Following my internship with the Biosphere 2 Ocean project, I wanted to continue my work into my final year of undergrad studies. I proposed my own senior design project to the capstone program and got it funded by the Biosystems Engineering department. This is very rare for students to do and there was an article published about me pursuing an unusual path my senior year.
Check out the article here!
The project goal is to design and build real-time, low-cost, high precision, and high accuracy environmental monitoring systems for two controlled environments at The University of Arizona Biosphere 2 which demonstrate both aquatic and terrestrial applications of embedded sensor systems.
The team was tasked with developing a monitoring system using inexpensive components to compete with bulky, inconvenient and expensive commercially available alternatives. Engineering students from Biosystems, Electrical and Computer, and Industrial disciplines utilized skills in programming, circuitry, and machine work while understanding biological environments such as a coral reef incubation tank and a lunar controlled environment for agriculture. The Coral Reef Raceway Monitoring System features temperature, pH and salinity water monitoring in a compact, waterproof case with a built-in touchscreen and number pad for user interactability. The Lunar Greenhouse Monitoring System features temperature, relative humidity, and carbon dioxide air quality monitoring in a protective case that interfaces with existing equipment in use at the exhibit. Each system is equipped with an LED and/ or email alert system to signal when values are out of desired bounds.
It is now the end of the year and we have just submitted our video showcasing the final design. Due to the interest of keeping things propitiatory, I will not be sharing the full video here, but here is a segment I recorded regarding surprises the team faced, problems we've had to overcome and some lessons I have learned.