Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd held a competition titled the Makers Against Drought (MAD) Challenge. The challenge is based upon creating projects that can fight against water scarcity. The goal is to make these technologies accessible to the market. The MAD Challenge attracted over 500 entries from 57 countries.
The winners of the MAD Challenge was a 6-member New York-based developing team whom developed the ElectroDialysis Desalinator for Irrigation (EDDI). According to Samsung‘s official press release, the device “enables farmers to separate salt from water before they irrigate, allowing them to use only the necessary amount of water needed to achieve maximum crop yield”.
The winning team developed the EDDI from the studying the effects of drought crises among ecosystems and life forms that are affected by changes in water supply. Member Jessie Lee describes his team as a “small group of friends who care deeply about solving global problems with technology”.
In order to assist the teams, Samsung provided the Samsung ARTIK 5 and ARTIK 10 development kits to 150 contestant teams which were chosen. The EDDI developers utilized the ARTIK system for their project. Jessie Lee, a member of the developing team stated that “Working with the SAMSUNG ARTIK™ platform was a great experience for us, as it provided a giant canvas to create a system of infinite possibility.”
The winning team won the MAD Challlenge grand prize of $100,000 and have plans to expand the EDDI system. According to the team’s YouTube demo, their future goals for the EDDI is to make it more cost-effective, easier to use, and integrate the system with mobile app technologies.
