Prize for Mobile Phone Innovation

Alison's project combines micro-fluidic devices, cell-phones and chemical indicators to evaluate water quality. Her innovative method does not only accurately assess the bacteria content of water. It is both significantly faster and up to 200 times less expensive than standard testing procedures.

"This year's winning project reflects truly out of the box thinking to find a solution to an important real world problem that is relevant in both a developing and developed country context. It is the result of a creative, multi-facetted, and long-term effort that was triggered by an actual problem in the local community. It has the potential to revolutionise our ability to monitor water quality in a way that is fast, accurate, more flexible and less expensive than existing technologies," said the International Jury in its citation.

The international winner receives a USD 5,000 award and a prize sculpture. The Stockholm International Water Institute administers the competition, which is sponsored globally by ITT Corporation.

A Diploma of Excellence was given to Prasan Warnakula from Sri Lanka for his project "From pollutant to pulp: industrial symbiosis of textile finishing, paper recycling and pulp production."

The international Jury said, "This year's diploma of excellence is awarded to a project that reflects a refreshing new way of systems thinking that is highly needed for future sustainability. The jury was very impressed by the independent nature of the investigation and especially the innovative approach to conducting the experiments using equipment adapted from items readily available in the home environment. The principle of this detailed project is inspired by nature and will soon be applied in a much larger context: a real world example of industrial symbiosis in a developing country."

Brava! ad maiora e all the best Agata - 25/08/2011 - 09:37