Chinese student inventors awarded for air handwasher

A group of student inventors brought home top prize at an international engineering competition in Beijing after presenting a handwashing machine that uses mostly air.

The device works by stepping on a peddle which mixes compressed air with a small amount of water vapor, allowing the user to efficiently blow the bacteria and dirt from their hands, said Shi Yukun, one of the seven student inventors from Zhejiang University.

"The equipment will save 90 percent of the water, while achieving the same result as washing hands with water," he said.

The seven students spent a year creating the device, which took home top prize at the two-day Global Grand Challenge Summit (GGCS) engineering summit in Beijing. The summit is co-organized by Chinese Academy of Engineering, the U.S. National Academy of Engineering and British Royal Academy of Engineering.

"We studied the function of water in the hand-washing process. Very few of the stains on our hands can be dissolved with liquid, but most of the dirts and bacteria have to be washed away by flowing water. We decided to use high-speed air to blow it away, rather than wash it away," he said.

The group beat 13 other contestant groups from some of the world's top universities, including Cambridge University and Hong Kong University.

They shared a thousand-dollar start-up fund provided by the summit organizers.

"We will use the money as start-up for our efforts to invent and produce water-saving equipment," Shi said.

The first GGCS summit was held in London in 2013. Endi