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Appendix A

Senior Design Projects

Fall 2003

I. Drip Irrigation System for Rao, Senegal

During the 2003-4 year, a team of CSM students traveled to Rao, Senegal, to construct an onion storage facility for the village. In the village are poor onion farmers who all harvest their crops at the same time. By doing this, they flood the market, receive low prices, and cannot sell all of their onions. With the newly constructed storage facility, the farmers will be able to gradually sell their crops allowing them to make a profit. The next step in helping these farmers is to design and construct a drip irrigation system for the onion fields. At present, the onions are watered by bucket – a very inefficient technique. A drip irrigation system would allow better use of water resources. The system used solar power or a gasoline pump system to pump the water to an already existing storage tower. An additional problem in salt-water intrusion in the well from over-pumping was addressed in the design of the irrigation system.

II. Centennial School – Science Projects Design

Centennial School is in Colorado Springs, and requires some science projects designed for their 4th grade students involving weather, land and water, skeletons, and electricity. The elementary school faculty have suggested a weather station of some sort in the garden at the front of the school. Other themes include dams and house wiring. However, there are many other projects that could be done. Any project must relate to the three main science topics studied in fourth grade: Land and Water, Skeletons, and Electricity.

Fall 2004

I. 2004-2005 San Pablo, Belize, Engineers Without Borders Project

For the past two years, teams of students have traveled during Spring Break to San Pablo, a small Mayan village in southern Belize. The teams have installed solar powered lighting for the school, church, and woman’s center (2002 – 2003), and solar powered water pumping and a water distribution system (2003-2004). Although both teams were successful, sustainability in a 3rd world country is an ongoing challenge.

This year’s San Pablo Team will be broken into three main subgroups:

Sub team 1: Fix and Repair: During the summer Julie VanLaanen received a letter from Juan Ishim, the village Chairman. He wrote to tell me that although the water system was working well, lightning had taken out the light system. This team’s goal will be to learn both systems inside and out, travel to Belize and repair all systems. Along with the repair, the team is to design and install a ‘charging station’ that allows the villagers to use the electrical system to recharge 12 volt batteries from phone and lantern systems.

Sub team 2: Irrigation Foot Pump Although the villagers now have clean water flowing in their village, irrigating their fields is still an issue. Several different designs of hand and foot pumps exist. This team’s job will be to design a low cost (less then $15 US) foot pump design that can easily be manufactured by local villagers. The design must use local materials, be easy to reproduce and run, and be durable. Ricardo Thompson from the Belize department of agriculture will be a consultant for this project.

Sub team 3: Home Cooking Stove Women in San Pablo wash their clothes and children in the nearby river, gather firewood from the nearby jungle, and cook over open stoves. Cooking over an open stove causes severe burns during cooking accidents, results in respiratory problems from inhaling smoke, and consumes natural resources at an alarming rate. Studies show that a simple enclosed cooking stove can eliminate the first two issues and result in over a 60% increase in burn efficiency. This team was challenged with the issue of designing an ‘in home’ cooking stove that is affordable (less then $15 US), easily reproducible from local materials, and acceptable to village women. Crissie, a Peace Corp rep living in southern Belize, will be the major contact for this project. Figure A.1. Students working with villagers to install a submersible pump and piping system for potable water in San Pablo, Belize.

II. Hewlett-Humanitarian Engineering Project for Honduras

CSM/EG has applied and been approved for a competition of funds in a project called “Mondialogo” . This program, cosponsored by UNESCO and Daimler-Chrysler seeks to bring engineering student design teams from developing countries together with their counterparts in developed countries. To that end a contact has been made with UNITEC, a small private engineering school in Tegucigalpa, Honduras that also has a branch in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. A Honduran/UNITEC design team of civil engineering students has been formed and have made two investigative trips to visit a small village in desperate need called Colonia Suiza, near Villanueva, Honduras. This project will require the use of Spanish (or at least a willingness to learn the language), although the faculty advisor on the Honduran side can read written English.

This project will require the design and cost estimation for one of three projects. After an investigative trip by the team members to Honduras (early in the semester), one of the three projects will be selected a. Water Purification, b. Sewage Treatment or c. Electrical Power Development. Because of the project scale, it is likely that only scale models of the selected project will be developed. However, it is expected that students will work on a proposal to the Mondialogo program for further travel funding and also contribute to a proposal written to gain the funds necessary to implement the project at a later date.

III. Yarmasing, Nepal Water Purification Project

The community of Yarmasing, Nepal has about 600 people living in about 100 households. Their water source comes from seven fountains scattered throughout the village. Water is delivered to these fountains through a system of hoses that brings water from two nearby open, untreated sources. The water is contaminated and the villagers have asked for help with the design and implementation of a filtering system to improve the quality of their water.

An initial study was made by a CSM EPICS team in the Spring of 2004. We would like to complete this work. Under the current political situation, travel to Nepal is most likely not an option and therefore, an additional design objective is that the system can be implemented and maintained by the villagers. An added benefit of such a design is its ease of implementation by other villages, making it beneficial to a much larger population.

