An all-girl team from Batangas State University in the Philippines has bagged the top prize at UNESCO’s World Engineering Day hackathon.

Ghia Luwalhati, Nicole Elizabeth Tan, and Reaner Jacqueline Bool was recognized by UNESCO for their project “WONDERPETS” which stands for Water remediatiON using metal-organic framework DERived from PET bottleS.

The project used Metal Organic Frameworks, which are novel adsorbents, to turn recycled plastic bottles into a type of sponge that is extremely porous, making it an effective means of removing pollutants from water. Better still, the sponge can be used again and again.

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The event focused on designing solutions to tackle the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including Clean Water and Sanitation and the winners were announced last week on March 4, 2022.

The World Engineering Day for Sustainable Development aims to raise awareness about the role of engineering innovations to address climate change and advance the sustainable development agenda and as part of this year’s celebrations, UNESCO hosted a global hackathon for young engineers to devise creative solutions to the three SDG challenges.

The three challenges were responsible and innovative use of materials and reduction of non-biodegradable waste, bio-mimicry in engineering solutions, and water accessibility in a changing climate.