P R O F ESSOR
J A M ES SMITH
PURE WATER FOR THE WORLD
N
ews reports make it abundantly clear that one skill
leaders in the 21st century need is the ability to bridge
the cultural gap between the developed and developing
worlds. This gap makes it difficult to forge long-term
solutions to virtually every global challenge, from peace
and security to climate change and health care. Thanks to
their participation in Professor James Smith’s PureMadi and
MadiDrop projects, Engineering School students are adding
cross-cultural communication and design to their technical
expertise as they introduce inexpensive ceramic water
treatment technologies to rural communities in South Africa.
Smith, the Henry L. Kinnier Professor of Civil and
Environmental Engineering, has worked for more than a
decade to refine and develop water purification technologies
that are appropriate for developing countries. His PureMadi
filter looks like a clay pot and can easily be produced by
local potters with local materials. The MadiDrop, a ceramic
tablet about twice the thickness of a hockey puck, is infused
with a disinfecting silver solution and will be mass produced
and distributed.
Scores of undergraduate students from the Engineering
School and the rest of the University have worked with him
to develop and test these technologies. Chloe Rento (ChE
’16), Veronica Son (CEE ’16) and graduate student Beeta
Ehdaie spent a year in the lab adjusting, among other things,
the MadiDrop’s composition and shape, to optimize the
release of water-purifying silver. U.Va. students have also
been involved in field-testing both projects. With financing
from the University’s Jefferson Public Citizens program,
Rento, Son and Sydney Turner (CEE ’15) spent two months
this past summer evaluating the performance of the filters
and MadiDrops in South African households. They analyzed
the quality of water before and after it was treated, and such
factors as the amount of disinfecting silver that was released.
Among other issues, they had to consider ways to involve
local participants in the project, a process they might have
taken for granted in the United States. “I knew when the
participants started asking me about the results of our water
testing, and when their neighbors started asking to use their
water, that we had come a long way in engaging them in the
technology,” Turner says.
This year, undergraduates will work with Smith to optimize
production processes for the MadiDrop. Smith has set up a
prototype-manufacturing facility at the Engineering School
Research Facility on Observatory Hill. “There are so many
opportunities for students to learn valuable lessons from
a project like this,” Smith says. “Whether it’s how to detect
waterborne pathogens or build relationships with people
from other cultures, it’s all relevant to engineering.”
U.Va. ENGINEERING UNBOUND
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