Spring 2005

I. High Peak Campground – Bridge and Leadership Course

The Salvation Army operates the High Peak Campground just outside of Estes Park, CO. The camp is for inter-city/underprivileged children and senior adults. The CSM Sr. Design Program has completed several projects at the camp. The proposed project includes the following items as described by the Camp Director, Shea Simms:

Bridge:

A new bridge is needed in front of the High Peak Lodge just below the spillway of the upper pond. The bridge is to be as close to the spillway as possible which means that it will need to be longer than the previously designed bridge #1. The added length may require mid-support, and the general design should be compatible with bridge #1.

Leadership Reaction Course:

A leadership reaction course is a series of challenges designed for advanced team building and leadership training. The team can start with one or two elements to set the stage for additional elements at a later time. There are several of these courses in the metro area that can be used for initial design work, but the elements should be spaced to use the camp environment as a natural barrier. The elements need to be constructed along the perimeter trail and must be of a peace keeping or humanitarian nature. ROTC background could be a valuable skill for this team.

II. Solar Powered 3rd World Village Lighting

In small villages throughout the world, when the sun goes down, the village is dark. Without light, evening hours cannot be spent doing daily homework, earning extra money by making crafts, reading a book to improve your education, or any of the hundreds of other activities we take for granted. The clients, Douglas McMeekin of Funedesin and Julie VanLaanen work with several such villages in the Amazon Region of Ecuador and Mayan villages of Belize and would like a group of creative engineering students to tackle this problem.

Fall 2005

I. 3rd World Inexpensive Wheel Chair

This project is both a bio-engineering project, as well as a Hewlett project. There is a need for wheel chairs in 3rd world countries, but financial constraints might limit accessibility to them. This project proposes to design and construct an inexpensive, but sturdy and robust chair, for this unmet need. The wheel chair should be made from readily available parts and assembled with ordinary hand tools.

II. Maranatha Primary School Water and Sanitation Project (Sponsored by the CSM Engineers for a Better World Organization)

Maranatha Primary School, located in Mityana, Uganda about 40 miles from the capitol city, is in need of a more sustainable: fresh water supply system and a waste water disposal system. The school is a day school for children in the local village. There are about 420 children who attend the school regularly. The school also provides a home for 40 orphans and 10-20 staff members. Because of the low standard of living in the village, the school provides food during the day for all its students as well as full room and board for all its residents. Currently, water is collected from roofs into a cistern but it is not sufficient for their drinking, cooking, and washing needs. Moreover, the water that comes from the cistern is typically very poor quality and should be purified in some fashion. They have done much to conserve water but they still require about double the amount of water their present system provides. As a result the staff makes 5-6 trips daily to the local village well to collect water (approximately 15 minutes per trip).

Along with the lack of fresh water the school is having trouble disposing of the black water (waste water) they accumulate. At the moment the school is served by two pit latrines which are getting close to capacity. The school is interested in a sustainable solution to the sanitation issue they are experiencing, preferably a solution that does not threaten possible future sources of water, i.e. the ground water.

III. Hewlett-Humanitarian Engineering Project for Honduras

CSM/EG was one of the twenty one teams world-wide that won the Engineering Award through the Mondialogo Program (see “Engineering Award” on the website) . This program, cosponsored by UNESCO and Daimler-Chrysler has succeeded in bringing together engineering student design teams from developed countries together with their counterparts in developing countries. To that end a relationship has been forged with Universidad Tecnologica Centroamericana (UNITEC), a small private engineering school located in Tegucigalpa, Honduras that also has a branch in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. A Honduran/UNITEC design team of civil engineering students has been formed and have made several investigative trips to visit a small village in desperate need called Colonia Suiza, near Villanueva, Honduras. This project will require the use of Spanish (or at least a willingness to learn the language), although the faculty advisor on the Honduran side can read written English.

The results of last year’s award winning effort include developing a design and budget for the potable water pump, storage, treatment and distribution system (including a solar photovoltaic array that would supply 10% of the energy required for the pump). Also, included was an initial design for a waste treatment wetlands system for the villages located below Colinas de Suiza.

IV. Learning Wall for Cedaredge Middle School

Cedaredge Middle School is located in Delta County on the Western Slope of Colorado south of Grand Junction. It is a predominantly rural district with a large percentage of students receiving either free or reduced cost lunches. The school building is one year old. The main hall of the school contains a blank wall. The requirements for this project are to design and construct a learning wall to be installed in this hall. The system should be multidisciplinary, contain learning elements appropriate for middle school students, be rugged enough to survive use by 200 students, etc. Some ideas include (but are not limited to) a quiz board remotely controlled by a teacher or a bicycle that could be the basis for reverse engineering. The team will interact with the science and mathematics teachers at the school.

V. G&T Engineering Curriculum for Engineering Schools

Falcon School District, Colorado Springs, has a mobile, disadvantaged community and special needs for the Gifted and Talented Students. There are 4 elementary sites with G&T programs. Each site offers a quarter (9 weeks) on a special topic to enrich the students' regular classes. This project requires the design, classroom testing, and redesign of a curriculum to introduce 3rd and 4th grade students to engineering. The curriculum should include topics such as "what is engineering", "what are the different areas of engineering", "what jobs are available for engineers", etc. A set of hands-on activities should be developed to connect these topics above with mathematics and science classes.

VI. Lookout Mountain Youth Services Center

The Metro Academy is home to younger juveniles in the State penal system, and it is operated like a high school environment. Success in rehabilitation of these individuals at this younger age normally translates into much less criminal behavior as adults. The proposed project will involve the complete rebuild of the existing playing field that is approximately 3 acres in size and is the center area of the entire school. The project will involve extensive re-grading and redesign of the playing fields, underground piping work, and area lighting.

VII. Gulkana Village Project

This project is to plan and design an RV Park project for the Gulkana Village people in Alaska. The long-term development at the site includes: a new visitor’s center, park office and store, laundry, restrooms and showers, a waste treatment system, a dump station, sites with hookups, an electrical distribution system, access roads, and recreational trails. The location, climate and soil conditions are expected to present technical challenges requiring creativity and innovation by the design team.

Spring 2006

I. Design and possibly build a Bio-diesel production facility using oil seed crops

The International Center for Appropriate & Sustainable Technology (iCAST) conducted an economic viability study of a medium scale bio-diesel facility and is now looking for engineering students to design a bio-diesel facility capable of crushing the oil seed and converting it into bio-diesel. The facility should be capable of producing 500,000 gallons/yr of bio-diesel and should cost under $1 Million. This project will require basic knowledge and understanding of chemistry and chemical reactions, mechanical and electrical system design and automation controls.

II. Ecuador Hydro-Electric Project

The client, Douglas McMeekin, is executive director of FUNEDESIN, a non-profit organization that runs Yachana Lodge, an EcoLodge in the Ecuadorian Rain Forest, and Yachana High School, a non-traditional high school for indigenous youth focusing on rainforest conservation, sustainable agriculture, and Ecotourism. Because of their remote location and the high cost of purchasing fuel, both the lodge and high school use solar power for much of their power needs. Solar power works adequately, except during the rainy season. This team is chartered with designing, building, testing, and producing manufacturing specs for a high head, low flow micro-hydro system that will supplement high school and lodge power requirements during the rainy season. A Phase II was implemented this past year which includes the following:

a. Testing of different hydro systems (Pelton and Banki) and

determining Pelton was ideal for conditions in Ecuador (low head, high flow)

b. Testing of belt vs. chain systems and efficiency testing of

different types of belts

c. Teaching of hydro-power theory to high school students from boulder

valley school district

d. Written document with step-by-step instructions on how to build a

unit including pictures, mechanical drawings, and vendor sources for

individual parts

e. Travel to Ecuador where students from Yachana High school helped

build a unit. After the unit was built, students from Mines and Yachana

worked together to install the unit. Unit was installed with 12 to15 meter

of head, a 4-inch PVC pipe, and a small reservoir. Unit generated 400 W and

Yachana High School is using an inverter to transport electricity up to

school. Water used by the unit is reused in a fish pond below the unit.

Mines students demonstrated the use of the unit to all 70 to 80 Yachana High

School Students and their teachers and then taught several classes on theory

and how to build a micro-hydro unit.

III. Oglala Sioux Housing Manufacturing Plant

People living on the Oglala Sioux reservation have a need for inexpensive housing to support the growth of their communities. Mr. Noel Lane III of the Lane III Group, Inc. (located in Conifer, CO) has tried to alleviate this problem by transporting used mobile homes to the reservation for use by the young families in need of a dwelling. However, many of these mobile homes have structural, electrical or plumbing problems. In addition, unemployment is high on the Oglala Sioux reservation. Therefore, there is significant interest in a housing factory to either refurbish the used mobile homes or perhaps build new homes. This project includes an evaluation of the used mobile home and the design of a factory to refurbish these homes for the safe incorporation into the Native American community.

In addition to these three projects initiated in Spring 2006, three earlier projects, Gulkana, Cedaredge, and Honduras, are continuing through 2006.

Fall 2006

I. Learning Wall for Cedaredge Middle School

Cedaredge Middle School is located in Delta County on the Western Slope of Colorado south of Grand Junction. It is a predominantly rural district with a large percentage of students receiving either free or reduced cost lunches. The school building is two years old. The main hall of the school contains a blank wall. The requirements for this project are to design and construct a learning wall to be installed in this hall. This is a continuation project from last year. Walls were designed to challenge the middle school student’s math and science skills including an athlete measuring wall, a disasters wall, and a radio wall. The additional system should be multidisciplinary, contain learning elements appropriate for middle school students, be rugged enough to survive use by 200 students, etc. Some ideas include (but are not limited to) a quiz board remotely controlled by a teacher or a bicycle that could be the basis for reverse engineering. The team will interact with the science and mathematics teachers at the school.

II. Ghana, West Africa Bicycle Driven Pump

The farmers of Ghana, West Africa, depend almost entirely on rainfall for farming which can sometimes be erratic. With irrigation they could improve crop yields and more efficiently manage the land. Current methods of irrigation depend on hand drawn methods (buckets) or a “treadmill” style pump that is unwieldy and energy intensive.

The project is to turn a bicycle into a portable irrigation pump. The design should not alter the bicycle in any way that makes it invalid as a form of transportation. Also, everything required for the pump should be carried by the bicycle so that the farmer can ride from place to place, set up, irrigate, then pack up and continue to the next location needing irrigation.

Farms in Ghana tend to be small plots of about 1 acre. The design team, additionally, should design a plan to efficiently irrigate one acre of land that can easily be implemented with the bicycle irrigation pump or by hand drawn methods. Special emphasis must be given to using locally available resources and keeping the design affordable and simple.

