ENGINEERING A LOW-COST DEVICE TO MONITOR IRRIGATION IN RURAL KENYA

Description

I think that a phenomenal description is actually given on our project website! Check it out! As it says, this project was originated from Dr. Wendy O'Meara's time in Kenya. She noticed that, even though the country is very dry, there was a high case of malaria in Turkana, Kenya. The vectors for this disease are mosquitos, which need standing water to breed. After further research, she realized that it was due to water canals in the region that were misused. Therefore, it was an intriguing problem, and Dr. O'Meara thought it would be great if a team of engineering students created a device that monitored these water canals and detected standing water.

When I saw this project opening available in the Bass Connections Program, I felt a very deep connection with it. I come from Brazil, which is a country that suffers a lot from mosquito-borne diseases. In fact, I have actually had Dengue, which is transmitted via mosquitos. It was a horrible experience, but I had a great infrastructure to help me through this very tough time. Now, I imagine how horrible it is for a country with even fewer resources to suffer from such a big problem. So with this in mind, I really wanted to be involved.

I was actually involved in all parts, from start to end. I was even 1 of the 4 students that were actually sent to Kenya to implement the device and analyze how the community feels about it. Since this was a brand new device, we went through all phases of product development. We did research, market analysis, design ethnography, interviewed locals, experts, to then start brainstorming. Then we divided the students into two groups and each group pursued the main idea. I had the opportunity to lead a lot of the projects in our group. We pursued the idea of using magnetism to measure the velocity of a turbine attached to the device. In doing so, I was mainly involved in electronics (circuitry design, coding, sensor) while doing side work in the mechanics part of it.

Then, we would pitch our ideas, and decide as a whole group which one we wanted to move on with. Unfortunately, we did not move on with the idea of my subgroup (and I am talking below about what I learned from it), but I still lead the electronics and general integration of our final idea. Then, in this last May (2022), I was chosen to go to Kenya to test it, and do field work.

Besides the connection with the problem, I decided to participate in this project because I have always wanted to be engaged in projects for developing countries. Since I was raised in one of these countries, I have seen and felt how technology needs to be more accessible and how much it can really help people. It was also a fantastic experience to practice social innovation and see an idea become reality. I learned how to research, implement, adjust to user needs and much more.

Reflection

One of the most complex issues in this project is simplifying a complex solution to this complex problem. There have not been other solutions to this problem in the market, and while we were able to put a very fancy solution on paper, we need to make it simple, cheap and replicable so locals there without many resources can replicate it. This was our biggest challenge. What I was able to discover is that by reverse-engineering sensors, we could simplify the control of our device. For instance, by breaking down a sensor and only using the most essential parts of it, we can simplify our scheme and make the solution more straightforward.

Besides this, I was also able to contribute giving many ideas, and working on them. For instance, our final solution was to use a hinge made out of acrylic with an accelerometer in order to measure the angle deflection caused by the water flowing through the canal. By using the angle measurements, we could run an algorithm that would tell us if we have water moving or not. However, there is much noise that is part of it. So another solution that I created was an algorithm that filtered the noise and allowed us to have better data. Then, to store the data, I was able to code our microcontroller so that it would store the data in a SD Card and allow further analysis.

This project was a fantastic experience, especially because of all of the learning from failures. There were two main episodes that stick with me very dearly. One of them was when my subgroup idea was rejected. A few days before our pitch, our idea that was going so smoothly had a major setback: when running simulations in a setup that we created, the turbine stopped working. It was working so perfectly with tap water and some low-fidelity simulators. We were so worried, but then I was able to reverse engineer the sensor, and we solved the problem. When we came for the pitch meeting, and presented our idea, we were told that we did not have enough data collected (due to our setback). Therefore, they decided to move to the other group, that did not have as much accuracy as we had, but had more data collected. it was very frustrating to hear that, but after some reflection, I remember my purposed, let me ego behind, and just proactively started leading the development of the other team's idea by working extra hours and doing all that I could to help it. We were able then to increase the accuracy and have a better prototype.

However, as time passed by and our trip to Kenya approached, we started getting concerned if we had a prototype good enough to travel to Kenya with. It was then that everything stopped working, and we had basically nothing working. I felt that in my life I had given up too early, or laid back sometimes instead of taking the lead, so I decided to go, and stay long hours in the lab trying to solve our issue. I rewrote many lines of code, redid our circuirty, run multiple testing and then, as a team, we were able to put together a great device. When we got to Kenya, we started facing other issues, but we pushed through it. I decided to keep the same attitude of not giving up, and we got great results!! The project is moving on, and we are excited to expand our team and goals.

After all, I learned so much from this project. It feels like I am a video game character that had points added to all attributes, because every part of this experience was instructive. I learned to be a better team member, leader, engineer, friend, student and collaborator. I learned to really not give up, be confident in calling decisions, be patient and kind with failures, and be a motivator for my colleagues. I learned to lead, hear, help and serve. I learned how to market products, how to pivot, how to recognize a failure, and how to come back from it. I also learned that there is so much more that needs to be done to help the world, and if a group of students can do so, everyone can.