On Monday April 24, The Earth Foundation held an all-virtual event, The Earth Prize 2023 Awards Ceremony, to announce the winner and finalists of its $200,000 environmental sustainability competition for teens. More than 1,270 student teams from more than 1,000 schools in 116 countries and territories have registered for the 2023 edition of the competition.
The Delavo team, made up of four young women, Yagmur, Avjin, Damla and Irmak from Diyarbakir, southeastern Turkey, was proclaimed the winner of the USD 100,000 grand prize that comes with the title of Land Prize Winner 2023. The prize money will be divided equally between the team members and the educational institution where they enrolled for the competition, Bahçeşehir Koleji Fen ve Teknoloji Liseleri (Diyarbakir Bahcesehir College for Science and Technology High School).
Drawing inspiration from the problem of water scarcity due to droughts in the Tigris river basin, where they live, the team’s winning idea is the “ECaundry” device, which addresses the fact that 20 gallons (75 liters) of wastewater The toxic substances from each load of laundry in the world’s washing machines contaminate the soil and groundwater. Once the ECaundry is connected to the machine, its integrated hollow ultrafiltration tubes and carbon filter treat and reuse the wastewater from the laundry, thus conserving more than 90% of it.
Avjin Aktop, a member of Team Delavo, was visibly moved when he told The Earth Foundation CEO Angela McCarthy upon hearing the news of their win: “This means a lot to us! We find the filing process quite difficult as we are highly restricted by geographic and financial borders. We didn’t expect to be the winners.” His teammate Damla Aslan added: “This moment feels unreal. We are very grateful because we all work hard for this. We are delighted to see that it really paid off!”
Three runner-up teams were also announced and awarded a $25,000 prize for each of their schools. These three teams are Team Agripod (Leicester Grammar School, UK), which created a soil data collection system that advises farmers on the optimal time to apply fertilisers, thereby reducing fertilizer waste by 70%; Team Bactoplastics (Winchester College, UK), who designed a novel and cost-effective method of producing biodegradable thermoplastics that can replace most petroleum-based plastics used in packaging; and Team Agrivision (Poly, USA), which created an autonomous system that uses hyperspectral imaging to perform live plant health analysis on crops to identify signs of disease during the early treatable stages, thus reducing the risk of disease. main cause of crop losses.
The Educator of the Year Award went to Kathy Dada, Professor of Chemistry at the Collège des Sœurs des Saints Cœurs (SSCC) in Ain Najm, Lebanon, for her outstanding contribution to environmental education and her community. The Mentors of the Year Awards were presented to Stephen Okoth (Oberlin College, USA), Chloe Luzar Macquarie University, Australia) and Pierfrancesco Merico (University of St. Gallen, Switzerland) for their outstanding guidance and support to the participants of the competence.
The Earth Foundation is a non-profit organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, whose goal is to inspire, educate, advise, and empower students and young entrepreneurs with innovative ideas to address environmental challenges.
The full ceremony can be seen at The Earth Prize Youtube channel.
For more information please visit The land prize or contact [email protected]
eSchool Media staff cover educational technology in all its aspects, from legislation and litigation to best practices, lessons learned and new products. First published in March 1998 as a monthly print and digital newspaper, eSchool Media provides the news and information needed to help K-20 decision makers successfully use technology and innovation to transform schools and universities and achieve their educational goals.
