H2O Visionaries take top prize at the Davidson Inventors Challenge 2025

A team of Year 12 students from a grammar school in Surrey has been crowned the winner of the Davidson Inventors Challenge 2025 for their project tackling contaminated fresh water sources. 

The winning team, H2O Visionaries from Sutton Grammar School, proposed a modular water filtration system designed to tackle different types of contamination by combining multiple separation methods.

Team mentor Fraser Lamb, a senior process engineer and chemical engineering expert, praised their efforts: “The research that they put into their solution was very thorough and they had completed experiments as well to try and back up their claims. 

“They clearly understood the brief of the challenge. I was overall impressed by what they had produced.” 

The final took place as a two-hour online webinar, with four teams presenting their projects. Chemical engineering alum Fiona Macleod – now a crime thriller writer and professor of process safety at the University of Sheffield – also gave an inspiring talk about her diverse career journey.

Former IChemE president Nigel Hirst announced H2O Visionaries as the overall winner, praising the high quality competition and difficult decision for the judges. One major reason for their win was in their adaptable design, which allows for the use of physical, chemical, or biological filtration techniques depending on the level and type of impurities present, making it a flexible and scalable solution for purifying fresh water. 

The competing teams showcased a range of creative solutions to sustainability challenges: 

• Quantum Conquerors from state school Peter Symonds College presented a project on protecting freshwater habitats from flooding and pollution. Their solution featured a floating wooden house with a tether to prevent it drifting away, equipped with a water filter to remove contaminants.   

• H2O Visionaries from Sutton Grammar School impressed with their adaptable modular water filtration system, ultimately being crowned the winners. 

• StarchPack Systems from ACS International School, Hillingdon, tackled low-quality soil issues. Their project proposed using biodegradable packing peanuts infused with nutrients to improve soil fertility.   

• Climate Contemplators from King’s College School, Wimbledon, addressed plastic waste disposal by designing enzyme and microbe pods capable of breaking down plastic waste.   

Kamran Yunus, associate teaching professor and academic lead for the challenge, praised the students’ creativity and commitment.  

He said: “The Davidson Inventors Challenge is all about inspiring the next generation of problem solvers, and this year’s entries showed just how capable and imaginative these young minds are.

The Davidson Inventors Challenge, hosted by the Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology (CEB) in collaboration with the Association of Science, Technology & Innovation (ASTI) and supported by the Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE), invites Year 11 and 12 students from across the UK to create STEM-based solutions to real-world problems. Rooted in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, the challenge encourages participants to address pressing global issues such as climate action and clean water access. 

H2O Visionaries’ practical and scalable approach to water filtration stood out among a competitive field, earning them the top spot and cementing their place as emerging innovators in the fight for cleaner, safer water.