College of Engineering ... - Capstone Design@Mines · The Capstone Design@Mines Program relies on...
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College of Engineering & Computational Sciences Capstone Design@Mines
Trade Fair
December 5, 2017
Capstone Design@Mines C O L O R A D O S C H O O L O F M I N E S College of Engineering and Computational Sciences G O L D E N , C O L O R A D O 8 0 4 0 1 - 1 8 8 7
___________________________________________________________________________________
Cap s ton e D es i gn @M in es Col l eg e o f En gin eer i n g & Co mp u ta t i on a l Sc i en c es
1 5 0 0 I l l i n o i s S t . • Go ld en , CO 8 0 4 0 1 des ig n@ mines . e du
A Special Word of Thanks to Our Judges
It is my pleasure to offer a personal welcome to the judges of the Fall 2017 Colorado School of Mines College of Engineering and Computational Sciences Trade Fair. We appreciate your willingness to take time from your normal activities to evaluate our seniors’ capstone design projects. The opportunity for our students to get feedback from experienced engineers is invaluable.
CECS Capstone Design allows our students to demonstrate the engineering knowledge that they have spent four or more years acquiring. We encourage you to spend time with the design teams and to inquire about their projects and their designs. But also ask about their design process, because in the final analysis, capstone design is as much about learning the process of design as it is about creating a design. As these students enter the workforce, it is their ability to use the design thinking methods that they have learned that will serve them most in their careers.
We are proud of our students and their accomplishments and hope you are equally impressed. If you would like to get more involved in our program, we are always in search of more project sponsors. Let us know!
Again, thank you and Happy Judging!
Kevin L. Moore Dean, College of Engineering
& Computational Sciences
Colorado School of Mines thanks the individuals and families listed below who have provided valuable support to the students presenting today.
Program Partners
J. Don Thorson
Program Sponsors
Gerald & Karen Zink
Program Supporters
Al Cohen Family
Colorado School of Mines thanks the companies and organizations listed below who have provided valuable support to the students presenting today.
Program Sponsors
Shell Oil Company
Program Supporters
Realty Gift Fund National Renewable Energy Laboratory*
Program Donors Denver Urban Renewal Authority
CPChem
*Denotes donation of materials, services, or supplies to the program.
Sponsoring the Program The Capstone Design@Mines Program relies on the generosity of our program sponsors to fund our intercollegiate competition teams, humanitarian engineering projects, and outfit the Design Laboratory. If you, or your organization, are interested in supporting these elements of the program, please consider making a financial gift through the Mines Foundation or via giving.mines.edu. Make sure to clearly mark your gift for CECS Capstone Design@Mines. Your gift is tax deductible and will make a huge impact on our students.
PROGRAM PARTNERS Donate $25,000 or greater Your Funds support the needs of many teams. In addition, partners receive:
An invitation to the beginning-of-semester Project Kickoff event. All Sponsor, Supporter, and Donor benefits.
PROGRAM SPONSORS Donate $10,000 - $24,999 Your funds support the needs of multiple teams. In addition, sponsors receive:
An invitation to, and recognition at the end-of-semester Trade Fair event. All Supporter and Donor benefits.
PROGRAM SUPPORTERS Donate $5,000 - $9,999 Your funds support the needs of a single team. In addition, supporters receive:
Recognition on the program’s website, and on signage in the Design Lab in the Brown Building Basement All Donor benefits.
PROGRAM DONORS Donate up to $4,999 Donors receive:
Recognition in the end-of-semester Trade Fair Program and a formal letter of thanks from the Mines Foundation.
Colorado School of Mines thanks the individuals and organizations listed below who have served as clients for the student teams presenting today. Your donation of time, talent, and material support to our students is greatly appreciated.
AK Steel Ken Morales
City of Golden Anne Bierle
Colorado Parks and Wildlife Matt Kondratieff
CSM Mechanical Engineering Department Dr. Joel Bach; Dr. Neal Sullivan; Dr. Brian Thomas; Dr. Paulo Tabares
Denver Urban Renewal Authority Victor Caesar
Emrgy Emily Morris
Engineering Ministries International Uganda Dr. Kate Smits
National Renewable Energy Laboratory Elise De George; Mark McDade; Scott Jenne
CPChem Joe Schneider; Erik Lord
Individual clients Dr. Gregg Lage, DDS
Becoming a Client The Capstone Design@Mines Program pushes students to go beyond their classroom training and solve real-world design problems. Every semester the college has over 60 student design teams who need great challenges to engage with. What opportunities does your organization have that could be addressed by a student team?
SPONSORSHIP FEE Corporate project sponsors are asked to provide a sponsorship fee of $5,000, of which $2,500 is made available to the student team for purchasing materials. The additional amount is used to support program facilities, staff and overhead. Government agencies, NGOs and startups may request exemption from the suggested donation but are generally expected to pay for project materials.
TIME COMMITMENT
The involvement of the project sponsor is a key factor in the success of the project. Great project sponsors will commit one individual for approximately 1-hour per week to support the student team. In addition, any training or on-site resources that you can make available to the students are greatly appreciated.
OTHER Student access to construction sites, manufacturing partners, or other company resources is always appreciated by the students.
GETTING STARTED Check out our website at http://capstone.mines.edu/ for additional information on becoming a sponsor or send an email to [email protected] to start exploring opportunities with program staff.
General Information Regarding Trade Fair JUDGE’S AGENDA
Time Description Location
8:00 – 9:00 Breakfast & Awards Reception Student Center Ballroom E
9:00 – 11:00 Trade Fair Student Center Grand Ballroom
FINDING YOUR WAY AROUND
A floor plan of the Trade Fair is available on the back of this program for your convenience.
JUDGES LOUNGE
Snacks and beverages are available for judges in the Judges Lounge in the President’s Conference Room, immediately adjacent to the Grand Ballroom. Please feel free to take a break from talking with the teams and grab a beverage or snack in the lounge at any time.
GRADING
We seek to achieve consistency in grading between judges. With that in mind, the CECS Capstone Design faculty have developed the Trade Fair Ballot to aid your judging. Each row includes prompting descriptions that are intended to guide the evaluation process. Each description has an associated point value with it.
To completely grade a team, please select a single number from each row of the grading matrix. Sum the numbers (one from each row) and enter the total team score at the bottom of the ballot. Please return the form to the registration table when it is complete.
Fall 2017 Design Projects Each year senior students in the civil, electrical, environmental, and mechanical engineering programs in the College of Engineering and Computational Sciences take a two-semester course sequence in engineering design targeted at enhancing their problem-solving and communication skills. This semester, we are proud to present the work of 12 design teams. Their collaborative design work culminates in today’s Capstone Design@Mines Trade Fair. A list of the teams is provided below. In addition, each team has provided a one-page synopsis of their design challenge which is included in the following pages.
TABLE OF PROJECTS
Team Number
Team Name Project
1 NAZTEK Innovations Denver Idea Spaces
2 Pb-B-Gone Lead Service Line Challenge
3 Hydrokinetics Hydrokinetic Power Generator
5 Dentium Engineering Dr. Sluggo’s A-45 Oscillator Toothbrush
6 Team NH3 Energy Storage Fuel Cell Reactor
7 Hydrologistics Flume for Testing Hydrokinetic Power Devices
8 Team Nackle Salt Dome Storage Challenge
9 Steel Stoppers Stopper Rod Flow Control
10 Uganda Solar eMi Solar-powered UV Disinfection
11 White Water Parks White Water Parks Challenge
12 Efficient Mine(d)s Wellness Center Energy Retrofit Package
13a Human Centered Design Studio Adaptive Climbing Rig
13b Human Centered Design Studio Wheelchair Curling Stick
13c Human Centered Design Studio Golf Arm
13d Human Centered Design Studio Prosthetic Hand & Forearm for Kids
13e Human Centered Design Studio Motocross Foot Positioner
13f Human Centered Design Studio Prosthetic Foot for Dancing
Denver Idea Spaces 1
Client(s): Denver Urban Renewal Authority Faculty Advisor: Robin Steele Technical/Social Context Consultants: Kirk Ellis, Karen Wolfer Team Name: NAZTEK Innovations Team Members: Nolan Sneed, Alex Sauer, Zachary Waanders, Thomas Ladd, Emily Quaranta, Kristen Smith
As part of the Denver Urban Renewal Authority’s (DURA’s) ongoing efforts to inspire a thirst for knowledge in local children in the areas of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM), which is a proven factor in increasing socio-economic levels, the NAZTEK Design Team was tasked with creating a learning module targeting children ages 6-12 in the Northeast Park Hill Area.
After meeting with the client, community members, and walking the neighborhood, several module options were presented to stakeholders. Following careful review, a scaled solar system was chosen as the module that would best inspire a curiosity and passion for STEM among the children in the area.
A patio containing an interactive sun dial, representing a scaled down version of the sun, will serve as the basis of a solar system with the planets, represented as pole mounted fiberglass hemispheres, being placed to scale to represent their true distances in the solar system. Additionally, plaques located at the sun and each planet will contain information and interactive activities, which will promote learning and further the DURA mission to inspire a passion for STEM in local children.
