Nikita Chatterjee and Brianna Howard, “Be Orange” innovators

students at the warehouse

Nikita Chatterjee ’20 (College of Arts and Sciences and Maxwell) and Brianna Howard ’20 (Falk) are working on a simple, yet elegant solution to reduce waterborne illnesses in low-income communities in India.  They are launching their idea with help from the Blackstone LaunchPad powered by Techstars at SU Libraries and Invent@SU, a powerful partnership that take ideas from concept, to fabrication, to commercialization.  Using a sari, the traditional garment worn by Indian women, the two have created a prototype, filed a provisional patent application, won several business competitions and founded a global health company that aims to provide access to clean water. They named it PAANI, the Hindi word for water.  Now, their journey is being chronicled by Jay Cox as part of Syracuse University’s “Be Orange” series.  Read the full SU story here.