Makerere University Students from the College of Engineering, Design, Art and Technology (CEDAT) won €75000 climate change grant during the Global Climate Launchpad Competition, which was held in the Netherlands on November 14 and 15, 2019.
The aim of is competition was to address the negative impacts of climate change by way of innovation and invention. Climate Launchpad is run by a central team, located in the Netherlands, which is supported by national teams who organize the competition in their country.
Over100 team s from 50 countries across the global took part in this competition.ie from Uganda, Kenya, India, Turkey, Switzerland and many other countries.
Makerere University students where under a code name “VEPOX” who came up with a water filtration technology that uses an activated Carbon and Functionalized sand in order to make water from surface portable for drinking.
The filter was named Vepox Filter.
VEPOX was among the nine team which were nominated in the first round (National competition) in Kampala to move on the regional level in Kenya. On the regional level, only two teams qualified technic from Kenya and vepox from Uganda to the global finals in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
VEPOX was shortlisted among the final 16 teams from a group
of 130 teams. The 16 teams were entered into the EIT Climate-KIC accelerator
program, where each of the 16 is to receive up to Euros 75,000 worth
300millions Uganda shillings.