Safe2O

Why

Pittsburgh, PA is currently facing lead contamination in residential water due to outdated pipe infrastructure. The government has turned to 3rd party companies to improve the water by adding chemicals. Residents are uninformed of the health of their water coming out of their faucets.

What

Our team designed Safe2O, a layered solution to improve the water quality in Pittsburgh. Safe2O is an IoT water filter with an e-ink display that communicates the types of contaminants being filtered and dangerous contaminant levels.

Data collected from the filters feeds into a tool designed to inform government officials which pipes are contaminating the water.

Safe2O improves residential trust in the city to fix the issue while reducing anxiety about unhealthy household water.

How

This project was brought to life through close collaboration with 5 of my very talented peers. Through iterative concept and stakeholder mapping, we gained a deep understanding of the problem space. We developed a pin-point solution designed to create large system change.

I was responsible for research, group sketching, design of the IoT filter, and fabrication of the model.

My teammates were Sara Remi Fields, Jesse Klein, Steven Ji, Faith Kaufman, and Tina Park.