Figure 1: Solidworks Model of Solar System (Size Scale Only)
Lead Service Line Challenge 2
Client(s): The City of Golden – Ms. Anne Beierle Faculty Advisor: Dr. Kristoph Kinzli Technical/Social Context Consultants: Dr. Darren McSweeny Team Name: Pb-B-Gone Team Members: Rick Petersen, Marcus Harper, Nathan Girkins,
Jake Sawaya, Quentin Geile, Thomas Tarcha
Due to the recent events in Flint, Michigan, public concern has risen regarding lead service lines and the negative consequences. Now, municipalities are encouraged, if not required, to find and remove lead service lines within their city limits. The purpose of the Golden Lead Service Line Challenge is to locate the lead service lines within the Golden city limits and produce a cost estimate for the removal of the lines. Due to a lack of records, a method for detecting lead beneath the ground is necessary to achieve this goal. The detection method must be accurate and non-invasive to homeowners while not disturbing the protective scaling within the line. Team Pb-B-Gone began by pursuing use of electromagnetic radiation (EMR) to detect service line materials. The materials used in service lines have different magnetic properties and characteristics that would affect the way they interact with and reflect radiation. The team has performed magnetic experiments on service line materials, but after extensive research the team elected to pursue another detection method. The research and experiments performed using EMR have been well documented for a future team to continue. The Pb-B-Gone team then pursued a probability-based solution to predict the presence and length of lead within a service line. This approach uses known resistivity values of typical service line materials in
conjunction with a field-measured resistance of the entire system. With these measured values, it is possible to apply mathematics and probability to make an estimate of material types and lengths present in the system. Figure 1, shows a schematic of this method.
Figure 1: Shows the resistivity methodology
Hydrokinetic Power Generator 3
Client(s): Emily Morris, Emrgy Faculty Advisor: Henrik Hofvander Technical/Social Context Consultants: Dr. Kristoph Kinzli & Dr. Pk Sen Team Name: Hydrokinetics Team Members: Nana Adu, Logan Bock, Jesse Gettert, Jakob Howard, Haley
McManus, Konstantin Rehbein, Daniel Shackelford, Brian Vogel
Context Have you ever eaten at a restaurant next to a creek? And have you ever considered how much power is contained in water? What if the next time you were sitting out on the patio at that restaurant, there would be a turbine in the water providing power to the entire building. The exciting part about Emrgy, the client, is not that they are converting moving water into power, but that they can do this cost-effectively for small streams and slow-moving sources. This pilot project with Denver Water, the US Bureau of Reclamation and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) is the first of its kind. Problem Hydrokinetics has been approached to assist in the installation of hydrokinetic turbines in the South Boulder Canal. Ten hydrokinetic turbines need to be strategically placed throughout a two mile stretch of the canal to maximize power output. Solution In order to harvest the greatest amount of power in a cost-effective manner, Hydrokinetics created a tool called Hydroboss. Hydroboss, is a simulation template used to create installation plans which optimize power in any existing waterway while determining potential profits. From, flowrate, river geometries, and turbine specifications, the tool analyzes these inputs to create accurate velocity profiles using HEC-RAS, a computational fluid dynamic program. From the velocity profiles, Hydroboss will output the dynamic distances between turbines which allow for maximum power generation. Results By creating a tool that determines the power output of an installation strategy, Emrgy can begin to plan for the expansion of their company. All business ventures incur a certain degree of risk, but a tool that can predict the overall profitability of such venture will drastically decrease the risk of failure. Hydroboss will not only determine the viability of an installation decision, but also optimize the installation strategy leading to 40% more power produced. Since the power produced is directly proportional to the revenue generated, this portion of Hydroboss will play an integral part in Emrgy’s future success.
Dr. Sluggo’s A-45 Oscillator Toothbrush 5
Client(s): Dr. Gregg Lage Faculty Advisor: Henrik Hofvander Technical/Social Context Consultants: Jered Dean Team Name: Dentium Engineering Team Members: Gage Cullum, Duncan Melton, John Kater, Brock Morrison,
Cesar Navejas, Matt Lewis
The “Bass Technique for Brushing” is a revolutionary method for teeth-cleaning that has been championed by dentists worldwide over the last two decades. Designed to be gentler on the gums while simultaneously targeting the areas of plaque buildup, it is widely preferential to standard brushing procedures due to smaller time requirements and an overall cleaner mouth. The Bass technique has two standard requirements: that the user holds the brush at a 45-degree angle to the plane of their teeth, and a “scrubbing” method is exchanged for tiny back-and-forth movements along the gumline.
Enter Dr. Sluggo, the superhero alter-ego of dentist Dr. Gregg Lage, who encourages children throughout the Denver metro area towards greater brushing habits. An integral part of Dr. Sluggo’s oral health campaign, A-45 Oscillator toothbrush is Lage’s vision of an electric toothbrush which intuitively guides the user towards correctly implementing the Bass technique. This is the essence of what our toothbrush does – it encourages the user to hold the brush at a 45-degree angle while providing a motorized back-and-forth oscillation at the proper frequencies.
We are accomplishing these feats through integrated methods, considering every component of what makes a “toothbrush”. The 45-degree angle, for example, is encouraged through the implementation of a square cross-section on the handle near the brushhead, with the bristles pointing at a 45-degree angle relative to the grip. The back-and-forth oscillation required for the Bass Technique is provided by a motor-driven cam mechanism, similar in concept to a Scotch Yoke. These requirements, however, are only the beginning of the design process. Due to the demands of the consumer, the toothbrush had to meet a second list of utility-driven requirements, to include: non-toxic, waterproof, silent, rechargeable, programmable, long-lasting from both wear and fatigue standpoints; and above all, cost-effective enough to be profitable.
Energy Storage Fuel Cell Reactor 6
Client(s): Dr. Neal Sullivan Faculty Advisor: Henrik Hofvander Technical/Social Context Renewable Energy Storage Research Consultants: Buddy Haun, Darren McSweeny, Lee Ann Underwood, Barb
O’Kane, Marie Pisciotta, Tyler Pritchard Team Name: Team NH3 Team Members: Evan Anundsen, Cameron Bennethum, John Kargar, Anthony
Lariva, Duncan Oliver, Steven Vlajic, Evan Wong
Purpose: The largest impediment to renewable energy expansion is cost effect and high efficiency energy storage solutions. Fuel cell’s application in electrolysis to create fuel may unlock the key to energy storage. In order to improve fuel cell’s performance in electrolysis, a fuel cell must be subjected to high temperatures and pressures.
Task: Design and assemble a pressurized fuel cell reactor. The entire project can be split into four subsystems: Upstream fluid delivery, Reactor, Downstream exhaust, and electronic control hardware.
Solution: The Upstream system deliveries reactants using pressure regulators, mass flow controllers, a water evaporator, and a high pressure liquid chromatography pump to achieve the necessary gas and water vapor compositions to the fuel cell within the reactor. The Reactor, designed by another student team, uses heating cartridges to maintain the temperature inside the pressure vessel where the fuel cell is held. In the exhaust system the two exhaust flows are combining to limit pressure differential across the fuel cell, and pressure regulators monitor and control the pressure in the system. Using the components listed above along with pressure transducers and thermocouples, the electronic control hardware and software subsystem monitors, controls, and records the operational conditions to provide experimental results, and ensure the safety of the users at all times.
Flume for Testing Hydrokinetic Power Devices
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Client(s): National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) Faculty Advisor: Robin Steele Technical/Social Context Consultants: Dr. Andres Guerra, Dr. Navid Goudarzi (UNC Charlotte)
Team Name: HydroLogistics Team Members: Moustapha Agrignan, Matt Andersen, Martin
Bergstrand-Reiersgard, Andrew Gudal, Nick Kincaid, Frank Knafelc, Stephen Mulligan, Chris Ransom, Elyse Schrader, Levi Skaare, Jon Webb
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) currently hosts the Collegiate Wind Competition each year where they invite college teams from around the nation to design, build, and then test wind turbines in their competition wind tunnel. The goal of this project was to design and build a water flume for the development of a similar competition that will foster learning, innovative design, and testing of hydrokinetic power devices.
HydroLogistics designed and constructed a scaled water flume based off the characteristics of a local Ralston Reservoir canal. The system begins with filling the piping and the flume hull with roughly 500 gallons of water. Once turned on, the water will be pushed up from the pump into the flume hull. The water passes through an insert that features vanes, which changes flow direction and maintains a uniform velocity profile throughout the test section. The water then enters a diffuser to further develop a laminar and uniform velocity profile. The outlet of the hull has a fin insert similar to the inlet that reduces backflow in the test section and redirects flow back into the piping network below.
Devices to be tested will be installed on supports that are attached from the top of one side of the hull to the other, and will hang down into the flume. There is a large window on either side of the flume hull to allow viewing of the device under test. The large size also allows for the testing of several devices in sequence. The team additionally designed a secondary containment system that sits under the flume.
The system as a whole takes into account all of the performance, space, and safety needs of NREL. The design allows for the future development of the competition, as well as provides a modular design for further development of inserts to mimic different types of environments.
