Meet The 14-Year-Old Girl Who Developed A Low-Cost Water Purification System

Deepika Kurup just won $25,000 for a device that uses the power of the sun to kill bacteria in water.

The next generation of scientists is already hard at work solving our biggest problems. Take Deepika Kurup, a 14-year-old high school student from Nashua, New Hampshire. After seeing children in India drinking dirty water from a stagnant pool, she decided, in her words, “to find a solution to the global water crisis.” And then she actually made some progress towards that goal, developing a solar-powered water purification system.

Kurup’s low-cost invention just won her $25,000 in The Discovery Education 3M Young Scientist Challenge–a high-stakes science competition for students in 5th to 8th grade (Kurup entered the competition before she was in high school). This was her second time entering; in 7th grade, she took first place in her state.

This time around, Kurup spent three months toiling away at the project, foregoing vacations and summer camp to leaf through PhD papers about water purification methods. She spoke with her mentor at 3M every day. And she tested the purification system independently in her backyard with contaminated water taken from the Nashua wastewater treatment facility. She ultimately came up with a system that exposes titanium oxide and zinc oxide to sunlight, creating a chemical reaction that generates hydroxyl radicals, which in turn can kill harmful bacteria.

Kurup used her system for one set of testing; the other was a control. She counted bacteria before and after purification (with 3M petrifilms), and discovered that water which had gone through her composite–which costs about half a cent per gram–had significantly fewer coliform units and E.Coli colonies in a matter of hours.

14-Year-old is America’s Top Young Scientist: Her Solar-Powered Jug Purifies

Unlike today’s popular water purification methods–using UV lamps that require electricity or chemicals that give water a nasty smell and taste–Kurup’s method can run off-grid, generating fresh-tasting water. She has competition from innovative water filtration systems like LifeStraw, of course, but this isn’t the last we’ll see of Kurup’s inventions.

The high school freshman hopes to work with Discovery and 3M on developing the water filtration project. She’s also interested in speaking with other companies that could help with funding. “My next step is applying for a patent,” she says. “I want to start a nonprofit organization to deploy my innovation.”

After graduation, Kurup wants to become a neurologist. But first, more science competitions. “Science is really my passion,” she says.

Facebook Fever High among Indian Students

 

Facebook has become a part of youngsters’ life now. The numbers of Facebook users are rising day by day in India. The increasing Facebook obsession is creating tension among parents since the children show more interest in using Facebook than any other form of entertainment.

The recent TCS GenY survey uncovers this increasing trend among the urban high school students across India. Survey points out that only 0.71 percent of urban students use television for entertainment while the number of school students who use Facebook increased from 17 percent in 2009 to 85 percent now.

The survey says that Facebook is the favorite among students to connect with their peer group. Other social sites like Orkut and India-based networks like Apnacircle, iBibo and Hi5 have more popularity only in mini-metros compared to metros. As per the survey reports Twitter has not yet achieved much popularity among children in India.

The survey finds out that 84.3 percent of urban children in India use internet from their homes. The students who use internet at cyber cafes have decreased from 46 percent in 2009 to 20 percent now. “Research for School” is the main access for students to use computers at school and most of the time it is followed by the social reasons like chatting/connecting with friends and listening to music. 74 percent children use internet for school-related research. The number of Indian students who access internet through PC is 68 percent.

Other findings of survey say that among gadgets children prefer mobile phone for communication. Survey figures 79 percent children who own mobile phones. 59 percent of students make voice calls to communicate and the 45 percent use email as a mode of communication. Interestingly 33 percent of students spent more than one hour on internet every day and 34 percent prefer IT as the first option for a career.

It is true that Facebook has a screening system where the birth date of the applicants is being asked and those below the prescribed are rejected.  But the children are clever enough to create accounts through false birth dates.

Federal Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 (COPPA) has been restricting the children under 13 who post personal information on Facebook that can be publicly viewed. The act forbids sites from the knowing disclosing of children’s personally identifiable information. “We are very concerned about kids eliding around COPPA’s restrictions,” Federal Trade Commission chair Jon Leibowitz said. The findings prove that even these restrictions are not enough in front of our clever children.

The consumer reports’ survey also says that only 18 percent of parents make their child a Facebook friend. Parents are largely unconcerned about their children since only 10 percent of parents of kids 10 and under had open talks about appropriate online behavior and threats.

All the surveys reveals out the fact that the future generation is very much technology oriented. When the basic instinct to communicate itself is accomplished by social networks like Facebook, addiction towards technology is increasing on children. The time when the social values replace scientific values is not far away.

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