St Andrew’s students develop prototype to help farming communities impacted by drought
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Two Year 10 St Andrew’s Anglican College students have developed an award-winning prototype designed around the philosophy of a clean, safe and sustainable future for how we generate water
Imagine a world where there was no drought and access to clean, safe and sustainable water was no longer a problem.
Two students at St Andrew’s Anglican College are one step closer to making this a reality, winning the Gen[in] Student Entrepreneurial challenge and $4000 prize money on Friday.
Year 10 students Kia and Ethan have developed ‘Gen Aquarius’, a product that has been designed around the philosophy of a clean, safe and sustainable future for how we generate water.
The device, which they have developed through extensive research and community consultation, uses a nanofibre to collect water from the atmosphere around it, alleviating the need for a pre-existing water-source.
“This problem needs to be addressed here and now, not just for the farmers and their livestock, but for our planet’s sake. We considered how we could create a commodity that would benefit people living in areas where clean drinking water is scarce,” Kia said.
“We don’t do enough for them in this harsh times. However when we work together, we can make real change happen. So join us on our journey to make a difference; we are passionate for our national community and this is our message.”
The design has been carefully constructed to ensure it is safe (reliable, strong), clean (materials, components and smart) and that the best materials and manufacturing techniques are used.
Kia and Ethan joined the gen[in] challenge earlier this year, and were shortlisted as a finalist from more than 250 entries. They then spent two days workshopping with business mentors, fine tuning their idea and gathering information and feedback from industry professionals.
“We had been feeling very confident with regards to nailing our concept and delivering it effectively to the judges,” Kia said.
“We took the advice of our business mentors on board and being flexible with change and open to suggestions, practised a lot for our presentation and did loads of research to make sure that the product was unique and valuable.”
The next steps for this dynamic duo are to create an MVP (minimal viable product) and enter the testing phase with real farmers.
“We will use Kia’s family garage to manufacture our product in-house in the beginning stages. This is where we will begin our journey to establish Gen Aquarius,” Ethan said.
“We will continue to make improvements until it meets customer satisfaction and are focused towards making a fully functional product to begin selling in the near future.”
Kia and Ethan plan to enter more entrepreneurial competitions to further increase their innovation portfolio.
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