This takes top prize in the function over fashion design concepts. Engineers from the University of California Riverside have created a material with the ability to absorb pollutants when submerged in water while simultaneously repelling the water itself. Originally designed to desalinize water and clean up oil spills, the husband-wife duo of Mihri and Cengiz Ozkan decided to make it into a bikini and enter it into the Reshape15: Wearable Technology Competition. To no surprise, it won them first prize.
The idea is to give the wearer a bikini that could clean the water around them while they swim. The material, known as Sponge, is capable of absorbing harmful contaminants and eventually carrying as much as 25 times its own weight. As for the bikini itself, the base layer is made of a 3D printed elastic shell that holds the Sponge inserts. Sponge is made from a heated sucrose that will store the contaminants in its pores without being saturated with water. And when the Sponge is later heated to a cool 1,000 degrees (Celsius) it releases all of the pollutants absorbed within, giving each bikini a lifetime of 20 uses before new Sponge inserts are needed.
Can bikini clad women dive into the ocean and single handedly clean our oceans? Not likely. But the uniqueness of this first design has applications to trunks and wetsuits as well, meaning anybody who enjoys the ocean could someday have the chance to clean it every time they go for a swim.
Photo: Reshape