Figure 1: System CAD Cut-Away Rendering
Salt Dome Storage Challenge 8
Client(s): Joe Schneider, CPChem Faculty Advisor: Henrik Hofvander Technical/Social Context Consultants: Dr. Nils Tilton, Logan Ripley, George Swain Team Name: Team Nackle Team Members: Andrea Benefiel, Conrad Evans, Ilman Surghani, Brittany
Thang, Andy Torkelson, Aaron Bilek
In the United States, one of the methods in which oil and gas products are stored is underground in salt dome chambers. These chambers are naturally occurring and carved out of massive, impermeable, salt deposits. An example of a typical salt dome storage chamber can be seen in Figure 1. The main risk of using this method to store gas is the potential for leaks in the system. Leaks could allow the gas, which may be flammable, to escape the salt dome and be exposed to a spark or other ignition source, which would pose an immediate danger to the surrounding area. The purpose of the Salt Dome Storage Challenge is to design an automated detection and isolation system for one of Chevron Phillips Chemical Company’s underground salt dome storage chambers that is used to store ethylene. At any given time, the chamber will be filled partially with brine and ethylene. As ethylene is pumped into the chamber for storage, the brine is forced out through the brine piping. Likewise, when the ethylene is needed for use, brine is pumped into the chamber and the ethylene is forced out of the chamber through the ethylene pipe.
Major safety issues can arise if any ethylene escapes through the brine piping, and preventing this scenario is of upmost importance. The Salt Dome Storage Challenge is focused on detecting the presence of gas in the brine piping, as well as defining the logic that will enable the system to interface with the existing isolation structure.
The solution proposed by the team is a system with two distinct components: a sensing subsystem, which utilizes two independent sensors to detect the presence of gas in the brine pipe, and a control system, which uses logic written by the team to send shutdown signals to an automated valve as well as the on-site control room.
The team created a prototype of the full system as a proof of concept, and delivered to CPChem a final report including the system control narrative and recommendations for on-site installation.
Figure 1: Example of Salt Dome Storage Chamber
Stopper Rod Flow Control 9
Client(s): Dr. Ken Morales, AK Steel
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Brian Thomas Consultant: Dr. Robert Amaro Team Name: Steel Stoppers Team Members: Sabre Cook, Erich Deutsch, Matt French, Brooke Nezaticky, Philip Oxford
Continuous Casting is a steel making process where molten steel solidifies into slabs of steel that are further processed in several finishing operations (primarily rolling & cutting). Continuous casting allows steel plants to increase production volume and maintain greater quality (while reducing costs). The continuous casting system, shown in Figure 1, primarily consists of the ladle (1), tundish (2), mold (3), cutting torch (4), stopper rod (5), and rollers (6). Our team has been tasked to design and build a physical water model for the Continuous Casting Center (CCC) to model the flow of molten steel. We have also been asked to develop, test, and optimize new shapes for stopper-rod and tundish floor combinations that will improve system wide flow stability. The model must be versatile and easily modified for future projects, some of which could include: minimizing liquid level fluctuations throughout the system, responding to surface profile changes, or managing surface slag entrainment. Building a full scale model of the continuous casting process is not at all feasible, given our time, budget, and building space. We can instead build a scaled down model (and design it using several fluid flow similarity criterion including the Weber and Froude numbers), which allows us to accurately model flow through the caster while fitting within our other constraints. To satisfy these requirements, we elected to build a 60% scale water model. Our water model includes the tundish, submerged entry nozzle (SEN), mold, interchangeable tundish floor geometry (also called the furniture), and stopper-rod. The ideal stopper-rod controls all flow out of the tundish, minimizes tundish pressure drops, and doesn’t create severe flow disturbances. Some of the other constraints our team had to work around include: a $13,500 budget, two semesters to complete the project, and keeping the entire model under 10 feet tall.
Figure 1 - Depiction of the continuous
casting process.
Figure 2 - Solidworks photo of our
water model.
eMi Solar-powered UV Disinfection
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Client(s): Engineering Ministries International Uganda Faculty Advisor: Robin Steele Technical/Social Context Consultants: Junko Munakata Marr, Chris Coulston, Robert Huehmer Team Name: Uganda Solar Team Members: Shaojun Liu, Cole Alexander, Chad McFarland, Barron Keith,
Caitlyn Smith
What is it about the water that most concerns you, when you simply turn on a water tap? In some developing parts of the world, the answer may be: is the water safe to drink?
According to the 2017 Progress on Drinking Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene, prepared by the WHO and UNICEF, nearly 22 million residents that live in rural areas of Uganda lack access to safe, clean drinking water. Currently the most common water treatment method in Ugandan households is boiling, which has potential negative health and environmental impacts. Smoke trapped inside homes can result in respiratory irritation and diseases. The use of wood for boiling is also ineffective and has adverse impacts on the environment. The goal of this project is to design a sustainable and economic point-of-use water disinfection system powered by renewable solar energy that can provide safe, clean, and affordable drinking water to rural Ugandans.
The disinfection system utilized UV-LEDs rather than a traditional mercury vapor lamp as shown in the figure below. By 2020, a range of products containing mercury will be banned for production, export, and import by the international Minamata Convention on Mercury. Thus, advantages for UV-LEDs versus a mercury vapor lamp include: mercury free, longer lifetimes, instant sterilization with no warm-up time, etc. UV-LEDs that fall within germicidal wavelengths (240 -280 nm) are also called UVC-LEDs. However, these LEDs are expensive and have relatively low power outputs for disinfection application. Nevertheless, current UVC-LED trends suggests that price will decrease and light output will increase in the future.
Our design integrated UVC-LEDs into a lid design that can be attached to a reactor chamber shown in the figure on the right. The system was modeled in MATLAB and SolidWorks to determine the optimal UV reactor size and UVC-LED selection in order to achieve 99.99% bacteria removal at a design flow rate of 4 liters per minute. The system is later validated by a computational fluid dynamic model and bioassay test.
White Water Parks 11
Client(s): Matt Kondratieff, Colorado Parks and Wildlife Faculty Advisor: Kristoph Kinzli Technical/Social Context Consultants: Kurt Smithgall Team Name: River Rangers Team Members: Trey Richard, Shima Aghaei, Samantha Beck, Heidi Fronapfel,
Estevan Trujillo, Kayla White
The prevalence of manmade whitewater parks has grown immensely in the past few years, with much of this growth coming from within Colorado. Designers used different techniques to create hydraulic conditions for recreational kayakers and rafters; oftentimes, a stream’s flow is laterally constricted into a steep chute, then directed over a steep drop structure and into a downstream pool. This series of instream structures creates large hydraulic jumps, which make the ‘whitewater’ conditions that recreational users
enjoy (as shown at left).
While whitewater parks provide economic benefits to communities throughout the state through recreational tourism, park implementation can also cause harmful effects to natural ecosystems. The modifications made to streams to create the fast-moving whitewater conditions best for recreation cause higher-than-normal velocities across the entire channel, as well as increased turbulence and lower flow depths than in natural channels. Studies have proven that these altered hydraulic conditions have disrupted longitudinal connectivity of streams and severely inhibited upstream fish passage, already causing a decline in fish populations in Colorado and beyond. Being
able to move up and downstream as a response to changing environmental conditions is what enables local fish species to find food, habitat, and to reproduce; inhibiting passage disrupts fish life cycles and stream ecosystems.
Since January of 2017, The River Rangers have been working with Colorado Parks and Wildlife to develop designs that will enable fish to more effectively pass through hydraulic jumps in whitewater parks without limiting the recreational potential of Front Range waterways. Hydraulic conditions over existing drop structures as well as through proposed passage structures were evaluated using Flow-3D software. Velocity, depth, Froude number, and turbulence were evaluated around existing and proposed structures to determine how best to mitigate severe hydraulic conditions and facilitate fish passage. Innovative designs that balance ecosystem health with stream modifications that are recreationally and economically beneficial will allow continued growth of Colorado tourism while preserving precious ecological resources.
A whitewater kayaker enjoying a hydraulic jump in Clear Creek Whitewater Park in Golden. Source: Mike Hendrix
Wellness Center Energy Retrofit Package
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Client(s): Dr. Paulo Tabares Faculty Advisor: Dr. Brian Thomas Technical/Social Context Consultants: Adam Hilton Team Name: Efficient Mine(d)s Team Members: Ryan Gimbel, Annabel Marruffo, Elvis Molina, Ben Moser,
Michael Sonnabend, Erik Trenary
Efficient Mine(d)s has been tasked with creating the next energy package for an existing campus-wide initiative. Dr. Paulo Tabares has been involved in multiple energy retrofit projects for buildings across the Mines campus, including but not limited to the Starzer Welcome Center, Elm Hall, and Maple Hall. Efficient Mine(d)s has undertaken the energy retrofit project for the Student Wellness Center. The objective of this project is to reduce the peak electric energy usage of the building by at least 20%, and the retrofit package itself needs to have a payback period of no more than 10 years. To accomplish this, the team has developed a virtual energy model of the Wellness Center using OpenStudio software and local weather data. A snapshot of the OpenStudio model is shown in Figure B. With this program, our team has been able to implement multiple different energy saving solutions in the energy model and record the effects they had on the building’s electric energy consumption. A few of these energy saving solutions include ice storage, lithium-ion battery packs, photovoltaic panels, LED lighting, electrochromic windows, and a green/cool roof. There are two ways that these solutions can reduce the peak electric demand: shift energy usage away from peak hours, or reduce overall energy consumption of the building. Due to Xcel billing, the greatest potential for monetary savings lies in shifting the peak demand, regardless of the total electric energy consumption.
