The four materials science and engineering majors gathered one August morning for their senior design class. It was 8am and they all sipped coffee.

Tyler Quill joked that his dentist would kill him for drinking coffee, knowing how the beverage’s acidity contributes to tooth and enamel erosion.

“Then we started talking about why that happens and how great it would be if we could find a way to fix the problem,” said Quill, who is from Grayson, Ga.

Together the team designed pHAM, a filter to reduce coffee’s acidity. They incorporated a mineral blend into the structure of the filter paper, which reduces the acidity of the brewed coffee without negatively affecting the taste. 

The creation is one of six competing for Georgia Tech’s annual invention competition, the InVenture Prize.

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