Eniola Shokunbi was solely 8 years outdated when the COVID-19 pandemic unfold throughout the US.
4 years later, the Nigerian-American tween was tasked with a singular class undertaking: create an invention that might fight future airborne viruses.
With cardboard, duct tape, and 4 furnace filters in hand, Shokunbi outfitted a easy field fan right into a working air filter.
“The air goes by way of all the perimeters,” she instructed NBC Information. “And it comes out of the highest, so it filters out and in.”
The prototype was given rainbow wings, a paper beak, and spherical eyes as a nod to her faculty’s mascot: a colourful owl.
At first, her invention — which value $60 to assemble — simply caught the eye of her trainer. Then, when Shokunbi and her classmates on the Commodore MacDonough STEM Academy constructed and put in the air filters (minus the feathers and owl accoutrement) at her faculty, the varsity board took discover.
By mid-October, the Environmental Safety Company (EPA) stepped in, testing its effectivity and discovering that Shokunbi’s design made the grade.
“It confirmed that the air filter took out over 99% of viruses within the air,” Shokunbi mentioned. “And that it was efficient.”
That’s when the state legislature took discover, too.
“I’m simply blown away by these youngsters,” Connecticut State Senator Matt Lesser mentioned. “Eniola is fabulous. She wows each room she’s in entrance of, she’s an actual rock star.”
On October 22, Connecticut’s State Bond Fee accredited $11.5 million in funding for College of Connecticut’s Supplemental Air Filtration for Training Program, with the intention of setting up and putting in Shokunbi’s filter system in public faculties within the state.
Shokunbi has huge desires for her invention. Someday, she envisions faculties throughout the nation carrying her filters, enhancing the air high quality of scholars in every single place.
“I need them to go to highschool realizing that they’re protected, that they’re wholesome, that they will be taught,” Shokunbi mentioned. “I actually love explaining to individuals and seeing their faces, seeing them understand that this might change so many lives.”
For Shokunbi, her design was impressed by residing by way of the fact COVID-19 — and leaning into curiosity as a substitute of concern.
“Lots of people, they don’t understand typically, that the one factor standing between them and getting sick is science,” Shokunbi mentioned. “If we’re not investing in that, then we’re not investing within the youngsters’ future.”
Header picture by way of Eniola Shokunbi
