Two Athens High School students will go into their senior year confident about their future after being awarded for their double-barrel water filtration system.

Spencer Durm and Andrew Ross recently brought home a first-place medal and bragging rights at the Alabama Technology Student Association Conference. About 13 weeks of preparation and research preceded their victory.

“The design challenge was provide access to clean water so as we were researching, we learned central Africa was in the biggest need of clean water and we built our project around that,” Durm said.

The duo constructed a rainwater filtration system of a sand layer, small rock layer, then a big rock layer. Over time, as water was filtered through the sand and rocks, a layer of good bacteria forms over the sand and eats the bad bacteria and viruses that may be in contaminated water, Ross said.

The model was made so more than one barrel could be hooked up to the system, allowing more rainwater could be collected.

Preparing for the competition

Before the competition, Ross and Durm tested their water using dirty river water at the Athens Wastewater Treatment Plant to see if their model worked.

“It was deemed drinkable,” Durm said.

AHS engineering teacher Michael May said the extra time the boys took researching their design could be one of the main reasons they won.

“We want to get to the fun part, which is the building and model, but we have to make ourselves step back and go through the design process,” May said. “That way we don’t make something that we can’t use later.”

Ross said he and Durm researched for weeks before they decided on a solution.

“It was thought out before we bought anything,” he said. “We made sure this would work and got all the stuff together for our testing model.”

At the competition

When it came time to present, both were confident they would win.

“We were a little nervous of the questions the judges might ask, but they only asked one question and that was would we be able to get the materials to central Africa,” Ross said.

He explained the method had already been proven and the sand and rock materials would already be there.

“It was the whole system of how we integrated the biofilter in our system that made it better than the other systems (at the competition),” he said, adding their project is self-maintained. “We wanted it low maintenance. If we put a charcoal filter in it, they would have to replace it. We didn’t want anyone to go through that.”

Another consideration was the time those who use it might save.

“They spend most of their time getting water and staying alive, and they don’t get time to get an education,” Ross said. “This brings the water to them so they have more time to get an education.”

Birth of an idea

May said he asked the students if they wanted to use the competition as their design project for the semester.

Ross said they started with eight sketches of model ideas and then narrowed those down to five and — with the help of a decision matrix — decided on three final possibilities. The decision matrix consisted of environmental aspects the model would have to hold up to, such as harsh environments, storms and how well it cleaned the water.

Ross and Durm said they didn’t run into many obstacles while making the model because they spent so much time on their research.

“Our biggest problem was coming up with a design that hadn’t already been made,” Durm said.