(April 20, 2023) This spring, GSAP students worked collaboratively for several months online with students from the Middle East University (MEU) in Jordan to participated in the competitive Global Solutions Sustainability Challenge (GSSC). The binational team choose to address the United Nations’ “Sustainable Development Goal Six: Clean Water and Sanitation,” which recognizes that access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene is the most basic human need for health and well-being. The USF-MEU team developed a “Smart Water Quality Monitoring and Filtration System” solution that strives to improve water quality in communities that are disproportionately impacted by industrial production. Their proposal included a monitoring and filtering system that measures water quality parameters; initiates corrective treatment and filtration actions that, powered by solar energy, kill bacteria; and then distributes the purified water to households and farms through a network of pipes and taps.
The sustainability challenge was sponsored by CBSI and facilitated by USF international business professor Vivian Faustino and MEU business professor Dr. Fayez Albadri. The USF-MEU team placed as a runner up among twelve teams from universities and colleges in the US, Jordan and Iraq. Very importantly, the challenge provided students with genuine cultural immersion, the experience of working collaboratively across borders to develop meaningful solutions to complex problems, and personal friendships and professionals connections that extend well beyond the University.
Congratulations to USF students Hemil Doshi, Tokunbo Kila, Ananya Beevanapalli, Rhoel Guintivano, Saad Khan, Adelina Yuan, and Zhenyu Liu for their outstanding work! Thank you to Professor Faustino for her excellent leadership!
Watch the Pitched Videos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yH6kpyb7DH4
