Nine Dominican university students have won the first prize in innovation with their project that converts plastic waste into reinforced concrete building blocks meeting international engineering standards. The civil engineering students at the Instituto Tecnologico de Santo Domingo (INTEC) won the student competition organized by the Latin America and the Caribbean Consortium of Engineering Institutions (LACCEI) held recently in Cancun, Mexico. Arleen Nina, Benito Morantin, Emmanuel Garcia, Melissa Martinez, Alvin Olivo, Irving Feliz, Iyeisys Escorbores, Fannelly Ortiz and Aries Mejia presented the project that was chosen from 32 entries from 44 universities that participated in the student competition, as reported in Hoy.