, career updates, and also the level of persistence toward their program of study and entrepreneurship minor. This project is funded by NSF DUE S-STEM Program from 2021-2026.