Congratulations to the Menlo Park team that took home First prize in the Specialized “Innovate or Die” competition. Inventors Adam Mack, Brian Mason, John Lai, Paul Silberschatz and Eleanor Morgan developed a bicycle for developing nations that carries a family’s supply of water for one day (~20 gallons). Additionally, the bike filters the water on each pedal stroke so that it doesn’t have to be sanitized via boiling.

Here’s an article abstract from the San Jose Mercury News:

Starting after Thanksgiving, the team built Aquaduct in less than three weeks for about $1,000 in cash. They bought the tricycle on Craigslist for $350 and molded the fiberglass body themselves. Combined, they spent 400 to 500 hours on the project.

In an underdeveloped country, a poor man or woman would ride Aquaduct to a river, well or pond and pour up to 20 gallons into a tank below the seat. On the way home, a pump attached to the crank draws water from the tank and pushes it through a carbon filter. The water ends up in a clean tank on a rack over the front wheel.

It only takes one or two miles to produce a gallon of clean drinking water. Once home, the bike owner disengages the drive belt to the wheels and pedals the crank to filter the rest of the water.

As ingenious and simple as Aquaduct appears to be, the inventors know it can still be unaffordable in the Third World. Doing some homework, team member Brian Mason learned that Aquaduct wouldn’t fetch diddly if it cost Third World villagers more than 50 cents a month just for the water filters. Still, the team would like to see their highly conceptual invention roll on real dirt roads and back alleys someday.

The contest invited pedal-powered ideas that benefit humanity and the environment. A Specialized employee’s idea was the catalyst for this when we started powering his laptop via a stationary road bike. While I’m all for developing nations getting a trike to carry and filter water, this is what I really want: