National Teacher Appreciation Week

The task of the modern educator is not to cut down jungles, but to irrigate deserts.

 - C. S. Lewis

In case you were wondering, this week is National Teacher Appreciation Week and our WaterSeer team would like to take a moment to thank teachers across the country for their impact on our education. They do so much more than instruct, teachers are caring professionals who connect with students and strive to unlock their potential. In fact, last Thursday we met a special person that truly influences her students to think far beyond the boundaries of the classroom.

Mrs. Beam is a fifth-grade science, social studies and health teacher at Edgemere Elementary. She’s been teaching for 14 years and despite already having two degrees, she’s continuing her education in a Leadership program with a concentration in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) at the Notre Dame of Maryland University. Talk about setting a good example, right?

We came across Mrs. Beam and her fifth-grade class a few months ago when they informed us of the impact WaterSeer had on their classroom. After learning about the water cycle and watching our crowdfunding video, the students wanted to do something about the many people around the world who don’t have access to clean, safe drinking water. So, they took matters into their own hands and fundraised in school during the winter months, even gathering up 3rd grade students into doing penny wars.

All their hard work paid off and the amount they raised will go towards a WaterSeer Orchard to a community or family in need. The WaterSeer team was so inspired by the efforts of Edgemere Elementary that they visited the school to talk about the WaterSeer and meet the teachers and students who are so passionate about helping others.  Additionally, the WaterSeer team is planning to establish a STEM program in the near future to foster an environment where students can engage in questioning, problem solving, collaboration, and hands-on activities while they address real life issues.

These activities can show students real-life effect of STEM, how it can pull together the ideas presented in school and help demonstrate how they benefit our society and even our world. In the words of Mrs. Beam, “Our learning is never finished” and we couldn’t agree more.

Thank you for being extraordinary, inspiring, and for your tireless efforts in helping students reach for the stars. To see and learn more of Edgemere Elementary fundraising journey, log in/register and check out our Subscribers section!

Happy Earth Day!

I don’t know about you, but growing up I never really understood the importance of Earth Day. Our teachers would encourage us to plant a tree, grow…something, recycle or make “dirt” cups (crushed Oreos over chocolate pudding).

Earth day simply came and went…but now, as an adult and even as a parent, it’s so much more meaningful. The day represents a future for generations to come and keeping the environment we all occupy, healthy and sustainable. It’s held on April 22nd, every year, no matter the year, or day of the week and it’s honored by leaders, citizens, organizations and agencies around the world.

Teaching your kids the importance of Earth Day is the first step, as they will be our legacy and the caretakers of our planet in years to come. But how the heck do I explain carbon footprint let alone sustainability to a 4-year-old? 

We have a balcony garden (yes, it’s totally possible) and my daughter loves to water our plants daily. Recently, before we left for vacation, she expressed her concern on how they will do during our absence. Did I mention she’s 4? She’s learning the definition of sustainability on her own by simply ensuring our garden has enough water and resources to maintain itself while we’re gone. At her young age, she sees the importance of our little garden and the difference it makes with our environment.

Can you imagine a WaterSeer orchard in your garden or in some unfortunate cases, drought stricken areas?  

I can. The possibilities are endless because WaterSeer is not only sustainable for the environment, but also simple, easy to use and can be a family-scale solution…at least in my case when we eventually buy a house.

Just like any other holiday, Earth Day doesn’t have to be celebrated on only one day of the year.

Regardless of how you celebrate it, its message about the personal duty we all share to “think globally and act locally” as environmental keepers of planet Earth has never been more timely or important.

Do your part. Whether it’s investing in new innovative solutions, having your own little vegetable garden or giving your kids “dirt” cups while practicing the word “sustainability”... do your part. We all share the responsibility to do as much as we can to preserve our planet for future generations to come.

And with that, Happy Earth Day! 

Against All Odds

Creating a product isn’t just about getting the stages of new product development right, it’s also about managing the product once it’s been launched and then throughout its lifetime.

