I was invited to MIT last month by Dr. Chryssostomidis and he gathered together Sea Grant professors and grad students to hear my presentation and brainstorm with me and about my smart material (nitinol) based design. At the end of my day there Dr. Chryssostomidis asked me to go out and advocate and begin to build a network to try and save the ocean.

I was also fortunate enough to present Guardians of the Coast to Dr. Oliver at UDelaware. He was very supportive and offered valuable insight into microplastic capturing and how to make Guardians more effective. He introduced me to graduate student, Katherine Hudson, to help me further develop my design.

I’m taking Dr. Chryssostomidis’ advice and trying to link together professors, students and researchers in different fields  to come together to solve this problem that must be solved.