Figure A: Wellness Center Figure B: OpenStudio model of Wellness Center
Human Centered Design Studio: Adaptive Climbing Rig
Client: Chris Read Faculty Advisor: Dr. Joel Bach Technical/Social Context: N/A Team Name: Adaptive Climbing Rig Team Members: Chad Brockman, Chelsea Gibas,
Paris Gorman, Matt MIschler, Hayden Rutherford _________________________________________________________________________________________________
When someone has an unfortunate incident or a birth defect that causes paraplegia, many physical activities seem to
no longer be within their reach. The students in the Colorado School of Mines Human Centered Design Studio
(HCDS) work to bring those activities back into reach. The activity we are bringing back into reach with this
climbing rig (see below) is indoor rock climbing.
Figure 1: Current Climbing Rig to be Updated
Currently, the only way for a person with paraplegia to participate in this sport is to have someone hold
tension on their harness while they use their upper body strength to climb up. This causes their feet to hang without
any control and puts much more stress on the person keeping tension on the harness. Our climbing rig will safely
allow someone who suffers from paraplegia to scale an indoor rock wall. This will be done by first attaching a
regular harness to the user, securing their legs in the bucket, and securing their chest to the translational chest piece.
After this is done, the harness will attach to the rig to allow for some weight to be absorbed and the person will be
ready to climb. In order to protect against exhaustion in the user’s upper body, “feet” have been added to the bucket
allowing for weight bearing much like a non-paraplegic climber would use their feet for.
Our team had this project passed down from seniors in last semester’s HCDS who began work near the end
of the year. They were able to create a very good prototype which we then further designed to make it more
functional, comfortable, and universal. This was done by redesigning the “foot holds”, replacing the padding in the
interior of the bucket, adding more secure straps, and making the chest piece translational.
We want to thank Dr. Bach for creating the Human Centered Design Studio, the graduated students who
started this project, and our client, Chris Read, for allowing us to work on this project for the Adaptive Sports
Center.
13a
Human Centered Design Studio:
Curling Delivery Stick13b
Client(s): Quentin Way of Denver Curling Club
Faculty Advisor: Joel Bach, Jered Dean
Technical/Social Context:
Consultants:
Adaptive Sports Equipment
Steven Emt, Meghan Lino, Patrick McDonald
Team Name: Human Centered Design Studio
Team Members: Aaron Richner, Jacob Oppenheim, Ben Harju
The purpose of the Curling Delivery Stick project was to design an improved attachment for
throwing a curling stone in the sport of wheelchair curling. The design addresses the limitations
of current offerings that do not allow for neither significant articulation nor for the stone to be
pulled back prior to the throw. The new version of the delivery stick allows for the thrower to
easily maneuver the stone before they throw, so that they can line up and prepare for the throw as
necessary. Another part of this project is for the user to be able to provide more articulation for
their throws, without overcomplicating the throwing process.
The intended use for this project is to make wheelchair curling more intuitive and easier to learn.
Since it will be used in recreational settings and not in competition, the design was not subject to
the rules and regulations competitive curling. This allowed the project to be more open ended,
and enabled it to be more focused on providing a better experience for the user.
Figure 1: Curling Delivery Stick attachment
Human Centered Design Studio: Golf Arm
Client: TRS
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Joel Bach
Technical/Social Context/Consultants: Zach Harvey, Bob Radocy
Team Name: Golf Arm
Team Members: William Bellis, Chris Olsen, Collin Kinder
_____________________________________________________________________________________
The Colorado School of Mines Human Centered Design Studio(HCDS) is program which gives
students the opportunity to recognize, address, and solve problems brought to their attention by
those with a disabilities. Some projects brought forward concentrate on baseline functionality
issues centered around everyday life activities, while other projects are more oriented towards
adaptive athletic activities and performance related devices for recreational hobbies.
The team opted to work directly with TRS, a company which specializes in adaptive athletic
devices for those with disabilities, in this case specifically upper extremity amputees. As an able
bodied person it is difficult to understand the restrictions a person with a disability faces when
wishing to engage in an athletic activity. TRS was able to help the team understand what it was
like to be an upper extremity amputee by use of a body powered prosthetic simulator. This
experience alongside the guidance of TRS designers and developers gave the team a firm
understanding of the parameters needed to
design a Golf Arm for a trans-humeral amputee.
TRS presented the team with their version of a
prototype golfing arm as an example. The team
expanded their concept through multiple design
iterations until performance criterion were met.
Once a design was selected and approved it was
put through a rigorous set of simulated tests
through Finite Element Analysis modeling in
SolidWorks. After FEA's were conducted and
the results evaluated the model was 3D printed.
The 3D printed model was then used to form a
mold which would be injected with a
proprietary polyurethane compound. Multiple
polyurethane models with slightly differing
mold inlay patterns were produced and then
submitted to an amputee golfer for performance evaluation and use.
The team has developed a creative and innovative solution to the problem presented to them by
TRS. The next stages of development will be to form multiple molds which vary in overall
length for persons with differing residual limb sizes, and market the Golf Arm to the adaptive
community for recreational and professional use.
13c
Human Centered Design Studio:
Kids Prosthetic Hand & Forearm 13d
Client(s): Dr. Joel M. Bach
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Joel M. Bach
Technical/Social Context Consultants: Dr. Joel M. Bach
Team Name: Hands-On Technologies
Team Members: Robert Waite, Adam Young
The Human Center Design Studio is a senior design
group tasked with designing and manufacturing sports
adaptive equipment for people that have physical
disabilities. The Studio is run like a design firm in the
sense that multiple projects are underway concurrently
within the Human Center Design Studio senior design
group. Students are encouraged to collaborate
together and contribute to multiple projects. Students
are also encouraged to manage and lead a project
before they complete senior design and graduate. A
prosthetic for youth who have transradial amputation,
including a forearm, wrist, and detachable hand, is one
of this semester’s projects.
The design of the prosthetic should allow for the child
to do activities such as riding a bike and swimming.
The project aims to minimize costs. Children grow
rapidly and are more prone to damaging components
making affordability a key priority. The first
prototype was comprised exclusively of plastic
components. In addition, it used Boa system cables to tighten down and secure the prosthetic to
the child’s arm. The wrist utilized a twist and lock design to
attach the hand and socket together.
The newest prototype uses more substantial materials to
increase the life of the prosthetic without a significant cost
increase. The new materials are anti-corrosive and will
withstand more wear. The wrist component has been
designed to fit a range of hands for different tasks. These
improvements in the prototype offer a more versatile and
durable prosthetic. Moving forward the focus will be on
designing and implementing a range of hands options for
different purposes and activities.
Human Centered Design Studio: Motocross Foot Positioner Client: Spencer McGinnis Faculty Advisor: Dr. Joel Bach Technical/Social Context: N/A Consultants: Dr. Derrick Rodriguez Team Name: Motocross Adaption Team Team Members: Megan Koehler, Kayla Hounshell,
Rheana Cordero, Lauren Harrison _________________________________________________________________________________________________
Spencer McGinnis contacted the Human Center Design Program regarding a project to adapt his motocross bike to his specific needs. The client is a transtibial amputee of the right leg and when he performs in motocross races he wears a prosthetic foot. This poses the problem of keeping his prosthetic foot on the foot peg of his bike and operating his rear brake. In order to solve these issues, the client wanted our team to design a foot positioner incorporating his prosthetic foot and the foot peg so that the system would keep his foot on the peg while he is riding. He also wanted his rear brake to be configured so that he could operate it using his left-hand thumb.
There are many possible configurations for the foot positioner, however, the instrumentation used to maintain a connection between the client's prosthetic and the bike’s foot peg was magnetics. A metal plate was shaped and cut to the specific measurements of the foot’s sole so that the plate would sit in the instep of the foot and not impede the client’s comfort when walking. A magnet of was then installed into the negative space of the foot peg. This gave the client the ability to connect his prosthetic to the foot peg while riding, but allowed him to detach his foot when making right hand turns. Both the metal plate and the magnet could be detached to allow them to be installed on other bikes or prosthetics.
13e
Human Centered Design Studio:
Prosthetic Foot for Dancing13f
Client(s): Amy Purdy, Joel Bach
Faculty Advisor: Joel Bach
Technical/Social Context
Consultants: Joel Bach
Team Name: Human Centered Design Studio
Team Members: Chelsea Gibas, Ashlyn Eitemiller,
Barathwaj Murali, Megan Auger, Adam Laine, Abby Reuland
We have created a design for a prosthetic dancing foot that allows a transtibial amputee to
quickly move from flat footed to the ball of their foot without having to switch out prosthetics.
Current designs on the market allow for one specific height and angle without allowing the user
to manipulate the prosthetic for different movements or shoe styles. Our goal was to come up
with a design that would lock into place at different intervals allowing for user customization,
while still maintaining a degree of control.
Figure 1: Solidworks rendering of dancing foot
The design is an underactuated system that couples the degrees of freedom at the toe and ankle
together in an attempt to mimic natural plantar/dorsiflexion motion. An underactuated system
typically has less actuators than it does degrees of freedom. The frame is designed to be
lightweight, but strong and durable. The loads used in analysis were based on loads seen while
running, which has similar loads on the body while dancing. The biggest challenge of this design
is overcoming the lack of stability in the ankle and toe joints and providing a sense of control for
the client. The locking system is a user friendly pin system that is inserted into a position which
locks the foot at a desired angle.
