Invent for the Planet

Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi held its Invent for the Planet (IFTP) competition from February 10-12, 2023. IFTP is a 48-hour team competition where participants find solutions for world problems in topics such as resource equity, energy solutions, social issues, environmental affairs, and improving developing nations. One of the competing teams, which named themselves Izzy Filter, built a water filter that reduces contaminants in water, since 2.2 billion people around the world don’t have access to clean water. 

Izzy Filter’s members included Bright Chinemerem Nnadi ’23 and Nadia Khodja ’23, electrical engineering majors; Remi Labeille ’23, chemistry major; Ramadan Abdelrehim ’24, who is working on a Ph.D. in coastal and marine system Science; and Nolan Bell ’23, mechanical engineering major. At the start of the competition, the students collaborated on what would best decrease water contamination and be marketable all over the world. Izzy Filter built a water filter that has several separation stages to make sure all the bacteria and debris are removed from the water and safe for use. They built two prototypes of the filter, a larger one that could connect to a house to support a family and a handheld size for portable use. Izzy Filter created these prototypes using a 3D printer housed in the university’s I-Create Lab, located in the Mary & Jeff Bell Library.

“The competition was challenging because you are working on very little sleep, so your mind is not functioning 100%. But, you are pushing yourself to your limit, and I learned more in those 48 hours than I have in a year,” Abdelrehim said. 

Izzy Filter won first place at the competition, along with a $1,000 award and the opportunity to advance to the next level of competition at Texas A&M University-College Station in April. At the global design competition in College Station, the team won the People’s Choice award.