III. Gulkana Village RV Park

Last year’s team worked on the initial plan and design an RV Park Project for the Gulkana Village people in Alaska. The village is located near the Wrangell St. Elias National Park. This year’s team will need to design a circulating water system, complete the electrical design based on last year’s load calculations, and size the septic system and the water treatment system. A business plan is also needed. Long-term development at the site is expected to include:

RV Park office and store, Visitor’s Center, laundry facility, restrooms and showers, waste treatment system, electrical utilities, RV dump station, RV sites and hookups, and recreational trails.

IV. Colinas de Suiza, Honduras III, Final Implementation Stage

This is the third team to work on this project. We are now at the final design stage. The following are required to complete the project

a. digitized detailed map of the village,

b. detailed water flow distribution plan (from the storage tank to each house),

c. set of final construction drawings,

d. Final design for the pump system and pipeline leading from the pump to the storage tank, and a

e. plan for disinfecting the flow system for final implementation.

V. Medical Equipment Testing Facility

Project C.U.R.E. is the world’s largest not-for-profit supplier of surplus medical supplies and equipment to developing countries. We currently have collection and distribution operations in Nashville, Phoenix, Houston and Denver. These locations collect, sort, package, pack and ship up to 100, 40 foot shipping containers a year to more than 104 developing countries. Each container shipment is valued at over $350,000, is preceded by an on-site assessment of need at the hospital or clinic, and followed by an in-house evaluation of impact. This equipment and supplies save lives and build hope in many countries where modern healthcare is typically inadequate or unavailable.

Within the procurement process, Project C.U.R.E. receives and tests more than 175 different types of medical equipment in each operational location prior to shipping. Since much of this equipment is electrical, surplus and used, validating and testing for complete and accurate operation prior to shipment is crucial for the receiving hospital or clinic.

The project concept presented for consideration by the School of Mines Senior Engineering Project is the research and design of a medical equipment testing facility that could be installed and managed in our sorting and warehousing operations centers. Characteristics of this design would include:

a. An initial data based triage area and process, for determining the “appropriateness” and repair ability of equipment that has been donated.

b. The definition of what “checked and repaired” means for the four categories of equipment we generally receive: Lab, OR/Procedural, Diagnostic and Clinic/General Use. (List attached).

c. A replicable lab design including an engineered layout for testing and repair of the validated equipment set up by the above categories or disciplines. The lab design must be able to be replicated in each of the warehouses.

d. The lab design should include the selection of the needed testing and repair equipment to perform the validation and repair.

e. A scalable process that allows growth as volume increases.

f. A process catered to a level of electrical engineer that may not be a fully trained bio-technician.

g. Environmental friendly options for disposing of un-repairable or overly obsolete equipment.

h. Construction (if possible) of the suggested testing and/or repair equipment.

VI. 100 watt-hour Dwelling

A 100 watt-hour dwelling should be capable to holding a family of four people in a comfortable temperature for African countries. This dwelling should also be safe against Earthquakes for Asian countries. The students would have to have an integrated thermal-electrical-structural multidisciplinary approach. In the first semester they would have to come up with preliminary studies and design. The dwelling should be efficient enough to be only powered by a small 100 watts solar panel with only one regular lead acid battery as storage.

Spring 2007

I. Congo Brick Kiln Team.

This team was chartered to design a simple brick firing kiln for a Jesuit Technical High School in Kikwit, Congo. The team researched several types of kilns used throughout the world, visited working kilns at Coors Tech and Lakewood Bricks, and finally decided on a vertical kiln design. The design incorporated the diesel burner donated to the school and produced building specifications, heat transfer calculations, a door design, a compression test machine per US standards, and a drying chamber reusing the heat expelled during the cooling cycle of the burn. The team also worked with Coors Tech and analyzed clay samples sent from Kikwit to help determine the optimum burn profile for the kiln.

II. Ecuador Hydro-Electric Project

The client is executive director of FUNEDESIN, a non-profit organization that runs Yachana Lodge, an EcoLodge in the Ecuadorian Rain Forest, and Yachana High School, a non-traditional high school for indigenous youth focusing on rainforest conservation, sustainable agriculture, and Ecotourism. Because of their remote location and the high cost of purchasing fuel, both the lodge and high school use solar power for much of their power needs. Solar power works adequately, except during the rainy season. This team is asked to design, build, test, and produce manufacturing specs for a high head, low flow micro-hydro system that will supplement high school and lodge power requirements during the rainy season.

This project was started last year by an outstanding team that produced a feasible design, built a prototype of their design, and did some initial testing. This follow-on team will continue the design process. They will be expected to:

a. Understand the existing design by testing individual components and determining efficiencies of each subassembly.

b. Redesign any subsystems to improve efficiency and user ability

c. Cost reduce the entire design

d. Produce a final design that can be manufactured using local materials in Ecuador.

Figure A.2. CSM small hydro in operation at Yachana Center, Ecuador.

III. Oklahoma Native American – RV Park

Location: Kaw City, Oklahoma (just south of Kansas border and just east of I-35)

Project 1 – RV park design – The tribe has some land bordering a lake and would like to further develop the site as an RV park to be used for recreation associated with lake activities

Project 2 – Wind Farm – The tribe has done preliminary site studies for the development of a wind farm on tribal land. I think they have done the avian impact study and wind speed/duration studies and are looking for actual development design.

