India is one of the most polluted countries, according to the World Health Organization, and access to clean drinking water is a growing concern for the Indian subcontinent. But the solution must be low-cost and accessible, which is why two Syracuse University students explored how the sari, a traditional Indian garment, can better filter safe drinking water.

During her junior year, Nikita Chatterjee, a senior finance and economics major, participated in Capital One’s Women Entrepreneurs Make a Difference in Communities program, which funds women-run businesses. The goal of the program is to create a business solution for low-income communities, Chatterjee said. After learning of the drinking water crisis in India, where her family is from, she focused her project on water quality and clean water access.

With the help of her roommate, senior public health major Brianna Howard, and Linda Hartsock, the executive director of SU’s innovation hub Blackstone LaunchPad, Chatterjee decided to use a sari cloth for water filtration.

To develop the technical side of their invention, Hartsock, who had advised them on their business model and marketing, referred Chatterjee and Howard to Invent@SU, a summer program at the College of Engineering and Computer Science that’s centered on prototype building and culminates in a pitch competition.

The designed sari includes four disinfecting pouches and one pouch containing a sensory mechanism.  Lucy Messineo | Contributing Photographer

“That was our way of kind of also bridging the gap between our skills and what we were missing at that time,” Howard said. “And so it really helped us push forward with what our idea was and also validate that it could happen.

Chatterjee and Howard said the design is inspired by the sari folding process. The filtration process begins with the cloth, which is then folded in layers alternating with four pouches of disinfectants, and one pouch containing a sensory mechanism. Water is then poured from above and filtered into a bucket underneath.

For Chatterjee and Howard, the challenge was to balance the device’s cultural and practical implications. Chatterjee said that they wanted to keep many of the traditional aspects and “methodology” that women already use in India.

“We did a lot of research on how they filter their water and why they do it that way,” Chatterjee said. “We basically decided to keep the sari cloth and the traditional folding method to mimic that behavior — just enhance it with technology — so they feel more comfortable using it and it’s a more familiar process.”

Jaclyn Hingre, a mechanical engineering master’s student and teaching assistant for the 10 Invent@SU teams, said that Chatterjee and Howard demonstrated their work ethic by coming in on the weekends.

“The work was hard,” said Howard. “For us, especially as non-engineer or design (majors), we knew that we had to put in twice as much effort, if not more.”

At the pitch competition, Chatterjee and Howard won first place, along with a $5,000 prize. They also patented their device and formed their own global health startup company, titled PAANI, translated to “water” in Hindi. Chatterjee and Howard also pitched their idea to business plan competitions and won an award in the clean tech division at the New York Business Plan Competition in April as the best women-owned student venture in the state, Hartsock said.

Chatterjee and Howard said they will visit the Indian Institute of Technology during winter break to measure customer feedback, network with investors and work out logistics. Prior to visiting India, Hartsock said she will accompany the pair to New York City to pitch their device to startup accelerator, Techstars, in hopes of perfecting the system and raising funding. They also expect to receive support from crowdfunding.

Chatterjee and Howard are now working to expand their company by recruiting a social media manager and chemical-environmental engineer. They are also working to refine the device by finding a way to manufacture and mass distribute it pre-assembled.

PAANI’s goal is to expand to other underdeveloped countries, and have the device catered toward whatever a country’s traditional cloth is, Chatterjee said. But their technology will adhere to their mission of being affordable and accessible, as Howard said they aren’t looking to get rich off of their design.

“In terms of practicality, you have to take yourself out of this definition of what practical means in America and put yourself in the slums of India and decide what’s practical for that specific place, and I think that’s what we really wanted to focus on,” Chatterjee said.

Published on September 15, 2019 at 11:34 pm

Contact Austin: aclamb@syr.edu | @AustinCLamb