The BeAM Design Innovation Hub at UNC was crucial to my doctoral research! In order to evaluate the effectiveness of household water filters, I needed a way to precisely measure the water use in people’s homes. I was also testing an innovative device to disinfect the water at people’s taps using UV light and needed to integrate a prototype from a separate manufacturer into the filter and flow meter. I had no idea how to do any of this! I reached out to the BeAM Design Innovation Hub and found a wealth of resources and support available to me. Glenn Walters helped me integrate the flow meter with the UV device by designing, testing, and manufacturing a custom circuit board connected to a data logger that I installed in 20 people’s homes, leading to crucial data on the lifetime and performance of consumer water filters in real world situations. I believe the BeAM Design Innovation Hub is one of the most important and unique assets available to researchers at UNC Chapel Hill.