Fall 2007

I. Delta School District K-12 Mobile learning Stations

The Delta County School District is located on the western slope of Colorado south of Grand Junction. It is a predominantly rural district with a large percentage of students receiving either free or reduced cost lunches. We previously completed two projects for one of their schools, Cedaredge Middle School, to design learning walls that were intended to challenge the middle school student’s math and science skills. The walls included an athlete measuring wall, a disasters wall, and a radio wall. The projects were very successful, and a recent Denver Post article acknowledged the work of CSM students as a major contribution to a significant improvement in their CSAP scores. The School District has now asked CSM to design an innovative learning station system that will be mobile and can be moved from school to school. The team will have to be very creative in the design of the system. The team will also interact with the science and mathematics teachers in the District.

II. Gulkana Village RV Park III

Two previous sr. design teams have worked on the design of an RV Park Project for the Gulkana Village people in Alaska. The village is located near the Wrangell St. Elias National Park. Overall the client was happy with the results of the previous teams. The overall project involves an RV Park office and store, Visitor’s Center, laundry facility, restrooms and showers, waste treatment system, electrical utilities, RV dump station, RV sites and hookups, and recreational trails. Location, climate, and soil conditions are expected to present technical challenges requiring creativity and innovation by the design team. Communication with the client will be primarily through phone and email contact.

III. Honduras Project IV – Closing the Water/Food Cycle

This project is a continuation and an extension or a potable water project Colinas de Suiza Honduras that began in Fall 2003. A water distribution system has been designed and a major in-kind donation (73 tons) of plastic pipe has been received from 13 manufacturers. This pipe is being transported within the next few weeks to Honduras for use in the water distribution system. The Municipality of Villanueva has drilled a well and plans to install a pump to provide water service to the village. The villagers are in the process of collecting money to build a water storage tank (250,000 gallons). To date they have completed the foundation.

This project consists of two parts.

a. Implementation of the water distribution system (coordination of the ditch digging and pipe connections) and developing ties with local university students of the Universidad Autonoma de Honduras, campus San Pedro Sula.

b. Design of an eco-toilet / garden system for five families living in Colinas de Suiza and fundraising for this design for future implementation.

The intent to make this a model project that can be used as an example for other parts of Latin America.

Figure A.3. CSM Honduras Team IV going over piping drawings before installation begins as future engineers look on in Colinas de Suiza.

IV. iCAST -Creating Affordable Solar Thermal Energy

Photovoltaic panels (PVs) are an intriguing technology but convert sunlight to electricity at an efficiency of around 12%, 20% at best. This value is low because it is difficult to convert from light energy to electricity so it likely won’t improve a great deal as the PV technology matures. However, much of the energy we use is relatively low temperature heat for space heating and water. It is comparatively far easier to convert sunlight to thermal energy as anyone who has stepped foot on a hot beach could tell you.

For this reason it is usually possible for a solar thermal hot water heater to ‘pay for itself’ much faster than a PV array. A solar hot water heater system can generally make up for the initial investment of ~$5,000 cost (for a home) after 10-15 years while PV’s take much longer. This payback time is well out of the range many consider for home energy improvements, and therefore, there aren’t many of them on homes across the country.

Project Deliverables

a. Research and review what existing technology and systems are out there. Estimate how much it would cost to install a solar thermal system on a home and what are the essential pieces of the system.

b. Evaluate the benefits of existing technology.

c. Analyze each piece of the system, or the underlying cost, and see if savings could be made. Some examples may be:

d. Many systems need to be designed by an engineer, whose time is expensive, is it possible to have a simple ‘plug and play’ solar hot water heater?

e. Meeting 100% of a homes load is difficult because one needs to over-compensate the storage for extended periods with no sun. If one was willing to use gas heat as a backup, could the hot water storage requirements change dramatically? What is a reasonable amount of storage to have in Colorado?

f. Can different materials or equipment be used to boost efficiency or reduce the cost?

g. Based on the analysis, design and build a prototype of a solar thermal system that could have a shorter payback (less than 7 years) than the more conventional systems out there. Also include current rebates and incentives as part of the calculations.

V. iCAST - Helping Farmers Conserve Water and Energy

Today, most power utilities and Rural Electric Associations (REAs), in particular, depend heavily on purchased coal power to keep their network electrified. The cost of this power has been consistently increasing faster than inflation, and the REAs are concerned about the rising cost of energy for their customer/members. They are eager to find solutions that can reduce the energy bill for their members and themselves.

The State of Colorado, particularly in rural areas, has been blessed with a great deal of diverse renewable energy resources. Also, the most cost effective and environmentally friendly ‘renewable energy’ is not from watts produced, but the ‘nega-watts’ of electricity saved. Some technologies, such as using moisture sensors to minimize the amount of water used for irrigation, can conserve, not only water, but also power by reducing the duration the power is consumed to provide the necessary water.

Morgan County Rural Electric Association (MC-REA) has partnered with iCAST to update its grid with Demand Side Management (DSM) controllers that will give the utility the capacity to ‘switch’ on or off individual accounts. This program is targeted towards farmers who run power intensive irrigation systems and will understandably be concerned about the utility ‘shutting off’ their power. The purpose of this project is to design and build an experimental test system to evaluate the real effects of controlling the irrigation power on the crop yield. It will likely involve comparing three nearby fields growing the same crop but one will be irrigated and controlled with DSM, one without DSM, and one without irrigation.

