On February 19, an Edison High School team of nine individuals presented their mid-grant technical review. Four months prior, this team had received recognition from the Lemelson-MIT (LMIT) program for developing two proposals to tackle water pollution in the Raritan River. At the LMIT mid-grant technical reviews, teams introduce their technological solutions to tackle public environmental issues to the public and catch LMIT representatives up on their progress.
“We ended up applying to the LMIT program to create a positive impact on our own community,” said team member Divya Krishna ‘25. “With the grant, LMIT provided our team enough support to implement our passion for STEM to create real-life solutions.”
EHS’s InvenTeam, led by Ms. Jaslin Kaur and Ms. Kristen Tsaoys, consists of:
1. Anthony Baio ‘26
2. Ishani Bakshi ‘26
3. Divya Krishna ‘25
4. Gauri Kshettry ‘25
5. Mithil Mishra ‘25
6. Twisha Patel ‘25
7. Aditya Rao ‘26
8. Zashaan Shaik ‘25
9. Vedant Talati ‘25
“We chose to handle the Raritan since it’s the biggest body of water in New Jersey. More than 1.8 million people across the state rely on the river for a variety of reasons, whether that be for drinking water or agriculture,” said Mishra. “Yet it’s one of the most polluted rivers in the country.”
Specifically, the Raritan River is the nation’s twelfth most polluted river, identified by the New Jersey Inaugurated Water Quality Monitoring and Assessment Report as having medium-to-high levels of pollutants at many of its sub-watersheds, or branches. On its Watershed Report Card, which is graded from A+ to F in terms of temperature, pH, and contaminants in water, the Raritan consistently received Cs and Fs, especially regarding its high presence of nitrates, phosphates, and heavy metals.
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EHS’ LMIT poster, displayed in the science wing, signed by all of the members of the InvenTeam.
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Divya Krishna ’25 (second from right) describes the InvenTeam’s involvement in community outreach, a fundamental part of the LMIT program.
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(From left) Mithil Mishra ’25, Vedant Talati ’25, and Aditya Rao ’26 present one of their solutions, biochar pods, through a demonstration showing its effectiveness in purifying contaminated water.
Throughout their presentation, the team emphasized the severity of the river’s contamination, which not only harms people by causing many diseases but also harms biodiversity, leading endangered species to extinction and habitats to peril.
“As we were brainstorming ideas, we came up with a list of the biggest issues here in New Jersey, since LMIT focuses on making an impact in our local community. When we looked into all of these issues, we realized that the effects of the Raritan River contamination were truly detrimental,” said Bakshi. “So, we began making solutions.”
During their review, the InvenTeam presented prototypes of their two novel solutions that promote sustainability and efficiency compared to current biofilters.
Their first solution relies on biochar, a chemical compound that absorbs external pollutants. By attaching biochar to floating capsules in the Raritan, they’ll be able to implement a mechanism that will purify the river from harmful pollutants, including the aforementioned nitrates and phosphates.
Their other solution is a smart floating treatment wetland, designed to host hydrophyte (plants that grow in water) roots to allow for denitrification and other processes that aid river cleaning efforts.
Through this mid-grant technical review, the team gathered feedback from members of the Edison community for their final presentation at MIT at EurekaFest in early June. To support and learn more about the EHS InvenTeam through their innovation process, follow them @inventeagle on Instagram. Soon, they’ll be hosting a virtual town hall to get more feedback on how to create a cleaner New Jersey.