The American National Standards Institute (ANSI), coordinator of the U.S. voluntary standardization system, and its Committee on Education (CoE) are pleased to announce the winners of the 2023 student paper competition. Jayashree Balakumar, Jindal School of Management, University of Texas at Dallas is the first-place winner, and Tiffany Guess of the University of Tennessee in Chattanooga (UTC) Graduate School of Business won second place. The competition is part of an annual ANSI-led effort to raise awareness about the strategic importance of standards and conformance among U.S. undergraduate and graduate students.
Participants were asked to submit papers illustrating the theme, “Standards Supporting United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.” The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) serve as a call to action for all nations to promote health, safety, and prosperity while protecting the planet. The SDGs stem from the UN's 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development outlining 17 goals that recognize that ending poverty and other deprivations require strategies that improve health and education, reduce inequality, and spur economic growth—while tackling climate change and working to preserve oceans and forests.
The winning paper, titled “Waste Disposition Management: An Enabler to Achieve the United Nations' SDG #3 within the Pharmaceutical Industry,” examines the regulatory frameworks and laws of the pharmaceutical industry in the United States versus international practices in managing waste and the challenges of collecting and disposing of/recycling pharmaceutical waste at the household level. Balakumar also investigates the role of regulatory frameworks in facilitating an effective disposition management program that can reduce the environmental impact of pharmaceutical waste.
The second place entry, “Wonderful Water: How Standards Can Achieve Clean Water and Sanitation for the World,” discusses the standards created by committees within the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and ASTM International, and how these standards can play a role in achieving clean water and sanitation for the world.
Each winner will receive a cash prize for their paper. The ANSI student paper competition was open to students of any discipline enrolled in an associate, undergraduate, or graduate-level program at a U.S. academic institute of higher learning.
ANSI will announce details about the 2024 student paper competition soon. For more information about the competition or the ANSI Committee on Education, please contact Lisa Rajchel ([email protected]).