Meridian Design, Incorporated, was founded in 1986 as an engineering company that specialized in turnkey embedded control solutions. Meridian Design has developed products in fields as diverse as fiberoptic transceiver modules, LED flashlights, kitchen composters, laboratory test equipment, shape memory muscle actuators, avionics, microscopy, medical centrifuges, model train electronics, and pulse detonation wave engine controllers. The AquaStar™ UV Portable Water Purifier is the first directly-marketed product offered by Meridian Design. A low-cost solar-powered version of the AquaStar™ UV Portable Water Purifier is also being developed, in cooperation with IDE, for use in the third world where water-borne illness ends the lives of over two million people each year.