Broader Impacts Essay This semester all CECS Capstone Design@Mines students were assigned to write and submit an individual essay about how their engineering choices impact the social, environmental, and/or economic lives of communities and individuals. The topic for this semester’s essay is:
Designed systems can impact the behaviors of people and environments. Present a discussion, using a contemporary, concrete example, of how an engineered system has positively or negatively impacted the
behavior of society, the environment, and/or the economy. The essay should be either related to your project or your field of engineering.
The top 5 essays from this group of 79 senior engineering students were chosen by the course faculty and are included in this packet for your review.
Essay Title Author How Robot Taxi Fleets Could Drop-Kick Global Warming John Kater Different Shades of Green: Ivanpah Solar Nick Kincaid How Safer Playgrounds are Harming Your Child Kristen Smith The Smartphone Revolution and Its Unintended Consequences Michael Sonnabend Prosthetic Misconceptions Chris Olsen
The top five essays have been judged by a panel of volunteer judges and winners of the best essay contest will be announced along with the Trade Fair results. This year’s judges were:
Ron W. Pritchett Eric Phannenstiel
John McEnroe Scott Sanford
Martha Sanchez-Hayre
Carol Weber John Agee
Ken Witherell Robert Bruzgo Hans Hoppe
Jim Schwendeman
We thank you very much for your time and effort involved in choosing the top essays!
How Safer Playgrounds are Harming Your Child
Kristen Smith
Playground adventures have been a staple of the American childhood since the structures
first came to San Francisco, California, in 1887 [1]. Now, playgrounds are commonplace and
even expected to be utilized by nearly all American elementary schools. While the basic
playground structures have evolved over the years to become much more involved and complex,
there has been a prominent move over the past 15 years to make the equipment as safe as
possible. At first glance, this focus on keeping children safe seems to provide only positive
ramifications. But while there are several beneficial aspects of this shift towards safer designs,
many negative ramifications have surfaced in environmental and social settings.
One trend that has been observed for decades is the fact that playgrounds “stimulate the
local econom[ies]” surrounding them [2]. A neighborhood centered around a play structure is
significantly more appealing than one without, as parents actively seek places to take their
children for a fun way to burn off energy. Moms and dads can easily plan play groups for these
locations; the kids can entertain themselves for hours, and the parents can take a much-needed
break. While this trend began well before the movement towards safer equipment, the increasing
attention to safety has only made these structures more appealing to parents, and therefore has
provided an even greater contribution to the communities and local economies around them.
In addition to this positive economic contribution, the new focus on playground safety
has made two noteworthy changes to the ways in which the equipment affects the environment.
First, the outlawing of wood treated with chromate copper arsenate (CCA) has significantly
reduced the amount of contamination of the surrounding groundwater by these toxic chemicals
[3]. The use of CCA as a wood treatment was outlawed in 2003, though many wooden
playgrounds still stand. The phasing out and remodeling of wooden playgrounds is definitely a
worthwhile movement, as it will prevent both the children and the wildlife from exposure to
these toxins. The second positive environmental effect of safer playgrounds is the use of recycled
tires to create softer flooring. Playgrounds of a few decades ago relied upon asphalt, wood chips,
and pebbles to cushion the landings of the children who leapt from swings and slides. The new
trend is to blanket the entire area with softer materials, such as rubber mats or ground up tires. In
2015, 62 million tires were saved from landfills by getting recycled as playground bases,
representing nearly 25% of the used tires discarded in America that year [4]. This reuse
decreases the pollution from burning the rubber while satisfying the safety standards that have
come to revolve around softer landing surfaces. Unfortunately, health concerns have been raised,
as many scientists postulate that the recycled tire rubber is laced with carcinogens and much less
healthy for children to play in than wood chips or rocks. But with the relatively recent
development of this use for the rubber, much more research will have to be done to make a
definitive argument against its use in this context.
Judging by the environmental and economic impacts of safer playground equipment, the
new focus on safety appears extremely advantageous to today’s youth. But the societal impacts
of the new safety regulations on playgrounds are by far the most concerning. Overall,
playgrounds are very beneficial to children. They provide an easy way for kids to exercise, act as
a safer alternative to playing in other venues like streets and ditches, and promote social skills as
children play with one another. But the new laws requiring slides to be completely encased if
they reach above a certain height and the outlawing of structures like merry-go-rounds and
teeter-totters are proving to have adverse affects on the children being deprived from the old
methods. Banning the “unsafe” equipment such as high monkey bars, slides, and the like rob
children of opportunities to take risks and push themselves outside of their comfort zones. While
it may seem counterintuitive, studies show that children who are injured by a fall in their early
years are less likely to develop a fear of heights as teenagers or adults [5]. Every parent dreads
the scene of their child screaming on the ground after having fallen from a playground structure.
But by prioritizing the avoidance of these minor bumps and bruises as children, society is
increasing the lifelong pain that accompanies a phobia of heights.
Perhaps the most shocking data revolving around the focus on playground safety is the
fact that not only have playground injuries neglected to decline, but in fact the rate at which
children are injured on playgrounds has increased since 2005 [6]. With the advent of soft,
cushioning flooring and regulations on platform heights, slide enclosures, and disappearance of
“dangerous” installations, one might find this inconceivable. But upon further investigation, it
becomes clear that the two main contributors to increased injury on safer structures are
complacence and creativity. When playgrounds focus so hard on safety, both parents and
children become complacent and shirk their previous playground precautions that had formerly
prevented harm. Parents feel free to let younger children run free, unsupervised, leading to a
higher rate of falls and collisions. Similarly, children view themselves as invincible when they
know that a rubber mat waits to greet them below a platform. While children playing on a tall
slide mounted on hard asphalt would take extra care to avoid falling, children who view a shorter
slide and softer landing as the epitome of safety will allot much less energy towards not falling.
This lackadaisical attitude is partially to blame for the increase in injury [5]. The other downside
of the safely-engineered playground systems is blatantly that children find them boring. As a
result, they either spend less time playing (and therefore less time exercising), or they get
creative to make the boring structures more fun. It is this creativity that leads to the misuse of the
equipment, and subsequently unanticipated injuries.
The safety regulations that have been put in place over the last few decades may have
saved millions of tires from a landfill and several heads from getting cracked on asphalt. The
metal structures painted in bright colors are much more attractive, and much less laced with
arsenic than the old wooden ones. But the broader impacts of the obsessive attempts to engineer
the safest playgrounds possible are beginning to overshadow the obvious perceived benefits.
Children are lacking in cognitive development because they do not have the same chances to
take risks and conquer phobias at a young age as they used to. If playground designers cannot
find a way to mitigate their primary safety issues without increasing the rate of playground
injuries, they might as well go back to building the high, risky, but much more fun structures.
(1133 words)
Works Cited
[1] K. Hart. (2017) “History of Playgrounds” [Online]. Available:
https://www.aaastateofplay.com/history-of-playgrounds/
[2] M. Miller. (2007). “Community Impact” [Online]. Available:
http://recmanagement.com/feature_print.php?fid=200703gc02
[3] Healthy School Networ, Inc. (2010). “Playgrounds and Toxic Threates” [Online]. Available:
http://www.healthyschools.org/HSNPlaygrdGuide.pdf
[4] U.S. Tire Manufacturers. (2015) “Scrap Tire Markets” [Online]. Available:
4https://www.ustires.org/scrap-tire-markets
[5] J. Tierney. (2011) “Can a Playground Be Too Safe?” [Online]. Available:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/19/science/19tierney.html?_r=2
[6] Center for Disease Control. (2016) “Playground Safety” [Online]. Available: ]
https://www.cdc.gov/safechild/playground/index.html
How Robot Taxi Fleets Could Drop-Kick Global Warming
John Kater
Self-driving cars, or Autonomous Vehicles (AVs), are one of the most controversial topics
in technology today, with debates ranging from the ethics system governing on-board computers
to the depth and extent of their implementation. The issues surrounding AVs have recently earned
the attention of the U.S. Congress, with the recent SELF-DRIVE Act passing the House of
Representatives with unanimous support on September 6th [1]. Most of the self-drive hype resides
in their capacity for improving the lives of commuters, however the impact AVs will have on the
environment is also significant. The optimal way to realize the eco-friendly potential of
autonomous vehicles is through the propagation of self-driving taxi fleet.
In February 2017, taxi titan Uber released self-driving cars onto the roads of Arizona that
could be hailed through their smartphone application [2]. Their publicized next step is developing
automated truck fleets that can handle deliveries nationwide, a market that competitors Lyft and
Google also hope to exploit. The reason ridesharing companies are interested is simple: analysts
have shown that a self-driving taxi could be driven for as little as $0.35 per mile, a cost less than
1/10th of current ridesharing expenses – even cheaper than owning and maintaining a personal
vehicle [3]. Due to this strong economic impetus, the spread of self-driving vehicles is almost a
certainty. Their impact on the planet, however, extends far beyond their return on investment.
