Purdue University has hosted the annual Student Soybean Product Innovation Competition for the past 22 years, and one of the top teams in this year’s competition attended the 2016 United Soybean Board (USB) Biobased Stakeholder’s Dialogue to give a presentation on their invention and receive invaluable feedback from the soy biobased industry.

Purdue students Andrew Cameron and Harshit Kapoor teamed up for this year’s competition to create Soy Pods, single use laundry detergent pods that swap out the conventional polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) film packaging for a renewable soy protein-based film. They took home third place and got the opportunity to attend the stakeholders’ dialogue where they interacted with biobased industry professionals.

“It was awesome to hear all of the ways that agriculture can be used in everyday sources, not just for food, but things that every consumer uses every day, and how agricultural products can replace things like petroleum,” said Cameron.

“This event left an impact that pushed us to keep moving forward on biobased products, and to keep pushing this product out there in the market, because it doesn’t only benefit our consumers, it benefits the farmers that grow soybeans in this country,” said Kapoor. “This was a great experience for me, after coming here from a foreign country, to get to experience the American Dream and see the Secretary of Agriculture support our ideas and help us move forward. It was so motivating.”

Listen to Cindy’s full interview with the Soy Pods Team here:
Interview with Andrew Cameron and Harshit Kapoor, Soy Pods

USB Biobased Stakeholder’s Dialogue Photo Album