Project Deliverables

a. Develop a list of experiment requirements and intended results

b. Communicate with the chosen farmers to ease their concerns

c. Contact industry professionals, and researchers at agriculture colleges such CSU, to gain their opinion

d. Design an experimental test system to evaluate the value of using moisture sensors in conjunction with irrigation hooked up to a DSM system. Determine if crop yield is impacted if farmers don’t always have power any time they switch on their irrigation.

e. Generalize results and develop a written form that can be readily disseminated to area farmers.

VI. Sustainable Water System for St. Denis School, near Masaka

St. Denis is a private elementary school located in rural Uganda near the town of Masaka (250 km southwest of Kampala). The school is reliant on tuition paid by families sending their children to attend. Some of the students actually board at the school as their families live too far away to walk each day. During the drought periods funds drop off as people who make their livelihoods from selling produce experience reduced income.

Water is a problem for the school as good wells are 1-2km away. During the dry season these wells dry forcing the children (who carry Jerry cans) to walk further (2-3km) to bring water to the school. When the children return from carrying water, they are too tired to study. The government has previously drilled wells nearby but the water is too saline for human consumption. Many other wells are open and provide only milky colored water, which they drink.

The project objective is to investigate (develop questions and incorporate other investigative tools) the problem and develop a plan to provide water to the school.

VII. Navajo Nation – Remote Articulated Antenna Brackets

The Navajo Nation is in the process of establishing an internet network throughout all of their land in a program called “Internet to Hogan”. As part of this program, towers will be built to hold repeater antennae. Approximately 30 chapter houses will be equipped. There will be at least 10 towers with four antennae per tower. The commercially-available bracket to hold these antennae is quite expensive, yet very simple. This project will involve the design of a more-reasonably priced bracket along with a system for remote articulation. Drafting students at the Navajo Technical College will work with our students as drafters. They will create 3- D models that our engineering students supply to them. This cooperation is important for their students to see that remote clients are possible. The cooperation is important for our students because we will have local Navajo contacts. The design should include energy solutions for the radios and for the articulation controls. Contact: Harold S. Halliday, CAD Instructor, Navajo Technical College, Crownpoint, NM 87313.

VIII. Wind Farm Feasibility and Wind Turbine Design Decision Process for Use by Native American Tribal Authorities

There is a need to develop a design and decision-making document and process that provides the necessary information, instructions, and criteria for the evaluation of a site to determine its feasibility for supporting the development and operation of a wind farm. There are many engineering, regulatory, and environmental factors to be considered. The process document should outline all the required considerations and address how they are to be measured or addressed. The process document shall also provide criteria for the evaluation of site suitability based upon the above factors.

The process document shall also detail the design of a complete wind turbine unit that could be used at the site (mechanism, tower, foundation, etc.) and detail all the equipment required to allow its operation and the connection of the unit to the existing electric power grid.

This process document would be utilized by Native American tribal authorities in the United States. It would be a valuable resource for them as they consider the development of wind energy resources on reservation lands.

Note: Although this process is being developed for the Native American Tribal Authorities, it could also have broader application to other decision makers.

Spring 2008

I. Montezuma Creek, Navajo Water Quality

For the past several years the people living in Montezuma Creek, UT have been complaining about the poor taste and discoloration caused by the well water in the Montezuma creek area of the Navajo Nation. One of our alumni, John Mitchell of Ouray, CO has taken an interest in the project and has done a preliminary investigation. Other sources of information are the priests who work at the mission that is located in Montezuma Creek. What is known is that there are high levels of iron and manganese in the water. The existence of any other constituents or even the source of these constituents remains unknown.

The project goals are to determine the number and likely source of the constituents within the well water at Montezuma Creek and develop a design to mitigate the problem.

II. Efficient Cook Stove for Wanyange Girl’s School

Wood is the easiest fuel for people in the developing world to use for cooking. However, burning wood is typically an inefficient process that is taking a toll on the local forests and local air quality. The Wanyange Girl’s School, located in Jinga, Uganda has asked that we look at their cooking stove design to see if we can improve it. This work may also have implications to the local brick kilns that also use wood as the fuel.

The project goals are to work with the staff and students at the school to determine the existing stove and/or kiln efficiency. Determine the best appropriate design alternative that could potentially improve the efficiency by at least a factor of two. In the end a design with a 70% increase in efficiency was obtained.

Fall 2008

I. Container Sterilization

One of the major missing links to providing safe water to people in need is container sterilization. There are countless number of water projects in developing countries that provide water that is safe to drink, however it is being distributed in containers that are contaminated. The goal of this project would be two fold: 1) Identify how to effectively and easily kill bacteria and viruses in a contaminated container and 2) Design a no/low power bottle washing unit to be used in conjunction with water projects. This project involved understanding the chemical and microbiological components to effectively sterilize a container and the mechanical elements to designing a unit that can be manufactured in developing countries. Students worked closely with Healing Waters staff to develop solutions that will be applicable to the people and communities in developing countries in which we work.

