Why this Penn Nursing student thinks mobile games can fight water scarcity

Make your gaming count.

That’s the idea behind Tethys, which aims to back projects that fight water scarcity, all with microloans paid for with mobile game revenue. (It’s similar to how the team at Old City’s SuperMighty are trying to connect charity and game developers.) Penn Nursing doctorate student (and International Game Developers Association scholar) Matthew Lee is on the Tethys team.

The idea is still just that at this point, but if the team wins the G20 Global Business Water Challenge it will win $100,000 to get the project off the ground. The challenge asked students to develop an innovative answer the problem of water scarcity.

Lee and his team, made up of students from around the world, are one of six finalists in the international competition. Other finalists include teams from the University of Queensland, Warsaw University of Life Sciences and Memorial University of Newfoundland. The finalists will demo in Brisbane, Australia next month.