Transportation is a significant contributor to the global carbon dioxide (CO2) output. Of
the roughly 10 trillion metric tons of CO2 produced worldwide in 2010, over 25% was produced
by transportation [4]. If employed properly, AVs will reduce the carbon emissions from vehicle
traffic by ginormous amounts, with estimates from the National Renewable Energy Lab running
as high as an 87% reduction of the total output [5]. This massive increase in vehicle efficiency
comes from a multitude of sources: platooning, an AV movement technique where groups of cars
can follow closely behind a leader in order to reduce drag, was modeled to lead to 10% efficient
increases. “Green Routing,” a practice that encourages smart vehicles to avoid traffic and pick the
most fuel-efficient route, was shown in a 2011 study of the City of Buffalo, NY to decrease the
amount of overall emissions by 20%, even when only a fifth of all vehicles were re-routed [6].
Limiting accelerations and stops through car-to-car communication can lead to the greatest fuel
efficiency increase of all, with conservative estimates of nearly thirty percent [5]. Through only
minor changes in driving behavior, we can cut vehicle carbon dioxide outputs in half!
These benefits will be capitalized by any realization of autonomous vehicles, but many
environmental advantages are specific to only once AV usage becomes widespread. Perhaps the
most obvious of these examples is an expansion upon ideas also applicable to privately-owned
AVs – a general decrease in the number of starts and stops that a driverless car will have to make.
While even modern AVs make a more efficient use of their fuel than their non-automated
counterparts, if the self-driving trend becomes widespread enough, it is within the possible future
to eliminate the need for stoplights altogether in favor of more ergonomic intersections [7]. This
elimination of stoplights would lead to less idle time, and therefore even further increased fuel
efficiency. Additionally, self-driving cars become the norm, it will rapidly become possible to
eliminate many of the safety features in modern vehicles as travel on the nation’s roads becomes
safer for the occupants. This is due to the “chatter” effect between vehicles – AVs are able to relay
their exact position, orientation, and speed data to other nearby cars, a feature which, when
produced en masse, would make collisions all but impossible on inter-city roads as cars would be
able to avoid any potential hazards far in advance [5]. The elimination of certain safety features
leads to overall lighter vehicles. Lighter cars are known to travel considerably more miles per
gallon, and therefore consume less fuel and create less carbon by-product.
A decrease in the number of car accidents would have a secondary effect – a need for less
new cars. Multiple entities in both automotive and finance industries, to include the National
Highway Traffic Safety Administration, have predicted an enormous decrease in the number of
accidents, anticipating a change of nearly ninety percent [8]. With a significant drop in the number
of auto collisions, there would be an equal and corresponding drop in the demand for new cars as
older vehicles are able to stay in service longer. A continued use of old vehicles, rather than the
frequent replacement of cars, leads to less waste and is therefore a greener approach. Additionally,
car factories produce an enormous amount of greenhouse gases when manufacturing new vehicles,
often equal to or exceeding the total carbon emissions from the car over its entire lifespan [9].
While the impact of a single car may not be significant, when the use of autonomous vehicles
becomes prevalent, there will be a noticeable decrease in the number of new vehicles required for
production.
All of the benefits mentioned thus far are only amplified when considering fleets of
autonomous taxis. If people in future cities rely upon ride sharing for transportation, for example,
there will be an even larger decrease in the number of cars on the road, and congruently the
consumer demand for new vehicles. Currently, cars sit unused ninety-five percent of the time – it
doesn’t require much imagination to realize that society could benefit enormously from a fleet of
well-maintained, commonly owned vehicles that would sit idle only when refueling [8].
Additionally, it would be a simple matter to mandate that vehicles purchased for autonomous taxi
purposes would be electric – indeed, industry leaders like General Motors, Jaguar, and Tesla have
all promised to produce exclusively electric self-driving cars in the future [10]. When looking at
the next twenty years of the automotive industry and how it will comply with tomorrow’s green
standards, a University of California Berkeley research team found that the largest contributing
factor to lower greenhouse gas emissions wasn’t whether the vehicles were electric or autonomous
[11]. The deciding factor which lowered the per mile greenhouse gas emissions was whether or
not those vehicles were shared.
We exist in a time of rapid change for the automotive industry. Faced with a significant
share in the ever-continuing destruction of the ozone layer, paired with the steady depletion of
non-renewable oil supplies, those intimately involved in auto making and transportation have come
to realize that change is necessary for cars to survive. The introduction of hybrid vehicles and even
full-blood electric cars has changed the landscape of the buyer’s market, but there is still more
change required. When autonomous vehicles are fully introduced into the world economy, it is
imperative that society is able to use their potential money, time, and environment-saving benefits
to the utmost extent. The icing on the cake is that we’ll get to look cool when it happens.
(1160 words)
Works Cited
[1] Marshall, Aarian. "Congress Unites to Spread Self-Driving Cars Across America." Wired.
Conde Nast, 06 Sept. 2017. Web.
[2] Hawkins, Andrew J. "Uber's Self-driving Cars Are Now Picking up Passengers in
Arizona." The Verge. The Verge, 21 Feb. 2017. Web.
[3] Muoio, Danielle. "Here Are the Key Things to Know about Uber's Ties to the Self-driving
Startup Accused of Stealing Google's Technology." Business Insider. Business Insider,
24 Feb. 2017. Web.
[4] "Global Greenhouse Gas Emissions Data." EPA. Environmental Protection Agency, 13 Apr.
2017. Web.
[5] Gonder, Jeff, Brittany Repac, and Austin Brown. "Autonomous Vehicles Have a Wide
Range of Possible Energy Impacts." NREL (2012): n. pag. National Renewable Energy
Laboratory. Web.
[6] Hsu, Charlotte. ""Green Routing" Can Cut Car Emissions Without Significantly Slowing
Travel Time, Buffalo Study Finds." University at Buffalo, The State University of New
York. N.p., 14 Dec. 2011. Web.
[7] Zipkin, Nina. "Will We Still Need Stoplights in the Self-Driving Future?" Entrepreneur.
N.p., 21 Mar. 2016. Web.
[8] Davies, Alex. "Self-Driving Cars Will Make Us Want Fewer Cars." Wired. Conde Nast, 03
June 2017. Web.
[9] Berners-Lee, Mike, and Duncan Clark. "Manufacturing a Car Creates as Much Carbon as
Driving It." The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 23 Sept. 2010. Web.
[10] Thompson, Cadie. "GM Will Use Lyft to Launch Its First Self-driving Car." Business
Insider. Business Insider, 18 July 2016. Web.
[11] Chao, Julie. "Autonomous Taxis Would Deliver Significant Environmental and Economic
Benefits | Berkeley Lab." Berkeley Labs News Center. University of California Berkeley,
12 Aug. 2015. Web.
Different Shades of Green: Ivanpah Solar
Nick Kincaid
Current topics of national debate are often polarizing. The same is true for renewable
energy. Although it’s fair to suggest that a general shift towards increased renewable energy
deployment has occurred, there is still resistance. When looking at factors such as, economic,
environmental, and grid stability, the topic of the U.S. energy portfolio becomes undoubtedly
complex. Renewable energy plays a key role in developing a more sustainable future. Despite its
importance, there is danger in the polarized classification of energy generating technologies being
labeled as “green,” or “dirty.” The reality is that technologies encompass a wide range of
sustainable qualities, and accurately representing a technology is critical to gain public trust and
ensuring achievable goals. Being disconnected from reality, on both sides of the argument, can
lead to the stagnation of technology. Implementing renewable energy technologies without
detailed analysis can have adverse effects and mar the reputation of a promising technology. One
such case of interest is the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System (ISEGS), currently the largest
concentrated solar power (CSP) plant in the world. Ivanpah is undoubtedly a momentous landmark
for renewable technology, but how truly “green” is it?
Since Ivanpah’s construction, there has push back on how sustainable of a solution CSP
truly is and raises the question why build a CSP plant when that same area could be used for a
photovoltaic (PV) plant? To gain a better understanding of the specific case study, it helps to have
a general understanding of how solar technologies work. The energy from the sun can be harvested
by two main classifications, CSP and PV. PV, generally being the more familiar of the two, has
become a much more frequent sight due largely to a decrease in the price of required materials.
PV cells absorb photons from the sun and directly generate electricity. CSP on the other hand, uses
mirrors to concentrate the sun’s energy and heat fluid. Why go through the trouble of CSP when
PV can directly generate electricity? CSP lends the opportunity to use conventional and well
developed industrial scale power generating technology. Typical fossil fuel plants generate
electricity by heating water to generate steam and then passing that steam through a turbine. CSP
can act as a replacement of these conventional heat sources. The other major advantage to CSP is
the ability to store the energy as heat and then use that heat to continue producing energy even
after the sun goes down. Thermal energy storage (TES) is simpler and can be employed at larger
scales relative to batteries coupled with PV.
As the largest CSP plant, Ivanpah alone is a modern marvel, and is a testament to the power
and potential of renewable energy generation. Ivanpah, located on the California Nevada border
near the Mojave Desert, is comprised of 3 separate 460 ft towers, each with roughly 860,000 m2
of mirrors pointing at the top of the towers [1]. That equates to a total of nearly 500 football fields
worth of mirrors. The combined plant capacity from the three towers is nearly 400 MW, which is
approximately enough to power 140,000 U.S. homes [1]. Ivanpah is also roughly 4 times larger
than the biggest PV plant to date. Coming online in 2014, the plan cost an approximate $2.2
billion, with $1.6 billion of that cost in federal loan guarantees. With the awe and wonder of
Ivanpah as an engineering feat, it’s important to recognize it is not without its faults.
