In many developing nations across the world, drinking water and sewage system infrastructures are non-existent. This leads to unsafe sanitation issues causing public health concerns. To help fix this, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation challenged top scientists and engineers to build a better toilet that doesn’t require running water. 

Dr. Shannon Yee is an associate professor in the Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering. His research is focused around thermodynamics and energy transfer. He is taking that knowledge and trying to develop a toilet that uses heat transfer to break down wastes instead of water.

We’ve all experienced our cellphones getting too hot or our laptops becoming noisy as they try to cool off. In fact, computer centers across the nation do the same thing, consuming almost 10 percent of the total amount of electricity generated in the US just to cover the air conditioning costs.

Dr. Baratunde Cola is an associate professor in the Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering and focused on developing materials that can regulate heat flow, potentially having a significant impact on the energy sector.