A team of students from India recently won the Xylem Water Prize for their video on how to solve water. The competition was part of the International Junior Science Olympiad, which this year had the theme “Water and Sustainability”.
The 14th annual International Junior Science Olympiad 2017 was held in the Netherlands in December 2017. Students aged 15 and under from 50 countries competed with one another in physics, biology and chemistry.
As a sponsor of the Olympiad, Xylem launched the first Xylem Water Prize, which invited participating students to produce a video answering the question: “How do you solve water?” All submissions were evaluated for impact, clarity, creativity and innovation by an international judging panel.
Xylem President and CEO Patrick Decker announced the winners of the prize during the Olympiad’s opening ceremony:
“The threats to our water resources have never been greater, but increasingly there are sustainable solutions to these challenges driven by advanced technologies,” Decker said. “This is the next generation of the world’s problem-solvers and innovators, and they won’t let their thinking or curiosity be constrained by the traditional models of the past. I couldn’t be more proud to support the International Junior Science Olympiad, and hope the students’ experiences here will inspire them to continue their water-related studies.”
Team India’s winning video presented how a floating, solar-powered desalination plant at sea could be an energy-efficient solution to producing fresh water:
The 2017 theme of Water and Sustainability was particularly fitting for The Netherlands – a nation that has pioneered smart water management for generations.