As with the implementation of any large-scale technologies, Ivanpah has not been isolated
from environmental concerns. The plant’s construction was delayed by several months due to the
migration path of an endangered tortoise species, which led to costly downtime and rerouting
measures [2]. There have also been cases of bird mortality caused by the plant’s operation. In close
proximity to the towers, the concentration ray is hundreds of times stronger than the sun itself,
which can cause immediate death to a bird intersecting the ray’s path [3]. Currently the plant is
employing mitigation solutions similarly employed by airports to deter birds from the location.
The valid counterargument to claims that these environmental impacts discount CSP as viable
solution is that these issues are minute in magnitude when looking at the big picture of climate
change as a whole. It’s important to note that even with renewable technologies, there are adverse
effects that must be carefully considered.
There are other important aspects of the design to consider when analyzing Ivanpah.
Ivanpah was designed without any energy storage. The use of relatively low-cost TES, is one of
CSP’s biggest advantages over other renewable sources. Most of renewable technology is variable,
i.e. when the wind isn’t blowing, or the sun isn’t shining, no energy is produced. Meaning that
other more conventional sources of energy generation is required to inefficiently ramp to cover the
gaps. This leads to regional systems having to be oversized to meet the electric load during periods
of no generation. This in turn, decreases the amount of plants running at full capacity and
ultimately leads to an increase in the cost of electricity, by increasing the ratio of plant cost to
electricity generation. As renewable energy increasingly penetrates the market, without energy
storage, fossil fuel back-up systems must be oversized and inefficiently ramp to make up for
periods of no generation, and/or, the grid will become inconsistent, while simultaneously
increasing the cost on the consumer. If the goal is to create a more sustainable energy portfolio,
energy storage must be developed in conjunction with renewable energy generation to ensure
technology that is both environmentally and economically sustainable.
Ivanpah also uses a natural gas fired boiler to prime the system every morning, allowing
the plant to generate electricity as the sun comes out. In 2014, the corporations that own and
operate Ivanpah petitioned to increase the plant’s annual natural gas cap by 60%, from 328 to 525
MMSCF (Millions of Standard Cubic Feet) [4]. Which is roughly enough to power 17,000 homes
in a traditional natural gas power plant. At a worst-case scenario, i.e. Ivanpah using the maximum
allowed amount of natural gas, electricity for 17,000 of the 140,000 homes would be generated
from natural gas, which is only 12% of Ivanpah’s capacity but still noteworthy. The petition states
that when Ivanpah was initially designed, the auxiliary boilers were planned to preheat the system
for approximately 1 hour before sunrise. Upon actual operation and analysis, it was found that the
auxiliary boilers needed to run for 4.5 hours to continue generating electricity during sunrise. The
petition also states that during periods with prolonged clouds, auxiliary natural gas boilers were
needed for longer durations than expected to restart the system. So, is Ivanpah “cleaner” than
traditional fossil fuel plants? Yes. If looking strictly at the number of homes Ivanpah delivers
energy to, versus the amount of carbon dioxide produced, it is still indeed “cleaner.” However, it’s
not perfect. In a search of BrightSource Energy’s website (the company that designed Ivanpah),
the factsheet regarding the design of Ivanpah does not have a single mention of natural gas usage
[5]. From a marketing standpoint, this omission makes sense for a company dedicated to renewable
energy. Herein lies the problem. In a world where it seems that all debates become polarizing, it’s
important to not to misrepresent facts. As the country moves towards a more sustainable energy
portfolio, solutions will not be black or white, green or non-green but rather somewhere in-
between, and it’s important to represent as such, so the energy world can set realistic, achievable
goals.
With historically low prices of natural gas and PV panels, CSP without storage is not an
economical solution. The value of energy storage has been thoroughly analyzed and published in
literature [6]–[8]. In one NREL study, analyzing the value of energy storage in California’s
increased solar penetration market, it was concluded CSP with energy storage can increase the
value of CSP by 40% when considering time of delivery, fuel displacement, and plant costs [6].
Crescent Dunes another CSP plant that came online in 2016, is a 110 MW tower plant located in
northern Nevada, has the storage capacity to continue delivering electricity for 10 hours after the
sun goes down and uses zero fossil fuels [9]. To disregard CSP as a viable energy solution based
solely on one individual case would be irrational.
The misrepresentation of technologies and altering of facts hinders the ability to move
forward in creating a more sustainable energy portfolio. With a quick google search of “Ivanpah
News,” you may see phrases such as, “Big Fossil Fuel Consumer,” and “Tax Payers Get Burned,”
which may be partially derived from a truth, certainly doesn’t encompass the entire picture. For
renewable technology to be a viable solution, it must be both economically and environmentally
viable. Renewable energy technologies come in many shades of “green.” Similarly, accurately
representing a technologies true shade, its benefits as well as its faults, is critical continuing to
move towards a more sustainable future.
(1498 words)
References
[1] NREL, “Concentrating Solar Power Projects - Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System |
Concentrating Solar Power | NREL,” 2014. [Online]. Available:
https://www.nrel.gov/csp/solarpaces/project_detail.cfm/projectID=62. [Accessed: 31-Aug-
2017].
[2] D. Turney and V. Fthenakis, “Environmental impacts from the installation and operation
of large-scale solar power plants,” Renew. Sustain. Energy Rev., vol. 15, no. 6, pp. 3261–
3270, 2011.
[3] E. O. Kagan, R.A., Viner, T.C., Trail, P.W. and Espinoza, “Avian mortality at solar
energy facilities in southern California: a preliminary analysis,” Natl. Fish Wildl.
Forensics Lab., vol. 19, pp. 1–28, 2014.
[4] “Sierra Research Inc. Ivanpah Petition to Amend No. 4,” 2014.
[5] BrightSource, “Ivanpah Project Facts,” 2013.
[6] P. Denholm, Y. Wan, M. Hummon, and M. Mehos, “An Analysis of Concentrating Solar
Power with Thermal Energy Storage in a California 33% Renewable Scenario,” Contract,
no. March, p. 34, 2013.
[7] R. Sioshansi and P. Denholm, “The value of concentrating solar power and thermal energy
storage,” Nrel-Tp-6a2-45833, vol. 1, no. 3, pp. 173–183, 2010.
[8] J. Forrester, “The value of CSP with thermal energy storage in providing grid stability,”
Energy Procedia, vol. 49, pp. 1632–1641, 2013.
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Concentrating Solar Power | NREL,” 2016. [Online]. Available:
https://www.nrel.gov/csp/solarpaces/project_detail.cfm/projectID=60. [Accessed: 31-Aug-
2017].
The Smartphone Revolution and Its Unintended Consequences
Michael Sonnabend
Smartphone technology has had a profound effect on the way that information is
obtained. In the past, when a person had an interest in a particular subject, a concerted effort
needed to be made in order to learn about that subject. A trip to the library, and the subject
section of a card catalog, would be required. Once the desired subject section was found, a
collection of books and periodicals might be compiled. Perhaps a trip to the microfiche reader
would be required in order to browse through older periodicals. From there, these sources would
need to be read through to find the relevant information. Now, that same person can just type the
subject of interest into a smart phone and hundreds of potential sources are made available. The
results of this ease of access to information have been mixed. While it is true that easy access to
information can be beneficial when researching a subject, it can also be detrimental if the quality
of the source is poor. The current political climate is a prime example of where the blitz of
information at a person’s fingertips, both accurate and inaccurate, has had a negative effect.
Former President Barrack Obama summarized this by saying that we are currently living in a
time when “everything is true and nothing is true.” He then went on to add that this has led to a
situation where, “Democrats and Republicans cannot agree on an established set of facts to have
a policy debate and instead endlessly argue the facts on which to base a policy.” [1] This endless
argument is a direct result of the mistrust in others with different ideas and beliefs that has been a
side effect of the dominance of smartphones in society.
It is easy to forget how young the age of the smartphone is. In 2011, when the
Presidential election of 2012 was just beginning, only thirty-five percent of American adults
owned a smartphone. By the time the 2016 election process began, sixty-four percent of adults
owned a smartphone [2]. It is shocking how quickly the smartphone has gained a stranglehold
on our society. Studies are showing disturbing impacts that this stranglehold is having. For
instance, one study published in Plos One showed that “the more people relied on their mobile
phones for information, the less they trusted strangers, neighbors and people from other religions
and nationalities.” [3] The result of this study shows that the arguments and mistrust between
Democrats and Republicans described by President Obama are not limited to our political
leaders, but have infected society as a whole.
