A March 2024 study in the “New England Journal of Medicine” was the first to link microplastics and nanoplastics in the human body to increased health risks. It found individuals with plastic particles in their arteries were 4.5 times more likely to suffer a heart attack, stroke or other cardiovascular issues within three years of surgery than those without. Researchers examined more than 200 people and discovered about 60 percent had plastic particles in a main artery — possibly inhaled or ingested unintentionally.

Motivated by growing concerns about plastic pollution, a group of Hillcrest High School students spent the past year developing a portable microplastic purifier designed to clean bodies of water. Their prototype, shaped as a small boat, uses semi-permeable membranes and organosilanes to trap and neutralize microplastics, making them easier to collect with a high-speed suction pump.

Sashwath Narayanan emphasized the advantage of mobility.

“Other systems cannot be transported to different locations, so a new purification system has to be built if you want to use the same product at another place,” he said. “Ours is transportable.”

The team also designed the system to be cost-effective, targeting government agencies that already spend $50 million on water purification — which doesn’t include microplastic removal.

Along with teammates eighth-grader Swayam Sanghvi and juniors Shreya Sanghvi, Kevin Siju Eappen and Samhith Vajjala, the group earned second place and a $5,000 award at the 2025 Tim Draper High School Utah Entrepreneur Challenge, hosted by the Lassonde Entrepreneur Institute at the University of Utah. They also won the $500 Top Online Vote Award and $100 for being one of the 20 finalists. Each team member earned a spot in the Lassonde Founders program and received a $1,000 housing scholarship for the Lassonde Studios.

The competition challenged students statewide to identify a problem and present a creative solution.

Narayanan said the idea originated on a trip, when he used a plastic water bottle for convenience.

“I thought about how much microplastics were in there and I wanted to design something that can help eliminate all those microplastics in lakes and rivers, because all those plastic water bottles go somewhere and they're harmful to the environment,” he said.

Sanghvi was already aware of microplastics' health impacts through his mother, a doctor, who had told him about related diseases.

The students experimented with several designs before settling on one. They first tested the prototype in a bathtub to check the suction system. Narayanan admitted the process was tough.

“We had to manually solder the different wires to the motors. We had to learn how to work the Arduino (programmable microcontroller) and how to connect Raspberry Pi (a small, versatile computer) to create the app for the prototype,” he said, adding they also used a 3-D printer in the process. “We brought in some more people to help us with the engineering part of it. One of our teammates knew about electrical components and soldering, another knew how to work with Arduino; we learned from each other.”

They spent about three months building and troubleshooting the prototype, often working weekends.

“We thought we had it at one point with all the wires connecting everything, then it stopped working. So, we had to try again and then again,” Narayanan said.

Now, the team is focused on refining the design and securing partnerships to bring the device to market.

“Once we get partnerships, we can look into the overall technological aspects of the system,” he said. “We plan to create this into a real business in the future, if we can get enough initial capital.”