Santa Clara University, $5,000
The difficulty of detecting small quantities of arsenic and other contaminants in water threatens the health of millions of people worldwide. Existing technologies can very accurately quantify arsenic levels in water, but their expense, required training, and need for off-site analysis make them infeasible in low-resource settings. AquaSift is an integrated system combining a microfluidic sensor, data acquisition mobile app, and web-based data logging ecosystem that allows for quick, easy, error-proof evaluation of water sources for a variety of contaminants, including arsenic.