Crowdfunding is changing the way entrepreneurs bring new products to market. It has allowed them to raise money, build brand awareness, and join a broader conversation with large numbers of potential backers, all while still in the product development process.

WaterSeer made such a huge impact during their crowdfunding campaign that it surpassed its goal by 300%. This was the first-time Don and Nancy raised funds online and were blown away by the overwhelming response. But not all of it was good. With enormous attention, comes negativity, naysayers, trolls, critics… you name it.

Elon Musk once said, “When something is important enough, you do it even when the odds are not in your favor.” Remember in the last blog post we spoke about the concept phase in product development? Our crowdfunding campaign was conducted during the concept phase of our development.  A detail that caused some to doubt the efficacy of our design. 

However, once the team had agreed on an overall concept, the engineers started work on the prototype. The design goes through iterations of conceptual drawings, then to modeling and finally to the production of a functioning prototype for testing. At each stage, the engineers communicated their progress and incorporated design feedback.  As I’m sure you can imagine, this meant at times there were disagreements, modifications, changes and even general excitement as it progressed to a production ready prototype. 

As we move forward to testing in the next few weeks, our team will look at safety, function, durability and market acceptance of the product. And the results from that testing may very well result in changes to the WaterSeer before manufacturing of the final product.   

Pretty exciting, right?!

We believe in WaterSeer. Our community believes in WaterSeer.  And when you want something so badly to change the world, well…you find a way to beat the odds.

"Together we formed the seed of an idea"

Every new product starts its life as an idea. In some cases, the idea comes out of a brainstorming session, while other ideas develop as a direct response to a need in the market. This stage is crucial as it lays the foundation for all the other phases, the ideas generated shall guide the overall process of product development.

Believe it or not, the very first time the WaterSeer idea came up in conversation was during a lunch meeting between Don and Nancy, after Nancy had read an article about women walking a great distance to collect water, only to end up being infected by the Guinea worm. For those of you who are not aware, the Guinea-worm is an infection caused by drinking water that contains water fleas infested with guinea worm larvae.

Let that sink in. Larvae. Fleas. It’s just…gross.

But, as gross and disgusting as the beginning of that conversation was, Nancy started wondering what they could do to solve this safe drinking water issue. As Don was listening to her passion about this problem, he noticed the amount of condensation around his water glass. And so, between Nancy’s creativity and Don’s engineering background, an idea came to life.

Now remember, all ideas in the beginning are good ideas (to a certain extent). Once the idea phase ends, the ideas must undergo a screening process to weed out all, but the best ideas. This is where UC Berkeley came into play. An engineering challenge was launched at the Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology to improve the design and yield that Don submitted.

Each of those ideas went through a screening process and from there Don and Nancy integrated the best ones to formulate what is now known as the first generation WaterSeer.

The next challenge in this product development process was how to raise funds to transform WaterSeer, into a functional prototype. In our next blog post, I’ll discuss how we went from having a successful crowdfunding campaign to working with engineers on making this vision come to life! 

Why try to get water out of thin air?

As odd as it might sound to some of you, getting water out of thin air isn’t a crazy concept.

Everything that lives gets its water from the atmosphere, some through precipitation and some directly from the air. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, the air in our atmosphere contains a varying amount of water vapor, depending on the weather.

When it’s hot and humid, evaporated water can make up as much as 6 percent of the air we breathe. Therefore, naturally more humidity equals more water. Pretty neat, right? On cold, dry days however, it can be as low as .07 percent of the air’s makeup. Yes, we know. It’s a concern many of you have for cold weather environments and it’s taken into account when designing and manufacturing the WaterSeer.

More on that later.

So, how much water can you get out of the atmosphere? Climatologists estimate that there are nearly 3100 cubic miles of fresh water in the atmosphere in vapor and droplet forms. That's equivalent to all that water that flows over Niagara Falls during a 230-year span. Have you seen Niagara Falls? That’s pretty impressive. If you poured a cubic mile of water into Manhattan, only buildings taller than 20 stories would break the surface. That’s a lot of water and the atmosphere has more than 3000 times that!