The mistrust that has infected society’s psyche is evident all around us. It is easy to see
how people’s dependence on their smartphones might be correlated to their distrustful nature of
others. Not too long ago, if a person were lost, they might have to stop and ask for help from a
stranger. Now, they just swipe their smartphone and ask for directions. If someone wanted to
meet another person, they might have to go out into a social setting and risk meeting someone
who doesn’t necessarily fit into their preconceived notion of who they are looking for. Now,
people will enter specific criteria into their smartphone app and never risk being exposed to
someone with an opposing viewpoint or lifestyle, and thus harboring a distrust for anything or
anyone unfamiliar. In the past, an airport bar would be a great setting to sit down and have an
interesting conversation with someone from another state, or maybe even another country. Now,
the airport bar is filled with people with their nose in their smartphones, who won’t make eye
contact with anyone let alone carry on a face to face conversation with another human being.
Multiple studies have shown that losing these social interactions threatens to destroy the fabric
that binds our society together. For instance, one such study shows the importance of these
interactions with strangers with regard to an individual’s overall feelings of trust and happiness
[4].
It is highly unlikely that as engineers were developing the smartphone they were
considering whether or not it would eat away at people’s trust for each other. It is more likely
that these engineers were focused on the many ways that they felt this new technology could
improve people’s lives. Without a doubt, engineers were aware of the massive amounts of
information that would now be at a person’s fingertips. They also must have known that much of
this information was exaggerated at best, and outright lies at worst. Whether or not they were
aware of the negative effects that easily accessible misinformation would have on society is not
as obvious. After all, these people were engineers, not psychologists and sociologists. Perhaps
they were naïve as to the effects that this powerful new technology would have. So, while the
negative effects of this engineering breakthrough have obviously not been as devastating as, say,
the development of the nuclear bomb, the same ethical dilemma played out in both of those
cases, as it has played out in many engineering projects. The dilemma is simple: in the mad rush
to see an engineering vision realized, no one ever stops to ask the question whether or not it
should be realized. And even though the technology was certainly going to come to fruition, if
more thought had been put into the potential negative consequences, perhaps there would be
more public awareness of these consequences and their impacts would be limited.
While the engineers who developed the technology may have had the best of intentions,
the societal effects of the advent of smartphones, and the corresponding ease of access to
information, have been a mix of good and bad. A world where every person with a smartphone
and internet access has a pulpit to voice an opinion has led to confusion and distrust of what to
believe. Furthermore, people with a predisposed opinion on a subject, can easily find sources
that back their beliefs. The difference between fact and opinion, and between a quality reference
and a poor reference, been lost in the murkiness of the information age. Finally, people’s
dependence on smartphone technology is threatening to tear apart the fabric of society.
(1049 words)
References
[1] Jacobs, Harrison. “Obama nails why the political climate is so polarized in just a few
sentences” Business Insider. Nov. 17, 2016. Web. Accessed 9/14/17.
http://www.businessinsider.com/barack-obama-explains-why-the-political-climate-is-so-
polarized-2016-11
[2] Byers, Dylan. “The Mobile Election: How smartphones will change the 2016 presidential
race” Politico. April 1, 2015. Web. Accessed 9/14/17.
http://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2015/04/the-mobile-election-how-smartphones-will-
change-the-2016-presidential-race-204855
[3] Kushlev, Kostadin. Proulx, Jason D. “The Social Costs of Ubiquitous Information:
Consuming Information on Mobile Phones Is Associated with Lower Trust.” Plos One.
September 8, 2016. Web. Accessed September 14, 2017.
http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0162130
[4] Sandstrom, Gillian M., Dunn, Elizabeth W. “Is Efficiency Overrated? Minimal Social
Interactions Lead to Belonging and Positive Affect” Sage Journals. September 12, 2013. Web.
Accessed September 14, 2017. http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1948550613502990
Prosthetic Misconceptions
Chris Olsen
As a lower extremity amputee, I can confidently say that the most common question I am
approached with by strangers in public is “Can you run?” or “Do you have a running blade?”.
Advancements in adaptive prosthetic devices have fostered public awareness and an appreciation
for amputee athletes, but while shining the spotlight on high end performance prosthetic feet,
everyday devices for amputees, such as appropriately fitted prosthetic sockets or accessibility to
basic equipment, has been overlooked or ignored. High end performance prosthetic devices have
given amputees the ability to achieve a level of athletic prowess that may soon exceed that of
able bodied individuals, but they have also painted a false pretense to the general public about
the state of affairs and quality of life an amputee.
The Amputee Coalition of America states that “the United States has an estimated
population of 2 million amputees” and that the population will likely “more than double by the
year 2050 to 3.6 million”[1]. Two million people is a huge number, but with respect to the
worldwide population of amputees, it's a pretty small slice. In 2005, the International Society for
Prosthetics and Orthotics alongside the World Health Organization declared that “80% of the
world's disabled people live in developing countries”[2]. With such a large percentage of the
amputee population existing in developing countries, it is hard to grasp just how few people have
access to prosthetic equipment. In a study released by the Humanitarian Engineering Program of
Pennsylvania State University, it was concluded that of the 80% of disabled persons living in
developing countries “only 5% of them have access to any form of prosthetic care”[3]. If we
were to make the sweeping assumption that all amputees in developing countries (20% of the
population) have access to prosthetic care, and sum them with the 5% that have the care they
need in developing countries, that leaves us with at least 75% of amputees in the world that do
not have access to the equipment and care that they need to perform basic life functions.
It is statistically harrowing to consider that only 1 in 4 amputees have access to the
devices they need to perform everyday living activities. Another interesting aspect to consider is
out of the small percentage of amputees that have what they need, how many of them are able to
use high performance prosthetic devices or return to their previous field of work(assuming the
amputation was the result of an injury or medical condition, and not congenital). To examine this
aspect we will refer to data collected by the Military Amputee Database, wherein it was
concluded that only 16.5% of military personal who have suffered an amputation have returned
to active duty[4]. If we were to correlate this information to the civilian population, chances
would be that only 1 in 7 of amputees that you might meet would be capable of performing at an
“active duty” level of physical activity after an amputation.
Olympic television coverage of Oscar Pistorious in 2008(double below the knee
congenital amputee runner) or more recently the participation of amputees in the American Ninja
Warrior obstacle courses, has presented the public with examples of some of the best case
scenarios of amputee athletic performance and capability. It would seem that people are inspired
by technology that parallels the capabilities of the human body part that a prosthesis replaces.
The public interpretation as to relevant amputee technological advances has trickled down to
academia as well. The Colorado School of Mines Human Centered Design Studio(HCDS)
program is primarily athletic and activity based in its approach towards prosthetic development.
Colorado boasts one of the most athletic and active populations in the US, and this is
accurately reflected in the areas of interest in the HCDS program. Although the program is
making a change and building awareness with respect to assistive technologies, it begs the
question of whether the focus is in the right place. Students may find themselves relating more
easily to members of the disabled community simply because they have overlapping recreational
sports interests. This commonality may inspire students to find better solutions for the small
amputee population that is able to use a high performance activity specific athletic prosthesis, but
where do such advancements fit into the big picture? Out of the 16.5% of amputees that are able
to return to active duty, what percentage of them will try skiing? What percentage of them will
need a climbing foot optimized for a specific type of climbing? What about the other 83.5% of
amputees? Is it possible that they are being held back from such activities due to archaic
prosthetic socket fitment techniques and methods?
So much attention is given to prosthetic feet, hands, and adaptive sports
attachments while the real issue that may need to be addressed lies further up the device at the
socket interface itself. The creation of a prosthetic socket is performed over a casting of a
patients residual limb. From this casting a positive plaster mold is formed, and then a
thermoplastic rendering is fabricated over the positive mold. This thermoplastic rendering, called
a check socket, it used to check the fit of a prothesis on a patient prior to forming a prosthetic
socket from carbon fiber materials. The check socket is made from thermoplastic so that it can be
altered as needed to ensure proper fit on the patient. Once the check socket fits the patient
properly, it is filled with plaster and a final positive mold is formed. This final positive mold is
then used to manufacture a carbon fiber socket which will be the definitive product delivered to
the patient for extended wear. This process has lacked optimization or advancement in a number
of years, and without insurance this process can leave the patient with a bill upwards of $7,000.
Tack on a running blade to the tune of $15,000 to $18,000, and you've reached a total bill
upwards of $23,000.
In conclusion, accessibility to adaptive technologies and the financial prowess make a
winning combination for full functionality. That is truly a sad state of affairs. Media coverage of
amputee athletes has painted a falsified picture to the public regarding amputee functionality and
access to devices. The next time you meet an amputee and ask them “Can you run?” or “Do you
own a running blade?” perhaps the questions could be rephrased to “Do you have $23,000 worth
of disposable income for a running blade and socket?”, or “Do you have incredible insurance
with a reasonable deductible”, or most importantly “Do you have a dependable means for
acquiring the devices you need for everyday functionality?”. It is my hope that some day the
focus of prosthetics and amputee performance will shift from peak athletic activities and instead
concentrate on affordability and accessibility.
References
[1] Advanced Amputee Solutions. http://www.advancedamputees.com/amputee-statistics-you-
ought-know
[2] Guidelines for training personnel in developing countries for prosthetics and orthotics
services. http://www.ispoint.org/sites/default/files/img/ispo-who_training_guidelines.pdf
[3] Access to Prosthetic Devices in Developing Countries: Pathways and Challenges.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/285591611_Access_to_prosthetic_devices_in_developi
ng_countries_Pathways_and_challenges
[4] Return to duty rate of amputee soldiers in the current conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20068483
(1134 words)