Human Powered Potable Water Still

Abstract

Each year the American Society of Mechanical Engineers sponsors a student design competition. This year's designs were presented at the ASME District conference, hosted by the University of Michigan. The competition objective was to design, construct and operate human powered water still. All significant energy input needed to come from a linkage or mechanism driven by human effort. It needed to be small enough to be easily stored or transported for emergency use. It needed to be easily assembled from its stored configuration. Over 65 schools were invited to the competition which was held on March 31, 2007.