Million-dollar Engineering Challenge Established

SUSTAINABLE TECHNOLOGY

The National Academy of Engineering announced on Feb. 1 the establishment of the Grainger Challenge Prize for Sustainable Development, which will award $1 million for development of technologies to help improve the quality of living throughout the world. The challenge for the first contest is the design of an inexpensive system to reduce arsenic levels in drinking water in developing countries.

Naturally occurring arsenic contaminates the drinking water of tens of millions of people worldwide, especially in parts of South America and Asia. Arsenic poisoning by consuming moderate amounts of the toxic element is a slow, debilitating process that can ultimately result in death.

The goal of the Grainger Challenge is to encourage development of a household- or community-scale water treatment system to remove arsenic from well water. The system must have a low life-cycle cost and must be reliable, easy to maintain, and socially acceptable. As a sustainable technology, the system must also be within the manufacturing capabilities of a developing country and must not degrade other water quality characteristics.

"Sustainable development is not just about conservation and the wise use of the Earth's resources, but also about improving the quality of life for all people," notes NAE President William A. Wulf. Historically, prizes have stimulated interest in creative approaches to engineering challenges, he points out."A challenge prize does more than just reward an individual for achieving a technical goal. It also focuses the talents of a particular community on solving a problem."

The prize is sponsored by the Grainger Foundation, a philanthropic organization that supports educational, medical, and cultural institutions. Final rules for the competition will be announced in June, applications and demonstration projects reviewed in 2006, and a winner announced in February 2007.