The Discovery Education 3M Young Scientist Challenge is a high prize science competition that was developed for gifted science students between the 5th to 8th grade taking place annually since 2008. During this tenure some excellent talent has been discovered through this platform; discovering you minds that give something new to the world of science with their hard work and devotion.
However, the story of Deepika Kurup, a 14 year old high school student from Nashua, New Hampshire, the winner of this year’s competition and gained $25,000 in prize money for her incredibly innovative water refinement system powered by sunlight, is slightly different.
Not only does the young lady possess a great passion for science, but she also has a great affection for humankind. When Kurup saw some children drinking dirty water from a pond in India, she decided, as best summarized in her own words, “to find a solution to the global water crisis.” This motivation led her to the development of an inexpensive solar power-driven water refinement system.
With this invention Kurup grabbed the first position in her state by partaking in The Discovery Education 3M Young Scientist Challenge for the second time, as earlier she had participated in this competition when she was not yet in the Junior school.
To win the prize Kurup came fully prepared for her second go, as she worked exclusively on this project for three months, during which she not only went through PhD documents on water refinement methods, but also remained in constant touch with her mentor at 3M. She then began testing her purification system alone in her backyard by taking contaminated water from a waste water treatment facility in Nashua.
Finally Kurup was able to develop a system that was in some ways similar to traditional water filters, but unlike them this system does not uses UV lamps lighted with chemicals or electricity. In fact it uses sunlight to create a chemical reaction that produces hydroxyl radicals, when zinc oxide and titanium oxide are exposed to the sun. This chemical reaction eradicates the harmful bacteria from the water and gives it a fresh taste. In this way Kurup provided harmless and drinkable water through her solar power-driven water refinement system, which taste and smells great too.
The high school student will now look to further develop this water purification system by working with both Discovery and 3M. In addition to this, she is also interested in speaking with different companies to help her with funding. As after winning the award Kurup said that “My next step is applying for a patent.” And “I want to start a nonprofit organization to deploy my innovation.”
Source: FastCoExist
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