The company Sandvik Coromant announced the winner of the Graphene Challenge. The competition invited individuals from around the world to submit ideas for sustainable innovations made from graphene that would revolutionize the modern household.

Bachelor student Nadia Ayad is winner of the Graphene Challenge.

The winner, Nadia Ayad from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, submitted the idea of using graphene for a filtration device and system for desalinization that would provide drinkable water to households. Her idea would significantly reduce energy costs and strain on current water supplies by recycling water.

As part of her prize, Nadia, a bachelor student in materials engineering at the Military Institute of Engineering (Instituto Militar de Engenharia – IME) will be invited to Sandvik Coromant’s headquarters in Sandviken, Sweden to meet with industry professionals and visit the Graphene Centre at Chalmers University.

“I am absolutely thrilled to have been selected as the winner of the Graphene Challenge. I am really fascinated with the study and applications of advanced materials so the opportunity to travel to Sweden to meet with leading researchers is one that I am really looking forward to,” said Nadia Ayad.

Nadia was chosen from ten top finalists by a distinguished panel of judges. The top ten submissions were evaluated based on innovation, feasibility and design. “We are very pleased with the quality of submissions we received from all over the world so it was not easy to select just one winner,” said David Goulbourne, Senior Product Unit Manager at Sandvik Coromant. “We were very impressed by how well researched Nadia’s submission was and how well she was able to conceptualize her idea.”

“Graphene is a material with high potential for innovation in many areas,” said Patrik Carlsson, Director for the Graphene Centre at Chalmers University. “The Graphene Challenge and the very interesting and wide ranging set of proposals we reviewed is a manifestation of this potential. It is also clear that graphene has the potential for disruptive technologies and innovations that do not fit within the present business models of existing companies. The Challenge was a good way to think outside of these business models.”

The Graphene Challenge competition was launched as part of Sandvik Coromant’s Looking Ahead series, which focuses on future trends and business challenges in the manufacturing industry.