Student Inventors Build Smart AI Guard for Clean Drinking Water!

Water treatment plants are like giant kitchens that prepare tap water for entire towns. They mix in tiny, strictly measured amounts of safe chemicals to wipe out germs and keep pipes clean. But back in 2021, an intruder remotely broke into a water plant's computer system in Oldsmar, Florida. The hacker tried to crank up a harsh chemical called sodium hydroxide to nearly 100 times its normal amount, which could have made the water dangerous to drink!

Believe it or not, no automated alarm sounded to warn the facility. The only reason an emergency was stopped was pure chance. An alert worker happened to glance at his monitor, noticed the computer cursor clicking on dials all on its own, and quickly canceled the bad command. Relying on someone happening to look at a monitor at the exact right second is way too risky for keeping a whole town safe.