The winners of Michigan’s Great Lakes Invasive Carp Challenge have been announced. Edem Tsikata, a software consultant in Boston, won the $200,000 first prize for his design.
Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder announced the competition last year to catalyze efforts to prevent invasive Asian carp from entering the Great Lakes. Environmentalists worry that the introduction of Asian carp could seriously impact the Great Lakes ecosystem, as well as surrounding communities and businesses.
Tsikata proposes installing special underwater propellers to generate a wall of bubbles that would implode as they move into high-pressure areas, emitting high-speed water jet that would create a powerful stinging sensation for the carp. The noise of the propellers itself should also be enough to deter most carp. Tsikata has a Ph.D. in experimental atomic physics and has worked in NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab.
The second place winner was David Hamilton of The Nature Conservancy in Lansing, Michigan; third place went to Michael Scurlock, a hydraulic engineer from Carbondale, Colorado; and fourth place went to D.J. Lee of Smart Vision Works International in Orem, Utah.
It’s now up to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to decide if they will implement designs at critical juncture points, such as the Brandon Road Lock and Dam in Joliet, Illinois, about 10 miles downriver from Chicago.
[Photo by Kate Gardiner / Flickr.]
