InVenture Prize

TruePani goes with the flow and adjusts approach in quest to make drinking water safe

Going with the Flow: On their entrepreneurial quest to make drinking water safe for all, two new Tech alumnae stand as testimony to the gumption and perseverance necessary to sustain a startup.

From conversations revolving around parts per billion and EPA standards, to meetings about investment funds, to deliberations on branding and marketing strategy, recently graduated Yellow Jackets Shannon Evanchec and Samantha Becker agree that there’s no such thing as a typical workday when you’ve founded a startup.

Tuesday, August 1, 2017

One year later, InVenture team has turned idea into startup

Team TruePani reacts after they're announced as the People's Choice Award winners at the 2016 InVenture Prize finals. The team designed an antimicrobial cup and water storage device that makes drinking water safer. Shannon Evanchec and Samantha Becker have been working full-time for the last year to turn their winning invention into a viable business. (Photo: Fitrah Hamid)

A year ago, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering seniors Samantha Becker and Shannon Evanchec were convinced they could change lives in rural villages around the globe. They were about to sell InVenture Prize judges on their antimicrobial cup and lotus flower, which uses copper to kill germs in household water in places like India where contamination with E. coli and other microbes is a significant problem. Now Becker and Evanchec have graduated, and they’re working full-time to turn their creation into a business they call TruePani.

Friday, March 10, 2017

InVenture team creates a simple system to keep household water clean in developing countries

Samantha Becker, left, and Shannon Evanchec film a segment about their water purification system ahead of the live-televised finals of the InVenture Prize. Their team, TruePani, will compete with five other finalists for $20,000, a free patent filing, and a place in a Georgia Tech startup incubator at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday. (Photo: TruePani)

For something like 900 million people in India, access to clean water isn’t the problem. It’s keeping that water clean once it reaches households. A team of civil and environmental engineering and business administration students have invented a system to fight bacterial growth. They compete for the InVenture Prize March 16.

Monday, March 14, 2016

InVenture Prize finalists include two CEE undergrads

Diagram of the TruePani drinking cup invented by a team that includes CEE undergrads Samantha Becker and Shannon Evanchec.

Undergraduates Samantha Becker and Shannon Evanchec have helped build a better cup — one that’s designed to reduce the risk of diarrheal diseases in rural communities. Now they’ll compete with five other teams for the InVenture Prize next month.

Wednesday, February 10, 2016
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School of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Georgia Institute of Technology
Mason Building, 790 Atlantic Drive, Atlanta, GA 30332-0355
Phone: 404-894-2201
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