Lemelson-MIT InvenTeams

The final month has seen our club pressed for time.   However, we were able to finish a considerable amount of work during this time period.

Our Biology group made significant progress running tests for antimicrobial efficacy of our new nano-particulate silver filters.  In many cases, the filters exceeded the killing rate of the traditional clay filters in the field, as well as current colloidal silver solutions.  This was extremely exciting to the group, as it suggested that we are approaching our goal.

Chemistry and Engineering 1 worked diligently on producing a new filter that would use minimal silver while simultaneously reaching our target rates for filter efficacy.  Some of their most recent filters, which utilized silver-impregnated silica and nano-particle silver, appear to almost reach the desired efficiency. However, other filters did not meet the mark, and further experimentation will be needed to determine the cause of this. Dispersing the nano-silver and keeping it suspended are still issues. While sonication greatly improved the process, a more intense probe will be tried as well as other silver preparations with different surface coatings.

Engineering 2’s work with pressurized/evacuated chambers was fruitful, as a prototype that incorporates the ceramic disks was completed. Testing is on-going.

As we close in on the targets we set at the start, we look forward to reporting on our work at EurekaFest.

In the month of April, our team was busily completing tasks for our project.  We’ve been busy ordering the materials we need to build a functioning condenser.  This includes acquiring our metal which will be delivered in early May, as well as ordering the electronic components for the heliostats we will use to track the sun.  Also during this month, we interviewed with an editor from the publication Inventor’s Digest for an article about sustainability.  Another major accomplishment we achieved this month came in the form of another grant.  One of our students who applied to start a YouthVenture through the Ashoka GenV YouthVenture program was successful and will be receiving another grant to help fund our program.  We recently received an update, however, that our ammonia purchase would not be approved by the school unless a comprehensive safety plan is developed and given to the principal and a local school official for approval.  In order to achieve this, we started drafting this plan and hope to present it soon. 

On another front, members of our team have begun working on finalizing our presentation materials for the InvenTeams Showcase at this year’s EurekaFest.  This includes applying for approval of a software program that will allow us to rapid prototype our design so we can better run small-scale tests and create a small display of the components for EurekaFest.  This is necessary because we will not be able to ship our condenser unit to MIT because of its size.  Now that the two units are mated together, we have been trying to run a successful test.  This has been somewhat halted by the fact that we have had very few stretches of acceptable weather to conduct tests in between design modifications.  Even though we have hit many hurdles, we have made significant progress and look to have greater success during the month of May—I mean it’s April showers that bring May flowers…right?

In the beginning we wanted a car that was small and wouldn’t be to hard to maintain. We went to Pacific Coast Hobbies and bought a Traxxas Rustler VXL. We bought a lithium polymer battery 6000mA. The first week we started to test it. The top speed ended up to be around 70mph. We were amazed after a few crashes how weak plastic is at high speeds. We ended up looking into E-maxx monster trucks to use instead. They go a top speed of 20mph and are strong enough to carry our new E-PC.

Thus far, the ability to control the speed of the cars relative to each other is coming along pretty well. with the exception of several delays in some of the components, all is on the right track.

During the month of March, we were able to put the finishing touches on our dehydrator design in order to create a final prototype.  This included conducting several tests to make sure the dehydrator worked efficiently.  We were able to successfully dehydrate some tomatoes, our target produce in this experiment.  Although we haven’t completed designs for our ammonia absorption condensing unit, we decided to move forward with testing on the ambient cooling system for the time being.  Independently, we have achieved favorable results with both the dehydrator and ambient cooling systems.  Now, we are prepping to connect the two together.  As far as the ammonium absorption condenser is concerned, we drafted our design in SolidWorks and consulted our engineering contacts helping us to make sure there aren’t any major design flaws.  Also, we began creating a brochure that we will distribute to local companies who may be able to provide us with help and possibly further funding.  One of the major goals of this month was to research, and hopefully order, our metals for constructing the condenser as well as scouting out possible locations that have sufficient sun exposure.