About 20 million students will attend college and universities in the fall of 2020.1 For many, college should be some of the most exciting years of young adult lives, lurking beneath the excitement hides a dangerous national issue—drug-facilitated sexual assault in college communities. According to a study conducted by the American Addiction Centers, out of people who have had their drink spiked, 52% had their drink spiked for the first time in college2, while more than half of college sexual assault cases occured in the first semester.2
To combat this issue, and hopefully decrease the occurrence of drug-facilitated sexual assault in college communities, we propose Drink Guardian: a robust drug-detecting device that continuously monitors a user’s drink, and has the ability to signal both the user and a sober friend or partner upon detection of a drug. In particular, we plan to accurately determine the presence of Rohypnol, a common date-rape drug, as well as limit false negative results using both fluorescence and electrochemical methods. The fluorescence test will detect two peaks at 250 and 315 nm for unprotonated Rohypnol, or a single peak at 280 nm for protonated Rohypnol.3 The electrochemical test, on the other hand, will look for a current peak at around -0.3 V which lies between Rohypnol’s first oxidation and second reduction reaction equilibrium.4 When both tests are positive, a notification and vibration will be sent to the user and a sober friend of choice, via bluetooth from Drink Guardian to their smartphones.
This report will further detail Drink Guardian’s product specifications and development, manufacturing process, and financial analysis. With our proposed manufacturing process, we will produce 1,132 devices a day to be able to launch 293,500 devices in our first year on the market. We expect universities to cover the $100 cost of Drink Guardian and provide our devices to students. Moreover, the cost of fixing broken equipment will be provided through a warranty, as it is built into our business costs. Based on our financial analysis we predict to break even after roughly five years.

Team Members

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Project Mentors, Sponsors, and Partners

Course Faculty

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Project Links

• Project Whitepaper

Additional Project Information