Students Present Sustainable Solutions for Campus

By Caleb White, DASA Marketing Intern

Make-A-Thon is NC State’s annual sustainability innovation challenge for students. Throughout this three day challenge, students team up to research, design, prototype and build a solution to a problem in sustainability. Experts from the community and industry then evaluate these solutions and award cash prizes to the top teams.

This year saw 57 students competing on 18 different teams, with eight different colleges and nine Living and Learning Villages represented. There were 40 judges and 15 industry expert mentors on hand to assist teams, and $4,000 in total cash prizes awarded across winning teams. But most of all, the event seemed to further interest participants in a potential career in sustainability, as 95 percent of teams indicated interest in either pursuing their idea further through a business venture or applying for a campus sustainability grant.

Make-A-Thon is a collaboration of NC State Housing, Entrepreneurship, the Sustainability Office, University Libraries, and the Division of Academic and Student Affairs.

Here are the winners of the 2022 competition, which were announced on Tuesday, Feb. 1:

Grand Winners

1st Place

Team 5: Flip-It

Members: Colin McMillen, Dongin Kim, Landon Smith

This team’s solution was the Flip-It, an Arduino-based device that has the ability to automatically cut the lights off whenever a student is not in the room. Completely different from a cumbersome and costly motion detection switch, the Flip-It recognizes when a student leaves the room when the door is closed, and asks if the light should be kept on. If no response is heard, it will use a servo motor to switch the light off itself. This can be made using DIY Arduino parts that are inexpensive and quickly replicated.

This team was awarded the grand prize of $2,000.

2nd Place

Team 7: Nudge

Members: Sankalp Boorugu, Adarsh Arun

This team’s solution was an inexpensive device attachable to any showerhead that, after a predetermined amount of time, stops the flow of water for a mere 2 seconds nudging the user that they have surpassed the ideal shower duration and that they are now taking a rather luxurious bath.

The team took a small, standard metal pipe and added an electric butterfly valve that can rotate to stop the water flow.

This team was awarded the second place prize of $1,000.

3rd Place (also a winner in the Wilson College of Textiles awards)

Team 8: UV Light Sanitizer

Members: Vishnu Tailor, Shourya Dhatri Lingampally, Cecilia Monge, Claire Henson

This team’s solution was to purchase five UV light sanitization boxes and put them in central locations across Main and Centennial campuses. This addition would allow students to sanitize their masks in 1 minute and then will be able to re-wear the masks until they are more thoroughly soiled or broken. The stations would also provide information about how to properly recycle the masks at the Wilson College of Textiles. Lastly, to provide incentive for participating, the stations will have a QR code for a Google form where people can enter their names for a $100 yearly gift card and a feature in an NC State article. 

This team was awarded the third place prize of $500.

Wilson College of Textiles Creative, Sustainable Solutions Awards

1st Place

Team 8: UV Light Sanitizer

Members: Vishnu Tailor, Shourya Dhatri Lingampally, Cecilia Monge, Claire Henson

This team’s solution was to purchase five UV light sanitization boxes and put them in central locations across Main and Centennial campuses. This addition would allow students to sanitize their masks in 1 minute, and then would be able to re-wear them until they are more thoroughly soiled or broken. The stations could also provide information about how to properly recycle masks at the Wilson College of Textiles. Lastly, to provide incentive for participating, the stations would have a QR code for a Google form where people could enter their names for a $100 yearly gift card and a feature in an NC State article. 

Team members receiving this award will split $250.

2nd Place

Team 14: Textile Collection

Members: Bhavani Jayaraman, Elizabeth Alexander, Jeannie Egan, Gloria Liu

This team proposed the founding of a campus-focused sustainability-driven apparel shop, The Textile Collection, that focuses on garment upcycling, secondhand apparel, and diverting of deadstock fabric from waste streams through collaboration with industry partners and local thrift stores and designers, including student designers.

Team members receiving this award will split $150.

3rd Place

Team 13: A La Mode

Members: Lora Sipal, Grace Walters, Mary Ashburn

A La Mode is a not-for-profit organization that provides a clothing rental service to NC State’s Greek Life organizations. A La Mode uses both student, organization and corporate donations to supply the catalog of rentable clothing. It would be local to campus, making it easily accessible for students by walking or bus, as well as reduce the carbon footprint associated with transportation. 

Team members receiving this award will split $100.

The Division of Academic and Student Affairs congratulates all of the winning teams for all of their hard work and dedication to making this world a better place. We would also like to thank all of the judges, sponsors and partners that took part in this to make it happen.