InVenture Prize finalists include two CEE undergrads

TruePani is one of six finalists competing for the 2016 InVenture Prize. This drinking cup with a removable child mouthpiece has a textured antimicrobial coating that will keep water clean and thereby decrease the risk of diarrheal diseases. This was designed for rural villages in India, but could be used in any area with poor sanitation. The inventors are: Samantha Becker, civil engineering; Sarah Lynn Bowen, business administration; Naomi Ergun, business administration; and Shannon Evanchec, environmental engineering.
 

Undergraduates Samantha Becker and Shannon Evanchec have helped build a better cup — one that’s designed to reduce the risk of diarrheal diseases in rural communities.

Now they’ll compete with five other teams for the InVenture Prize next month.

The live-televised finals will award $20,000 to the winning invention as well as a free patent filing and a spot in a Georgia Tech startup accelerator.

Becker and Evanchec teamed with business administration majors Sarah Lynn Bowen and Naomi Ergun to create the TruePani, a cup with a textured antimicrobial coating to kill bacteria. They team originally designed the cup for rural villages in India, but they said it could be used anywhere with poor sanitation.

Becker is a civil engineering major and Evanchec is studying environmental engineering. Both traveled last summer to Nagpur, India, to work on an ongoing research project using crowdsourcing data to determine water quality in rural communities around the city.

The InVenture Prize finals will air live on GPB across Georgia March 16.

A team that included then-civil engineering major Brandie Banner won the InVenture Prize in 2014 for their inexpensive, mobile latrine design.