The U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center is a government facility that helps solve our nation’s most challenging problems.

This week, it was reported that the local arm of ERDC’s environmental lab is on the cutting edge of developing a new water treatment system using a mix of graphene oxide and a byproduct made from shrimp shells.

“What I have been working on most recently is developing membrane technologies out of graphene oxide,” Luke Gurtowski, a research chemical engineer at ERDC, said. “Graphene oxide is one of the most heavily researched materials right now in the scientific world. Not just in water treatment, but in a lot of other ways as well.”

The intent of the project is to develop an effective method to decontaminate wastewater that’s been used to disinfect soldiers or equipment exposed to biohazards during warfare. The membranes, once their ability to be functional on a larger scale has been proven, could also be used to purify drinking water.

The project, which is being funded by the Army, recently won an ERDC research and development award for its new membranes for water filtration.

In addition to Gurtowski, team members on the project include Victor Medina, Chris Griggs, Jose Mattei and Brooke Petery.

Also, while ERDC has been working to solve some of the world’s leading problems, the organization reaches out to the local community.

On Wednesday, ERDC became a classroom for seventh-grade students from the Vicksburg Warren School District’s Academy of Innovation during the annual Round Robin program. The event exposes students to programs and careers available through science, technology, engineering and math programs.

ERDC education outreach coordinator Rick Tillotson said the program “is designed to engage the students in STEM activities to inspire them to pursue some type of STEM career.”

“It gives the students a chance to come out here and see the work that we do here at ERDC,” he said. “Hopefully, it will excite them to go college and get a degree as an engineer or scientist, and we hope when they do that, they’ll come back here to ERDC. We’re kind of seeding the field.”

“It’s pretty cool,” academy student Laila Brown, who is interested in a STEM career, said. “It’s interesting to see the exhibits and how STEM can be used to help improve things and make things more safe; it shows a lot of solutions to problems.”

More positives in Vicksburg:

• On Friday, Warren Central High School beat No. 3 Starkville 23-0. WC, (7-3, 4-2 Region 2-6A) handed Starkville (9-2, 5-1) its first shutout loss since 2009.

• On Sunday, a mixture of churches came together for the Racial Reconciliation Worship Service held at the Word of Faith Christian Center on Wisconsin Avenue in Vicksburg. Mission Mississippi, which is a group that works on breaking religious barriers between denominations, ages, genders and races, hosted the service.