Believe or not, in deserts without surface water plants, animals depend on atmospheric water to survive. Atmospheric water is like a bottomless well of fresh water. It can be found naturally anywhere on the planet where water is in vapor or liquid form. So what happens if the environment is too cold for the WaterSeer to work? This may seem impossible, but it’s something we haven’t ruled out.

Water condenses out of the air as a liquid at all temperatures below the boiling point and above the freezing point. This covers most climate conditions, however, below freezing point, atmospheric water vapor appears as frost. In order to overcome this limitation, our engineers are developing a cold weather performance kit for the WaterSeer. The purpose of the cold weather performance kit will be to warm the air, thereby increasing the water vapor density before it enters the condensation chamber so that it can be collected as a liquid.

I bet the next question on your mind is, when will we see this cold weather performance kit? Well, it’s something we aim to offer next year.    

Unfortunately, clean, fresh, unpolluted liquid water is running out, the planet is warming and the population is growing. Everyone wants a solution, and we want to do our part in ending water scarcity. That’s where atmospheric water comes into play.

There’s water around us all the time, we just can’t see it. And that’s the beauty of WaterSeer. It taps into that endless supply of fresh clean water and makes the invisible visible. 

What makes WaterSeer different from other attempts?

I know what you’re thinking. There’s been other attempts? While the basic concept of WaterSeer is nothing new, it is far from being close to any other attempt made before. The Incas sustained their culture above the rain line by collecting dew and channeling it into cisterns for later distribution.

Fascinating, right?

Since then, there have been more modern attempts, but they have been damaging to the environment, often require costly distribution systems, and significant maintenance. WaterSeer, on the other hand, is taking a different approach and learning the lessons of those previous efforts. More importantly, WaterSeer is not one size fits all and that’s the beauty of it.

Let’s begin.

WaterSeer is sustainable. Unlike large centralized water treatment systems, or desalinization projects which are very expensive to build, maintain, and operate, WaterSeer is a simple, easy to use, family-scale solution.     

WaterSeer can be flexible to your needs. Yes, you heard that right. It can produce water in your backyard, a garden, farm, a park, even a village! This gives the WaterSeer user independence from municipal water system costs and rationing as well as providing an assured source of water in emergency situations, such as earthquakes, floods, or mechanical breakdowns. The simplest design has no moving parts, and no energy requirements. The WaterSeer basic module can be tailored to satisfy the requirements of demanding climates by adding performance enhancing modules, such as solid state coolers, hydrostatic controls, solar power generators, or alternative power sources.

It gets better.

WaterSeer uses technology from many different scientific and industrial areas and combines them in a way to get the best possible result. Because of its modular approach, it can be continuously improved as technology and designs improve. It is an air water generation system, not just a tool or appliance, and will always be on the cutting edge of the best technology.

WaterSeer can be mobile! The basic WaterSeer design is light (about 50lbs) and easy to carry, clean, and move to new locations when required to improve yield, convenience or usefulness.

And it can be scalable, too. By connecting the collection reservoirs of individual WaterSeers and draining them into a cistern, water can be collected for large scale demands or for emergencies. This simple and flexible approach, known as a WaterSeer ‘orchard’, is adaptable to a wide variety of terrain and environments, while maintaining reliability, sustainability and durability.

Besides all this interesting scientific talk, WaterSeer is beautiful in form and function. It will not disfigure the landscape or the environment. It’s designed to be included as an architectural feature of urban parks, walkways, public spaces, and incorporated into fountains, irrigation systems, and recreational spaces.

The WaterSeer design has come a long way since our crowdfunding raise ended in November 2016. Since then, it has advanced from original concept to a beautifully designed 3D model. Most importantly, our business model is uniquely philanthropic from any other water generation solution.

We intend to make fresh, clean water abundantly available to all by funding our worldwide distribution through a buy one, donate one program. For every WaterSeer purchased, one will be donated to a non-governmental organization (basically, a non-profit) and water advocacy organization around the world. WaterSeer is here to assure no one needs to suffer from lack of clean, fresh drinking water.

I’d say that’s pretty cool.