JERUSALEM (VINnews) — Students at the Atid-Or Menachem Yeshiva, a charedi school whose students enlist in the Israeli military, have developed a smart drinking straw designed to detect drink-spiking drugs, according to a Yisrael Hayom report. The students won Unistream’s Project of the Year Award and are currently working on further development of the technology with partners abroad.

Although they have little personal familiarity with bars or nightclubs, the students from the Ashkelon yeshiva,operated jointly by the Atid Education Network and the Chabad-Lubavitch movement, won the innovation competition with an idea aimed at making nights out safer.

Shilo Abo, one of the students behind the project, said: “We haven’t been to clubs or pubs, but we’ve been exposed to the issue through the media and heard about these incidents, so we’re aware of it and not disconnected from reality. We understood the problem and decided to come up with a solution.”

The issue of drink-spiking — adding incapacitating drugs to beverages in order to exploit victims— has become a growing concern for both patrons and nightclub owners. Around the world, public awareness campaigns encourage people to watch who prepares their drinks, keep their beverages within sight, and take other precautions.

Abo and his teammates Dvir Malka, Yehonatan Haim Dudashvili, and Yisrael Maor Hai developed a smart straw capable of detecting dangerous substances in a drink in real time and warning the user of possible contamination. The concept is based on existing technologies used to sample and identify various drugs.

The straw contains a capillary channel that continuously draws small amounts of the beverage into three chemical testing chambers. These chambers are designed to detect several of the most common drink-spiking drugs, including GHB, ketamine, and Rohypnol.

As soon as the straw comes into contact with a drink, it begins operating automatically. If one of the chambers detects a dangerous substance, the chemical indicator changes color and begins to glow, alerting the user that the drink has been contaminated and that they should stop drinking immediately and seek help.

Smart Straw

The product is still under development, but the students believe it could be ready for market within about a year. They envision it as a disposable straw costing only a few shekels to manufacture.

According to Abo: “The entire project is still in the development stage. We’re working with a laboratory in the Netherlands that is testing the chemicals. Together with our instructor, we’re developing the chemical aspects in the hope of bringing it to market. The response has been excellent, as shown by our first-place finish in the competition.”

Following their victory, the team has qualified for an international competition to be held in New York in the coming months. Abo added that while there, they also hope to fulfill a personal dream by visiting the tomb of the Lubavitcher Rebbe.