H2M’s Max Grabinski Selected for AWWA’s ACE Fresh Ideas Poster Competition

H2M Project Engineer Max Grabinski, P.E., was recently selected to participate in the ACE Fresh Ideas Poster Competition as part of the American Water Works Association’s (AWWA) 2025 Annual Conference & Expo (ACE).

Participants in the competition are students and/or young professionals that were selected at their local section conference to compete at ACE. Max will be converting his presentation from the Connecticut Section AWWA’s annual ATCAVE conference, “Emergency PFAS Treatment and Infrastructure Upgrades at Station No. 44,” into his poster design for the contest.

“I was extremely excited when I found out that I won the Fresh Ideas/Young Professional competition at this year’s ATCAVE conference in March,” Max said. “While I did not know I would be competing for this when I was preparing for my ATCAVE talk, I was thrilled when I found out that the judges had selected my presentation as the winner.”

ACE Fresh Ideas Poster participants get their travel expenses and full ACE registration paid in full in order to compete in the competition. This will be Max’s first-time attending ACE and he is very much looking forward to the experience.

“It’s great that my time and effort put into the presentation for CTAWWA ATCAVE is now paying off in this way.”

Max noted that various attendees came up to him following his ATCAVE presentation to share their appreciation for the presentation. He added that his peers related to the challenges water supplies face with new state and federal regulations, as well as the pressure to implement treatment projects quickly while dealing with all the associated logistics.