II. Water Supply/Sanitation for Ambalona, Madagascar

The challenge on this project is to develop a sustainable safe water supply for a rural village in Madagascar. The village of Ambalona (est. pop. 1,500) gets all of its water directly from a river downstream of several other villages or springs that run through rice fields. The poor quality of the water has created many health issues including dysentery and diarrhea which have lead to dehydration and even death especially in children. The women and children of Ambalona spend at least three hours each day collecting water in plastic buckets taking time from other responsibilities and, most importantly, school

There is no electrical grid energy in the vicinity. Though plentiful, the river water is contaminated with bacteria and higher level parasites (schistosomiasis). Dysentery is a common affliction that we believe can be alleviated with clean potable water. Though clean water is the primary objective, other needs, such as sanitation and education are also prevalent in the village. This was a collaborative project with Golder and Associates Denver employees volunteering through EWB – USA.

III. Water Supply/Sanitation for Uluthe-Mungao, Kenya

The Uluthe-Mungao community is located in western Kenya, just east of Lake Victoria. The community of villages consists of approximately 8000 people that have limited access to potable water. Although improving the people’s water access will be a major objective of the work, the clients are also interested in electrical energy development for pumping water, village lighting and to power a refrigerator in the medical clinic. They are also interested in methods for utilizing human and animal waste to produce methane for cooking. The clients have also noted that a bridge over the Wuoroya River will reduce the distance to market by 30 km. Therefore, a design for a bridge that can be used by medium duty trucks used to carry locally produced agricultural goods to market would be a part of the project. We are looking for highly motivated individuals interested in working on humanitarian engineering projects. The initial activities will be to assess the current situation, learn about the society and culture of the area and develop a map that can be used in system design.

Though all are welcome to apply, preference will be given to those enrolled in the humanitarian engineering minor.

Figure A.4. Map of Mungao sub location and villages in need of a stable, clean water supply.

Figure A.5. Mapping the Uluthe-Mungao sub location with GPS.

IV. Middle School Science and Math Learning Stations

The Delta County School District is located on the western slope of Colorado south of Grand Junction. It is a predominantly rural district with a large percentage of students receiving either free or reduced cost lunches. We previously completed projects for two of their schools: Cedaredge Middle School and Delta Middle School. The purpose of these projects was to design learning walls that were intended to challenge the middle school student’s math and science skills. Previous projects were very successful, and a Denver Post article acknowledged the work of CSM students as a major contribution to a significant improvement in their CSAP scores. The Delta School District has now asked CSM to design an innovative learning station system that will be mobile and can be moved from school to school. The team will have to be very creative in the design of the system. The team will also interact with the science and mathematics teachers in the District at Cedaredge, Delta and Hotchkiss Middle Schools. This project is part of the Hewlett Program for Humanitarian Engineering.

RV Park (income source for Native American tribe)

Design a Recreational Vehicle Park for the Gulkana Village people in Alaska. Location, climate, and soil conditions are expected to present technical challenges requiring creativity and innovation by the multidisciplinary design team. The long-term development at the site is expected to include:

Visitors Center

RV Park office and store

Laundry facility

Restrooms and showers

Waste treatment system

Electrical utilities

RV dump station

RV sites and hookups

Recreation trails and access roads

The phase IV requirements were to complete geotechnical evaluation of site including soil tests and permafrost maps. Create manufacturing specifications for visitor center. Complete the design of hook-ups for water. Design a heat exchanger system for water, and finalize the source of water. Perform a fault study to finalize electrical design. Design a fire protection system. Create a business plan.

VI. Navajo Nation – Remote Articulated Antenna Brackets

The Navajo Nation is in the process of establishing an internet network throughout all of their land in a program called “Internet to Hogan”. As part of this program, towers will be built to hold repeater antennae. Approximately 30 chapter houses will be equipped. There will be at least 10 towers with four antennae per tower. The commercially-available bracket to hold these antennae is quite expensive, yet very simple. Last year, a team designed and constructed a prototype for a bracket along with a system for remote articulation. This project will involve the redesign of a bracket. Drafting students at the Navajo Technical College will work with our students as drafters. They will create 3- D models that our engineering students supply to them. This cooperation is important for their students to see that remote clients are possible. The cooperation is important for our students because we will have local Navajo contacts. The design should focus energy solutions for the radios and for the articulation controls.

Spring 2009

I. Cooler Box Project

The Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (FIND) is a Swiss –based foundation that develops rapid diagnostic test (RTD) kits for malaria, sleeping sickness and drug resistant tuberculosis. However, these kits must be stored at temperatures below 25oC. The student team was challenged with the design and construction of a passive (no electrical power) cooler box that could meet the temperature set point and be built for less than $100. Several prototypes were developed and tested both in Colorado and in the field in Uganda. Negotiations are underway for the protection of intellectual property, further cooler box refinement and eventual in-country production.

II. El Pino & Buena Esperanza, Honduras

The village of El Pino, located within the municipality of Villanueva, requested our support for their water project. They have access to water. However, the water distribution system has become degraded with age and they have been unable to keep up with growth in the village. Students visited the site during their spring break, mapped the entire village of 160 homes, and interviewed each family to determine their level of interest in the water project and in alternative sanitation using composting toilets. Water samples were acquired in the village and sent to a local water testing lab for testing. The results indicate that the water is of good quality at the source, meeting the World Health Organization (WHO) standards in both coliform and metals, but becomes contaminated in distribution. A design of the water distribution system was completed and a report translated into Spanish will be shared with the people in March 2010.

