 It's Tuesday morning here on Think Tech Hawaii, and we're back live. We are excited to be young talents making way. We talk about things that matters to Hawaii, to our future, to our people, with the students of our school across the island and the islands as well. So it's my pleasure to introduce you today to Cindy Soh from Mililani High School. Hi Cindy. Nice to have you here. Nice to be here. And you're going to talk about, you are a finalist at the State of Hawaii Science and Engineering Fair. So we're going to talk about wastewater treatments, algae bioremediation, how can reduce the impact on these things. So I'm excited to learn. This is something that not many people are aware, you know, if you want. And today it's my pleasure to welcome a big audience here in our studio in downtown Honolulu. We have your mom and your little brother Tony. We have your physics teacher, Tyson Kikugawa, who has been an incredible job for allowing this conversation with you today. And I believe there is also your chemistry teacher. So hello everyone, nice to have you here on Think Tech. So Cindy, tell us a little bit about what you do at Mililani High School and if you want the importance of having our water in our cities treated and purified. Yeah, water is definitely a really important issue. Water degradation is becoming a more prevalent issue in today's society, in today's wastewater treatments, especially in third world countries where they do not have an access to adequate clean water or they do not have an access to proper wastewater treatment facilities. And looking into this issue, I was also aware of our today's energy problem, we're relying a lot on non-renewable sources of energy such as fossil fuels and coal and one day they'll eventually run out. So my experiment focuses on the energy and environmental issues and it uses algae to actually clean the water and to provide biofuels to solve those problems. So this has a double impact, your project if you want. It purifies the water when it produces energy. Yeah, so I've been involved with algae since last year and I was already, I kind of understand what algae does and this year I researched more into algae because I knew that it can grow in virtually any environment like wastewater, like saltwater, brackish water. I was surprised to find out that algae can actually borrow me the water meaning I can remove all these nutrients at the same time use those nutrients to grow. So I believe not many people are aware with what happens when after the water goes it drains in our sinks or the washers or toilets as well. So I believe we have a slide where we can go over different treatments. We have a primary treatment that this water needs to be done and secondary and I believe oh here it is. Can you describe a little bit about what happens after the water goes into the drains? So we have primary and secondary treatment which removes like the soluble solids and what I was focusing on in my project is tertiary treatment because our current, right now our current wastewater treatment processes uses chemicals to remove the nutrients from the wastewater and that's what tertiary treatment does. However, algae can do the same jobs. It can remove those nutrients and use that to produce biofuels. So basically this water first we remove the big particles if you want, then we try and purify a little bit better and with microorganisms who remove organics matter and the tertiary treatment that's the one you are focusing on your research. Yeah and it's a very important step of the treatment because we do not want those nutrients to be in our wastewater. If you can go to that next slide where it shows like the rivers and the... Let's see the water cycle. Oh wow, look at that. Another problem that we have in our current treatment is that if we don't remove those nutrients from the wastewater properly they actually causes eutrophication which is an excess... What is it? Yeah. It's a high excess nutrients in the water and it can cause many negative effects to our environment. So... That's why we have corals, for example, would that have an impact on the corals and the ecosystems of our reefs? Yeah, definitely. Excess nutrients in our ponds and our lakes and sometimes it gets in our oceans. It's not good for the environment because it offsets the balance. So that's a very important step of the treatment to... So if you want, in this water cycle which we showed, so the rain, it goes, you know, surface runoff, it goes into the water and then evaporates or again plants also transpire again as well. This is what happens in nature. We people take the water because for our cities we need to use it. So basically can we say that the water treatments that we do to purify the water is sort of a quicker view of that cycle, the natural cycle if you want. Yeah. Our water treatment, so the primary and secondary treatment like takes away the solids and the tertiary treatment takes away the nutrients. So that's definitely kind of like a faster way of cleaning the water. That's very interesting. One issue with that is that it's very costly and it uses chemicals to treat the water. And it also causes secondary pollution which is... Oh. Yeah, so it causes many other side effects that we don't want. The secondary pollution in the tertiary part of the treatment, what does it consist in? The eutrophication that you were talking about or is there anything else that we need to be aware of? The secondary pollution is having too much nutrients in discharge in the environment. And those nutrients are often not used. They can be used but because we're not utilizing them they're not being used. So it's polluting the environment that way. Okay, so we remind our guest, our audience that you are a junior in high school, at Mililani High School, and you are a finalist in the State Fair. So given this picture that we made with the water treatments, it's particularly important in the world and here on Oahu, your project focuses on trying and if you want to use this algae, for what then? So algae, as I said before, it can bioremediate the water. So I thought, what if I put the algae in wastewater? Because algae can grow in virtually any environment. So what if I put those algae in wastewater and utilize that system to replace our current tertiary treatments at the same time? We produce this pollution, we said. And your method, the method you are proposing as part of your competition at the State Fair also produces energy. Also produces algae biofuels which are very, very useful for lots of other things. So as part of your project, your science project, did you visit any power plant here on the island? Yeah, so I was lucky enough to get in contact with American Water Works at Hawaii Kai. Oh, okay. And they were really nice, they showed me around their wastewater treatment plant and I was able to learn so much about how my system, if it can be implemented into our current systems that we already have. And I believe we have a picture of your visiting this power, this water treatment station, and oh, okay, here it is, yeah. So that's me, and he's walking me through all the different treatment systems. He is responsible for the water treatment plant. Yeah, Mr. Lee, yeah. Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. So I guess this is particularly important for you to have a look at the real plant because so how did you make experiments to test your hypothesis? Yeah, so I wanted to test whether, so one issue that I look into this system is that excess light, even though light is very essential for the growth of the algae, excess light can result in problems such as radiation damage and toxic stress. So what I tested is that if I were to synthesize these silver metal nanoparticles, which can filter, kind of filter the light at a specific wavelength, would it improve algae's rate of growth? What are these silver nanoparticles for those who are not into the water business? So silver nanoparticles, they have this optical property, localized surface plasmid resonance, and one is able to tune the shape and the size of these silver nanoparticles so that it only oscillates at a specific wavelength light. So it only allows a certain wavelength light to pass through. So basically we want to select the range of wavelengths, the range of light, so that the growth of the algae is optimal. Yeah. Okay. So chlorophyll A likes a spectrum between 400, 300 to 500 around that range. Is it B? I'm chlorophyll A. Okay. Yeah. So what I aim to do is that I synthesize these silver nanoparticles so that it only allows light to absorb, only allows light to pass through at 400 nanometers. How did you find out about these specific wavelengths? And we're looking at some of your experiments here. So there has been many research that tests the optimal wavelength absorption for chlorophyll A, and that was why I decided to focus on synthesizing my nanoparticles around 400 nanometers. And if you can see in that picture, inside... We're looking at, there are basically containers, if you want, glass containers filled with the different solutions, I guess, what are they? We have a flask, and inside the flask is my growing algal solutions. And around the flask we have beakers. And outside the flask, inside the beakers, we have these silver nanoparticles. And what that does is that when light passes through, it has to go through these silver nanoparticles, and it has to... By doing that, it can filter the archives nanopilter to filter the light at the wavelength that the algae wants. That you need for allowing them to grow. And to carry out these experiments, you're describing here for purifying water, did you have to build your own set of experiments, or you bought these flasks, or how did you actually... If I were to repeat the same kind of experiments, which you carried out, how would I do it? So the first thing I did in my experiment, to build a photo bioreactor, because I need a place... What is that? A fuel? A photo bioreactor. Photo bioreactor. What is it? I have a picture. Oh, okay. Yes, that one. Oh, this one. That's what it is. Wow. Yeah. In my experiment, I had an air pump in the back that delivers air to each of the algae samples. And... Oh, yeah, because the algae needs the air to thrive as well. Yeah. I also have the light on the top. Oh, the two black... Yeah. These are the lights which are, you know, enlightening the samples, okay, yeah. So on the top, I have these... So it's important to control the air, to make sure that you're not giving too much onto one bottle or to another. So I have these knobs on the top, the acutair, that can control the amount of air the algae is receiving. The amount of air that they get. Yeah. So, yeah, it's important, the first step of the experiment is important to test out your photo bioreactor system, because you wanted to have an optimal environment for the algae to grow. For the algae to grow. Yeah. We are talking here on Fintech Hawaii with Cindy Soh from Mililani High School. She's a finalist at this year State Fair, so ho, ho, ho. And we're going to be back, we're going to take a break, and we're going to talk about more about how we can purify water with Cindy here on Fintech Hawaii at Young Talent's Making Way. We'll be back. It's the go-in. He's a service dog. Oh, I could get a vest, too. You're not even a service dog. He's trained to assist his owner. Well, I can do whatever he can do. Wow. Did he just open the door? Yep. Oh, I can't do that. I can't do that either. He's trained for over two years to become a service dog. Man, I wish I could be a service dog. And we're back. We're live. We're Young Talent's Making Way here on Fintech Hawaii, and we're talking about waste water, purifying water here on the islands with Cindy from Mililani High School. Welcome back. Thank you. We have a big audience today. All your relatives and teachers are here, so we're pretty excited today. So we talked about, in the first part, how after the water goes into the, all this maze of tubes underground, it needs to be purified. That's very important. We talked about how this happens. We talked about your, if you want, contribution regarding the tertiary stage of water treatment. You're using algae to basically purify this water in the final stage. And so you mentioned that by doing this, not only are you removing the chemicals that would have otherwise to be used for this purpose, but you are also producing energy. How does that work? Yeah, so why I fell in love with doing algae is because even last year I did my project on saltwater algae and to conserve freshwater. And algae is such a great alternative to our current energy processes and environmental processes. It's because it's very, it's great, it's cheap, it's fast growing. It