After taking a UF engineering entrepreneurship class, three UF alumni knew they wanted to use the skills they were learning in school to help people.
The UF graduates — Rob Damitz, Daniel Blood and Erica Gonzaga — created a bottle that purifies contaminated water using UV lights.
After their Fall 2013 class, the group created aqUV Clean Water For All, transforming their classroom prototype into a business that sells solar-powered, reusable and portable water-purifier bottles, Damitz said. Until the end of October, the group is focusing on raising enough money to distribute the bottles to people in developing countries.
The alumni trio is working to bring the product to Haiti, Damitz said. To do that, though, they need to raise money in the U.S., which is why the group created a Kickstarter webpage earlier this month.
"Our goal is definitely the charitable side, providing clean drinking water to people in need," Gonzaga said.
As of press time, the group has raised $13,491 on its Kickstarter webpage. Damitz said their goal is $50,000, and the Kickstarter will end Oct. 28.
Damitz said the product is designed to be reusable. He said Haiti is in need of help.
"All of the wells that we collected from in Haiti had bacteria in them," he said. "We did a little bit of testing down there in order to verify that we were killing the bacteria."
Damitz said for every three purifiers sold right now, the group will donate one to someone in need.
"We are just hoping to improve the access of clean drinking water across the globe," he said.