III. Chasnigua, Honduras

A proposal written to the Society for Exploration Geophysicists (SEG), Geoscientists without Borders (GWB) program for funding to study the subterranean aquifer near the village of Chasnigua was funded allowing the travel for a group of engineering senior design students and geophysics graduate students during spring break 2009 and again in June 2009. In addition electromagnetic and electrical resistivity geophysical measurements to map the subterranean aquifer, GPS instruments were used to map the surface of the village and existing water system to develop an improved design for water distribution system. A well had already been drilled and lined for Chasnigua by the Water and Sanitation Department of Villanueva. However, the capacity of the well was below that which was expected and a pump had not yet been installed. Water quality samples were acquired and tests performed at a local water testing laboratory. The water quality was found to be substantially below standard for coliform and within standard for metals. A final report, including a design for the water distribution system, a unique design for an in-line rough filter, slow sand filter and low cost in ground water storage, was translated into Spanish and will be presented to the village in March 2010. Recommendations for an alternative well location, based on the results of the geophysical measurements, will also be provided to the village.

I. Huasteca Water Project

The Union de Guadalupe in Mexico is a small village which inhabits about 100 families (500 people). The objective of the Huasteca Water Project Team was to design a water storage system that would provide an adequate amount of water to the village during the dry season, as well as provide the villagers with purified drinking water. After researching various options and visiting the village to complete a water analysis, a sanitation survey, and civil ground survey, students designed a solution that pumped water up from the existing lower cistern into an upper cistern. From the upper cistern water was purified through a slow sand filter and distributed in a storage tank near the Town Hall. Technical drawings along with a detailed implementation manual were provided to the client and the village. System implementation is expected in February, 2010.

II. Water Container Sterilization Project

Poor quality drinking water is a major cause of illness in developing countries around the world and it is estimated that 5,000 people die every day due to waterborne diseases. Several organizations provide a centralized location to distribute clean water, but have found that dirty containers used to transport the water once again contaminate it. Working with Healing Waters International, students designed, built, and tested a system that combined chlorine and a high pressure wash to disinfect any size container. The prototype can be run using a foot pump or an electrical pump and uses a high pressure nozzle inserted directly into dirty containers. Testing indicated the device was 95% effective at removing contaminates, but contaminated containers with deep scratches proved problematic. The proto was delivered to Healing Waters and additional testing was recommended.

Fall 2009

I. Biodiesel project with Golden Star Industries for village in northern Ghana

Small communities in Ghana have very few options to generate cash due to limited markets and poor circulation of money within the local agricultural system which is largely subsistence based. However, these small communities are able to produce palm oil from locally grown palm nuts. Although this product is suitable for consumption and sale, its value is limited. The option to convert the palm oil into bio-diesel would provide a boost to local incomes and provide the option for local communities to drive small diesel-driven equipment (e.g. generators, pumps) to the benefit of the community.

Knowledge about how to produce bio-diesel and a method to simply upgrade the palm oil are lacking within these communities. Therefore, a small, easily-managed and built bio-diesel production unit is required. The locally produced palm oil in villages would total a few hundred liters per week, which could then be converted to fuel. The goal of this project is to design and develop a low cost, small unit to convert palm oil to biodiesel to enhance family income.

II. Community Scale Anaerobic Biodigester (for Mexico and Uganda)

Wood is the primary fuel used for cooking in most of the developing world. The developing world population represents approximately 3 billion people on the globe. It is also the fastest growing sector of the planet. If there are on average six people per family, this means that there are approximately 500 million families. On average each family will burn 50 pieces of wood, ~40 mm in diameter by 1 m long each day. This represents a wood mass of 15.7 million metric tons of wood per day. By burning the wood, the carbon is liberated to the atmosphere in the form of gaseous CO2 and particulate carbon. Add to this the deforestation necessary for fuel supply and the poor indoor air quality (and its affect on human health) associated with most primitive stoves or open fires and the impact is significant. Additionally, these same 3 billion people lack access to adequate sanitation and food.

A biodigester is a device that will take in waste from the bathroom, kitchen and animal stalls and convert it to methane that can be used for cooking fuel and or for other energy production. The nutrient rich effluent can be fed to the roots of trees and plants that will produce food or provide valuable shade, or other useful materials.

The clients represent the needs of a larger community (Uganda Catholic Parish and schools feeding ~300 people/day and a proposed orphanage/sustainable community in Mexico). The challenge is to develop the most cost effective workable solution for the clients.

III. Community Basketball Court for Blackfeet Tribe, Browning, Montana

The Colorado School of Mines (CSM) was one of nine universities that made up the Engineering Schools of the West Initiative (ESWI) which received funding from the Hewlett Foundation to find ways to enhance engineering education that could be shared with other universities of the western US. CSM proposed to develop the Humanitarian Engineering minor program for that grant and the remaining universities all did other projects to help retain and improve on the engineering educational experiences for their students. As a way to continue the relationship with member schools, we began to look for opportunities to share the humanitarian engineering minor concepts. Colleagues at Montana State University indicated an interest and so we began to pursue various options. The most promising option was to develop a senior design project in which CSM engineering students would work with MSU engineering students on a community project on one of the many Native American reservations located in Montana. After visiting tribal leaders in Browning (Blackfeet) and Rock Boy (Chippewa-Cree), we decided to initiate a relationship through a community basketball court project in Browning, MT. This project is designated as humanitarian engineering. It is envisioned that this will be the beginning of a long term relationship between CSM, MSU and the Blackfeet tribe.

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