can... How fast can they grow? You grew algae as part of your... Yeah, in two weeks it was able, my algae was able to grow in the maximum amount of biomass. And it was able to remove almost all of the nutrients in the wastewater. So it grows really fast. So say for example we had a big water treatment plant, then the water comes in after the first and secondary treatments. And then basically in two weeks we would be able to grow all this algae to the maximum biomass extent and then the water gets purified because of the algae. Yeah, I think it even grows faster in wastewater which is very, very high in nutrients. And you know in your pools and nobody wants algae, it grows really fast and once you get rid of it, it grows right back. And what about the energy part then? So after the algae grows in these wastewater tanks for about two weeks, they can be filtered out of the wastewater and they can be... The oil from the algae can be extracted from the algae biomass after you take out all the water. So basically the water, if you want, after it is purified by the algae can get back into the nature, you know, can be discharged. And then the algae are used for energy. Yeah, and the water comes back cleaner. It comes back into the cycle and oh this is excited. So basically you implemented this if you want using small flasks, you know, experiments and everything. You visited the water treatment plant in Hawaii. How could you basically implement this experiment on a wider, on a big, you know, scenario with a big plant if you want? Yeah, so that's definitely one of the things I was looking into. I believe my algae system can be easily implemented into our current tertiary process systems. Really all you need is to have an algae filtering system. Once the algae does its job, once it removes all the nutrients, then you have to filter it out again. That's what you did at the end of the experiment, you filtered the algae as well, okay. So where are the water plants, do you know how many are they? In Hawaii? In Hawaii. I'm not sure. I think there's one, the one I went to was in Hawaii Kai, there's one in U.R. Beach, pretty big one. It's in the island maybe. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, okay. So this is basically, it's a concern if you want for having this water really purified. So now next week I believe we have the state fair and you are finalists. So you're going to be, what's going to, are you going to represent Mililani High School? Yes. I'm very excited to present my project. You know science fair has always been something I look forward to in a year because it's very fun to present your project and all your hard work and yeah. So how long, we talked a little bit about you know what you did for this project with testing this water treatment with algae, but how long did it take for you to come up with this original idea and then build your bioreactor and then eventually get to the point where you got results and you tested this hypothesis? The thinking process came, started last year actually, last year after I finished presenting my project on wastewater algae, I got so much feedback on you know what I can do to You mentioned your chemistry teacher who is here. And then I got a lot of feedback on how I can improve my system. And what people mentioned is that algae why not just grow in wastewater, you know, wastewater and wastewater can bring in all the nutrients. So the after I got that feedback and I researched into it, that was when I found that algae can also borrow me the water and that's how I started designing my system, my Bottle Bioreactor system and I started testing what effect nanoparticles have on my system. So it's a full year on process. Wow. And so now next week you're going to see the fruits of all this hard work, that's very exciting. Yeah. Thank you. So now we mentioned that you are a junior at Mililani High School. What is basically, what do you, you are studying biology, chemistry, I guess, what are the subjects that most interested, I mean I guess the question might be how did you get involved with algae and water and remediation, how did you get interested in this at Mililani High School? So I love biology and chemistry because it's really relevant to our everyday lives. Are they your favorite subjects? Yeah. Oh, okay. And then these two sciences, they can answer questions around the world, around our world and how I got involved with algae and with science fair is that in freshman year I entered into the science fair and I was like blown away by how much I enjoy doing my experiments because one great thing about science fair is that you can really, a lot of people use Google to answer your own questions but with science fair you can answer your own questions that you never even thought you had. You can answer questions that nobody thought they had until you answered it. With basically science you can answer questions and everything. That's very interesting. That's wonderful. That's wonderful. And if I may ask, you're still young but what's beyond? How do you see yourself after high school or maybe are you thinking of going to college or what is your view for the future? Maybe even if you're going to be still working on algae and biology since this is what you love. It's definitely science research. I love working in the laboratory and I'm still looking to different areas where I can maybe medical, maybe biomedical and it's very cool to see how different areas of science really just come together so looking for my interest. And so you're planning on attending college in Hawaii or? I'm planning on going to college on the mainland. Yeah. But are you coming back? For sure. Always. We need bright talents here in Hawaii and you certainly are a Cindy. Thank you. Thank you. So here at Young Talents Making Way we had Cindy So from Mililani High School, a big audience of teachers and family. And so thank you very much for walking us through the understanding of how water gets treated in our cities, how we get purified water, as well as how we can, you know, diminish if you want, the impact if you want. We don't want to produce additional pollution to clean our water. So thank you very much Cindy. You've been watching Young Talents Making Way here in Fintech, Hawaii on a Tuesday morning and we're going to have more bright students in the future and also from Mililani High School. Stay tuned.