SENIOR DESIGN 2022 - 2023
Project Ideas
1. Public Solar PEV Battery Swap / Charging Station
The idea behind this is that a Personal Electric Vehicle (PEV) owner could evade the expensive upfront cost of a battery in exchange for a subscription service. The PEV owner is provided with an initial battery. When a full charge is required, the PEV owner trades in the battery for a new battery at a battery exchange and charging station. The user’s account tracks their battery usage, and only charges them for the full cost of the battery if it is lost.
The benefit of this is that the user never has to wait for their PEV to charge. With the widespread distribution of such battery exchange stations, a PEV owner could theoretically have no range limitations, and getting a fully charged battery would take no longer than filling up a gas tank. An added benefit is that fast charging of the battery is not needed, so batteries can be charged with higher efficiency, and can also be charged flexibly with smart sensing technology to be integrated with the smart grid. In some locations, PV solar could be used to increase the efficiency of the charging station. This enhances the efficiency of PEV technology and thus makes it greener.
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2. Smart Power Conditioner with Advanced Scheduling
The SAE building at Valencia College East Campus is home to six studios. Each studio requires a unique set of startup and shutdown instructions to save the gear from damage and to prevent software errors. Such instructions have been well documented and organized so that any lab assistant working there can properly power on or shut down the system. This process is tedious and subject to user error, implementation of a Smart Power Conditioner with Advanced Scheduling would reduce the possibility of damage to electronics and reduce overall noise within the system. The Power Conditioner will also improve efficiency by allowing quick and convenient shutdown of Systems/Studios not in use.
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3. GroBox Indoor Farming
With the advent of sprawling cities, the effective use of land within an area has been relegated to housing, business, and utilities. As various technologies have emerged, the possibility to make use of otherwise empty space on buildings or within buildings is now possible. Cities, in effect, are not self sufficient and rely on the surrounding rural and farming communities to provide food for the populace resulting in wasted energy in production and transportation. If nutritional food could be grown within the confines of a city, and done so quickly, this would reduce the environmental impact of the city and reduce dependency on industrial farming which harms the environment.
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4. Solar Powered Desalination System
Fresh drinking water that is accessible to life on Earth, makes up only 1.2% of all water on Earth. With droughts cropping up in the South-Western areas of the United States and even here in Florida, the need for non-saline, clean water is vital to the continued stability of life and communities worldwide. The concept of desalination is not a new one, however using new materials and renewable sources of energy, both portable and large-scale desalination may be possible.
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5. Laser Rangefinder and Locator
As a proof of concept of target acquisition, the use of lasers and various systems to paint a target are possible. Using an eye safe laser diode, it maybe possible to find the distance, and exact coordinates of a target up to X-meters away. Systems similar to this are currently being used in the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.
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6. Flywheel Energy Storage Solution
Energy Storage of renewables is, in its most basic form, a problem of converting electrical energy into another type which can be harnessed on demand. The conversion of electrical energy into mechanical energy is commonly used for transportation or used in tools such as power drills. But that same mechanical energy can instead be stored in the form of an inertial battery using 'fly-wheels'. Putting a series of these fly-wheels together along with proper control circuitry would allow for on demand power using widely available materials.
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7. Automated Saline Hydroponics
Because freshwater is a limited resource, it is advantageous to find ways to use seawater. Studies show that some plants can grow sufficiently with partially saline water, using a solution of seawater and freshwater. Up to 15% seawater can be used for some typical crops without significantly reducing yield. Other salt-tolerant crops, known as halophytes, have shown potential as food for people and livestock and can be grown with pure seawater. For these reasons, we devise an automated hydroponics system that sterilizes seawater and regulates salinity for various crops.
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8. Automobile Solar Heat Exchange (A.S.H.E)
Parked car interior air commonly reaches temperatures of 150° F in the Florida summer. This causes excessive AC usage when the driver first starts the car. It also creates a deadly environment for children and pets left behind in the cabin. Previous attempts at cooling hot parked cars include folding sun shades and small solar-powered ventilators. Folding sun shades have the ability to cool a hot car cabin by an average of 15° F. The solar-powered ventilators on the market must be placed in an open window, and possess questionable cooling capabilities. Neither has the power to cool the cabin to a comfortable temperature upon re-entry, and both must be manually set up by the driver.
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The Automobile Solar Heat Exchange or A.S.H.E. hopes to improve upon the performance of past car interior cooling devices by using an automated system powered by solar energy and controlled by a microcontroller. The system will include automatically retracting sunshades, which will deploy when the car is turned off to minimize the sunlight let into the car. Fans and Peltier devices will then direct heat into the relatively cool chassis of the car by way of the spare tire storage in the trunk. The combination of these devices should help to cool the interior of the car significantly while parked.
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