A former Grant Union High School student is on his way to making a positive global impact with a water-dispensing machine that could bring clean, affordable drinking water to developing countries.

Harsh Patel attended Grant School District No. 3 schools, including his freshman year at Grant Union, then transferred to Ridgeview High School in Redmond, where he graduated in 2015. Currently, he is a sophomore at Boston University, majoring in computer science.

The entrepreneurship opportunity came about for Patel and his two teammates, who attend University of Washington, through a contest called TigerLaunch.

Their project, called Drop: Trusted H2O, upgrades the design of a water-dispensing machine currently on the market.

“Our goal with Drop is to reduce the demand on water bottles, which are responsible for a massive amount of pollution in tourist cities, and to provide clean water quickly to tourists and locals,” Patel said.

TigerLaunch is the nation’s largest student-run inter-collegiate entrepreneurship competition, put on annually by the Princeton Entrepreneurship Club at Princeton University in New Jersey.

They cleared one hurdle, as one of 15 out of 45 teams to advance to make their pitch at TigerLaunch’s regional competition scheduled for Friday, Feb. 10, in Seattle.

If they win there, the young men will compete at the TigerLaunch finals at Princeton. Winners receive $30,000 and a chance to meet with top venture capital firms.

Patel’s team is renovating the design and building brand recognition. The team bought a water-dispensing machine and recently traveled to Thailand to visit the factory where it is manufactured, working with designers there to make updates to the machine.

Patel said the upgrades include a reverse osmosis process to remove impurities from the water — it can also desalinate salt water.

“We’re re-engineering the water-dispensing machine to ensure that the consumer gets the cleanest water possible,” he said.

They are also refining it with a one-button process and switching out the pipes in the machine with a noncorrosive PVC material.

Patel called the innovation a “big movement.”

Because clean drinking water is not readily available in areas such as Thailand, people purchase water bottles, which cost between seven to 10 Thai bahts (about 21 to 30 cents).

“We’re charging one Thai baht — 3 cents — per fill-up,” Patel said. “Our machine saves the consumer a lot of money.”

When the opportunity to join the contest came up, Patel said he was all for it.

“I like having the entrepreneur mindset,” he said.

When he told his friends Kaopod Chantapakul and Jared Praino about the opportunity, he said, “Now is the time to do it.”

“My team and I are dedicated to giving clean water to local people,” he said. “Having the John Day community supporting us and developing countries means a lot. We’re trying to get engaged with the world and trying to improve it, one step at a time.”

Although Patel lives in Boston while attending school, he still calls John Day home. His parents Rakesh and Jyotsna Patel live in John Day, as well as his grandparents.

“We are very proud of him,” Rakesh said.

Harsh invites those who would like to vote for his project to visit: http://www.tigerlaunch.com/seattle-regional.

Votes need to be in by 6:30 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 10, and the team with the most votes receives $400.