It turns out that their strategy worked. The foursome walked away with the top $20,000 prize at the competition, held earlier this year in Indianapolis.

"Our product deals with air filtration - specifically for heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems," explained Smith. "This is important to the everyday person because it ensures clean air to breathe inside of our homes and buildings." Called FiltraSoy, this cost-effective, high efficiency, environmentally friendly filter allows consumers to "save money while simultaneously increasing the quality of the air that they breathe."

The filter is made of 91 percent soy, Smith said. The amino groups within the soy allow for a higher filtration efficiency within the product, capturing more pollutants than the typical filter. Soy is a cheap raw material and allows for simple fabrication of the filtration media, allowing the price of the product to be low.

"Soy is a renewable and biodegradable resource that contributes to the environmental friendliness of the product," Smith shared.

A May 2017 Purdue graduate from Fort Wayne, Smith earned his degree in Environmental and Natural Resources Engineering with minors in Global Engineering, Entrepreneurship and Innovation, and Spanish. His co-leader for the competition was Andrew Huang. Rounding out the team were Sushant Mehan and Samaneh Saadat. All four hail from Agricultural and Biological Engineering (ABE).

Aside from bouncing ideas off of one another, the students had the support of their project advisors, Purdue faculty members Dr. Richard Stroshine, an ABE Professor, and Dr. Joseph Sinfield, Associate Professor of Civil Engineering and Director of the College of Engineering Innovation and Leadership Studies Program.

"Dr. Stroshine has a very strong background working with soy and other grains and was able to advise us regarding some of the technical aspects of the product," Smith said. "Dr. Sinfield was beneficial in helping the team in developing practical constraints and applying systematic creativity in the initial ideation phases of the project to thinking about overall product impact and customer-centric design."

Once the team arrived at the competition, they had invested so much time in research and development that the presentation "came naturally," Smith said. The hardest part was condensing all of their information into a 10-minute proposal.

"We were excited to win, but above all else, felt honored to have been a part of the competition. It was an incredible experience to see both students and farmers get excited about trying to make an impact through developing novel products based out of soy. Personally, my favorite part of the competition was seeing all of the different and ingenious products that students had developed."

Smith's next endeavor is participating in the Orr Fellowship, a two-year professional development program that will have him working for KSM Consulting in Indianapolis. Additionally, his work with Team FiltraSoy will continue, as the foursome continues to develop its product.

"Long-term," Smith added, "I'd like to either start my own company or work for a company that drives positive change in the world in a profitable manner through its work."