Academy of Science and Technology juniors, Justin Huang and Victoria Ou, received first place in earth and environmental science at the state science fair. The pair built a device to combat microplastics in water.

“There are a lot of current methods to filter out microplastics, but the microscopic size of these particles result in many drawbacks and inefficiencies for most of these solutions. We successfully found a new approach by building a device that could apply ultrasonic waves through water to remove microplastics,” said Ou and Huang.

The pair’s favorite part of their project was how two somewhat different topics, soundwaves and microplastics, were able to be connected in a simple and innovative way.

“We plan to keep doing research to make our project even better, in hopes that it can someday be used in the real world. Eventually, we want to implement this to clean up water from laundry machines and treatment plants. What we have done so far is only one step of many in the future,” said Huang and Ou.

When asked about their favorite part of the science fair, the pair shared that their favorite part of the science fair was getting to travel with their friends to Texas A&M University, where they made many memories. 

“We also got to meet a lot of new people who were all extremely talented and had creative ideas worth sharing,” said Ou and Huang.