Each year, engineering students on the cusp of graduation are tasked with the challenge of completing a senior design project before embarking on their journey into the “real world.” Although the specific requirements of the project vary among each engineering discipline, its fundamental goal is simple – create a design that benefits as many people as possible. For seniors, it is a chance to apply all they have learned during their college careers toward a single professional project.
In putting the techniques they've develop into practice, many students are able to use their senior design projects to explore original ideas that reflect their individual passions and interests. Here are three projects that gained attention for their inspiring approaches to solving real-world problems...
Growing plants is a notoriously time-consuming task. Constant attention is required to keep a plant alive and well. Farmers and gardeners, however, may now get some of that time back thanks to five electrical and computer engineering students from Boston University who created GrowBox, a fully automated, low-cost system for growing plants.
The GrowBox determines the exact amount of lights, water, nutrients and air needed to maximize a plant’s growth by using an image processor to monitor age and fruit count. An automatic controller function turns lights on and off to simulate day and night cycles a plant needs to survive. Users can stay up-to-date on a plant’s progress through an iOS app that sends push notifications for the plant’s stages of growth straight to their devices. As it's also capable of growing plants without soil, this hydroponic innovation showcases the potential for using engineering to make agriculture more flexible and efficient than ever before.
After spending a large part of his childhood in Managua, Nicaragua, Jesse van der Wees was well-acquainted with the hardships that affected so many living there. As a senior engineering student at Calvin College, van der Wees used his newfound skills to make an impact on those living in the country he once called home.
Titled “Agua to Nicaragua,” van Der Wees’ senior design project provides clean and dependable sources of drinking water tor rural communities. With the help of a solar panel, his team’s prototype design captures energy used to power an ultraviolet light that then purifies the water. The sustainable design can store enough energy to disinfect water for 100 people over five days. As water scarcity continues to threaten the well-being of millions around the world, innovative designs such as the one crafted by van der Wees and his team, are more important than ever to make clean water available to more people.
While electricity is a critical component of modern society, 1.3 billion people still live without it. As many as 97 percent of those people reside in Africa and Asia. In response to this crisis, four engineering students at the University of Pennsylvania created Turbox, an inexpensive wind turbine in a box.
This lightweight device is able to generate electricity in remote locations, and can be assembled in less than 30 minutes without the use of tools. Turbox uses ample wind energy to generate 50 watt-hours of electricity, which can power two LED lightbulbs for the night, offering hope to families living in poverty without reliable access to electricity.
Have you been inspired by a student design idea brought to life? If you're a student or engineering graduate, what did you work on for your final project? Share your stories with us in the comments section below...