Breweries use millions of gallons of water to make their products and sanitizing wastewater effluent is important to the brewing business. Despite significant improvement over the past two decades, water consumption and wastewater disposal remain environmental and economic hurdles. The goal of this project is to design a microbrewery that reduces biological oxygen demand, which is the amount of oxygen microorganisms need to break down soluble organic material, in the waste stream leaving the facility before it enters the municipal system. High biological oxygen demand means less oxygen in water for plants and animals and more work for city wastewater systems. The system design has a blower system that aerates a stagnant pool of waste product, and an automated flow system to maintain the correct oxygen level. Optimal energy use is achieved when the pressure in the header is just sufficient to overcome the static pressure of the waste. In order to be more sustainable, the team also determined the feasibility of implementing a rooftop solar energy system.

When exposed to varying temperatures, water, and stress, concrete develops tiny undetectable cracks that can spread and threaten its integrity until eventually it must be replaced. Self-healing concrete offers significant economic and environmental benefits. The goal of this project is to investigate the feasibility of using bacteria as a self-healing additive, and to design a plant for producing self-healing concrete. The concrete designed by the team includes dormant bacteria that are reactivated by water entering a crack. The bacteria naturally produce calcium carbonate, which seals the cracks resulting in a stronger, longer-lasting concrete. The team designed a system of bioreactors to cultivate the bacteria, Bacillus subtilis, which is added to lightweight aggregate, a component of concrete. The team also designed a plant to produce the cement necessary to make concrete. This design involves balancing the energy needs of several large crushers and grinders, a heating and cooling system, and a large kiln. The cement and aggregate are combined with water to form self-healing concrete.

The objective of this project is to design an efficient photobioreactor to produce algae as a food source for aquaculture. The design of the indoor photobioreactors incorporates smart glass, treated glass that refracts ultraviolet and infrared light to a solar cell while allowing visible light to pass through for algae to use in photosynthesis. The energy created by the solar cell could be used to offset energy consumption of a photobioreactor plant. The smart glass manufacturing facility designed by the team increases throughput, recycles waste, and conserves energy. These two processes could be combined to replace carbon-producing methods with carbon-consuming methods to help feed the world.

The Shamrock Farms processing facility produces 500,000 gallons of wastewater a day with levels of biological oxygen demand, chemical oxygen demand, total suspended solids, and metal ions that exceed allowable limits. The goal of this project is to reduce these levels to meet EPA specifications. The system design uses an anaerobic membrane bioreactor to reduce biological oxygen demand, chemical oxygen demand, and total suspended solids. The bioreactor produces methane that is captured and stored for further use within the facility; cell mass sludge that is separated, dewatered and sent to a municipal digesting facility; and a permeate stream that undergoes electrodialysis to remove metal ions, producing a brine to be processed by an evaporation unit, and a permeate to be treated with ultraviolet light to eliminate remaining biologicals. Processed permeate water can then be reintroduced into the facility.

Automated external defibrillators are medical devices used to treat sudden cardiac arrest. If administered within minutes of cardiac arrest, a defibrillation shock can reset the heart to a normal synchronous rhythm and improve the outcome of cardiopulmonary resuscitation. The sponsor is interested in developing a prototype defibrillator intended for affordable personal ownership. The design emphasis is on small size, ease of use, and simplicity of function in light of FDA stipulations regarding safety and effectiveness. The goal of this project is to design the charging and shocking circuit elements to be used with the heart rhythm analytic algorithm developed by Team 15069. To deliver the required 200-joule shock, the charging and shocking circuit includes a large capacitor, a voltage multiplier, and a flyback transformer to ramp up the voltage. User-friendly and durable packaging was designed to protect the internal circuitry, and a model of the packaging was designed using SolidWorks and printed in 3-D using a static-sensitive material. The packaging also houses a speaker and LCD screen that provides prompts for user ease of mind while treating a patient. The packaging, shocking, and charging circuit will be integrated with the heart rhythm analytic algorithm to create the final product for CardioSpark.

This project involves the integration of software algorithms and autonomous unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs, used for unmanned missions. It was initiated as part of Microsoft’s Project Premonition to collect and analyze mosquitoes to look for early signs that potentially harmful diseases are spreading. The project is also part of the National Science Foundation’s Cyber-Physical Systems Virtual Organization. The goal of the project is to design and build a UAV-based hook system to capture and retrieve a mosquito trap. The design includes an electropermanent magnet, Pixhawk autopilot system, cameras, and sensors. The UAV has sufficient power and agility to carry the payload through a specified course, and an algorithm has been modified to allow the UAV to perform certain other tasks. The combination of the designed physical system and the modified algorithm will be used in a competition to navigate through an obstacle course.

Automated external defibrillators are medical devices used to treat sudden cardiac arrest. If administered within minutes of cardiac arrest, a defibrillation shock can reset the heart to a normal synchronous rhythm and improve the outcome of cardiopulmonary resuscitation. The sponsor is interested in developing a prototype defibrillator intended for affordable personal ownership. The design emphasis is on small size, ease of use, and simplicity of function in light of FDA stipulations regarding safety and effectiveness. The goal of this project is to design the diagnostic front end of the defibrillator, which acquires, filters and digitizes the electrocardiogram sample. An algorithm analyzes heart rhythm and determines whether a shock is appropriate, as in the case of ventricular fibrillation or ventricular tachycardia, or not. The device’s microcontroller determines actions required and if necessary can communicate with the shocking portion of the defibrillator designed by team 15071. All device activity is logged and stored.

The purpose of the project was to design and build a wearable virtual reality camera for use as communication tool on social media. The team was a participant in a collaborative project between the Senior Design program and the McGuire Entrepreneurship Program. The Engineering team developed a wearable virtual reality camera to be used for 3-D social media while the Entrepreneurship team planned a path to market. The device, called Vidi VR, fits like eye glasses and contains small cameras above each eye that capture the user’s exact perspective, and a stereo microphone to capture the sounds of the environment. The camera is connected wirelessly to the user’s smartphone and experiences are sent to a virtual reality headset that lets the viewer experience a moment in realistic 3-D as if they were actually there. This patent-pending device will enable the transition from 2-D social media on smartphones to 3-D social media in virtual reality. Anyone with a smartphone can experience virtual reality via a $10 headset that uses their smartphone screen as the display, which lowers the barrier of entry into virtual reality.

The team’s objective is to design and manufacture a microhydraulic-powered monitor-covering system for B/E Aerospace’s super first class suites. The increasing size of television monitors in these suites has created a need to cover them up to improve the overall aesthetics of the cabins. In order to integrate the monitor-covering system into the existing interiors, the team had to carefully consider weight and size when determining a feasible design. The team created a monitor-covering mechanism consisting of composite blades set on rails to cover the television screen as needed. This mechanism uses a water-charged microhydraulic subsystem to power movement of the blades, giving an aesthetically pleasing solution that matches the style of the suites.

The goal of this project was to enhance aircraft suite sliding doors with the addition of wireless lighting. Current super first class luxury suites have minimal or no lighting in the doors because of the limitation of exposing the wires, thus the design incorporates induction to transfer power wirelessly. The airplane power outlet supplies coiled transmitters generating a magnetic field, allowing power receivers on the door to supply enough current to turn the lights on. The design prototype also includes smart lights, which enable users to change the colors of each light area.