Water purifier wins first Gator Business Plan Competition

The Gator Business Plan Competition asks one question to all University of Florida students: What's your big idea?

More than 140 students from various majors competed to turn their big idea into a reality this spring semester. The winning team, made up of three UF grad students, took home a $25,000 first-place prize.

Daniel Blood, Rob Damitz and Erica Gonzaga created a water bottle with a built-in ultraviolet light bulb that purifies water when activated. In 2½ to three minutes, the contents of the water bottle are sanitized. The UV light does not require batteries because it is powered by mechanical force, Damitz said.

The engineering team also received the $500 "Best Social Venture" prize for the founding of their company, aqUV.

The first Gator Business Plan Competition was sponsored by the Warrington College of Business Administration's Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation.

"We want more startup ventures created by students from UF," said Michael Morris, academic director of the UF entrepreneurship program. "We want to help students with high-quality business plans and help give them the confidence in their ability to pursue the entrepreneurial path."

Damitz said the team wanted to tackle a big problem the word is facing today. They chose the need for clean drinking water.

Damitz, a doctoral student in chemical engineering; Gonzaga, who is graduating this spring with a master's in environmental engineering sciences; and Blood, a doctoral student in mechanical aerospace engineering, have all had experience or research done within the water purification field.

Media

Taxonomy

• Filtration
• Quality
• Filters