Real-time Water Sensors

Design a new sensor to monitor the quality of water in real-time, and test it at Stanford’s Codiga Resource Recovery Center on real water of different qualities. Real-time quality monitoring would open up new possibilities to reuse water while providing highly reliable protection of public health. It could also dramatically lower the cost of operating water treatment plants, making it easier to deliver clean water to millions of people around the world who lack it. Here are some ideas for developing sensors:

- Use new molecular methods to automatically detect specific pathogens in wastewater 
- Use electrochemical systems to detect heavy metals of concern to public health
- Develop a new toxicity test to monitor the level of a wide swath of disinfection byproducts

New sensors can be placed at the Codiga Center for testing, and results can be compared to traditional laboratory-based methods to monitor the same indicators.