UN Sustainable Development Goals Addressed
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Goal 15: Life on Land
2019 Global Design Challenge Finalist
This design concept was developed by participants in the Institute’s Global Design Challenge. The descriptions below are from the team’s competition entry materials.
Location: Calgary, Canada
Team members: Mikaela Ahloy, Savitri Butterworth, Soha Hammati
Innovation Details
Air pollution is an increasing risk, with high levels of smoke in the atmosphere due to wildfires posing a risk to vulnerable populations’ health, outdoor recreation opportunities, and tourism near Calgary, Canada. Team Foothills Flow designed a nature-inspired mask that could be worn outside on these smoky days. They looked to the particle-trapping strategies of bees, mammalian eyelashes and nose hairs, and flower stigmas to design a surface that can capture smoke particulates as small as 6 nanometers.
What problem does the solution solve? We are trying to reduce harm to health that is caused by high smoke particulate content in air during wildfire seasons which is an increasing issue as wildfire rage closer to civilizations every year.
What is the technology and how does it work? The technology of our innovation mimics that of small hairs that capture particulate, like our nose hairs as well as the hairs on a bee’s body. The concept is that we will create a surface based on this hair-like technology that can capture the smoke particulate of size 6 nm. The surface can then be used as a filter in a mask. This will require prototyping and testing hair material, length, thickness and separation.
How it is biomimetic? Bee’s body hair captures pollen, nose hairs & mammal eyelashes capture dirt, and flower stigmas capture airborne pollen.
What is the solution’s impact? Healthier lifestyles for those who live in smoke filled areas because they will not be as wary to exercise outdoors or go about their normal routine when the smoke infiltrates the air.
