Santa Clara University

IDEAS

Interdisciplinary Design Engineering And Service

Community-Based Projects are distinguished through an interaction, motivation, and/or impact that involve a community beyond the university.

We define a community-based project as a project with one or more of the following characteristics:

It is defined by the community.
It is constrained by the community.
It provides a clear social benefit.
It involves the community through feedback and prototype evaluation.
It creates a new community through the solution of a problem.

2009 Projects

Capstone Senior Design Projects

Sunflower: A Solar-Powered Water Pumping System

Maurvi Badshaw, Colleen Kilroy, Brahmani Nandamuri
Advisor: Shoba Krishnan

To meet the irrigation needs of local outdoor school and science camp Walden West, a solar-powered water pumping system was developed. This community-based project includes a hands-on educational model to demonstrate the importance of sustainability and engineering to fifth- and sixth-grade students.

This project team was awarded Best Presentation for a Community-Based Project, Senior Design 2009. Project funding was provided in part by a grant from the S.D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation. Click here to learn more about the Sunflower project.

Educational Tool for Finances

Marco Echandi, Jason Goetsch, James Lewis
Advisor: JoAnne Holliday

A Flash program was designed to familiarize mentally challenged adults with daily financial tasks. This project was done in coordination with Santa Clara Adult Education.

First Place for Learning

Jose Delgado, Debra Mortensen, Sean Schiff
Advisor: JoAnne Holliday

A web-based learning tool was designed to teach reading and vocabulary to mentally challenged adults. Most commercially available applications for reading and vocabulary development are child-centered; the engineering students designed an age-appropriate application for adult learners. This project was done in coordination with Santa Clara Adult Education.

EWB SolarThermal Water Purification

Davis Fogerty, Ross Ruecker, Robert Houseley
Advisor: Tim Hight

The students designed a solar thermal heated, vacuum-assisted distillation process capable of purifying brackish water at 30,000 ppm to potable water at 10 ppm for Karheda, India. The project was adopted from a 2007-08 senior design project (EWB, Sehgal Foundation) that created a functional proof-of-concept model.

Engineers Without Borders - 31 De Augusto Bridge

John Beadle
Advisor: Reynaud Serrette

The design and management of a 60-foot, two-lane bridge with the intention of simplifying construction and maintenance. This project is in contingency with the San Jose Engineers without Borders professional chapter’s Honduras bridge project.

Green Buildings in Ghana

Betsy Leaverton, Jessica Long, Julianne Padgett
Advisors: Mark Aschheim, Sukhmander Singh

This project aims to improve rural village housing in Northern Ghana with respect to financial feasibility, local resources, sustainability, and cultural acceptance. Innovative earth architecture was explored in a site visit to Ghana and alternatives were developed to standardize quality building practices in the region.

Non-Capstone Projects

California Rescue Dog Association (CARDA) Web-Based Database System

Cameron Boehmer, Guy Hotson, Francis Jang
Course: Engr110, Spring 2009
Instructor: Shoba Krishnan

Students created an online database application to collect and store data used by individuals involved with the California Rescue Dog Association (CARDA). CARDA is a group of volunteers with specially-trained and certified dogs dedicated to assisting in the search for missing persons. CARDA is a direct resource of the State of California Office of Emergency Services, and has become the largest and most geographically diverse search dog group in California. Using the online system, the CARDA representatives can now input and efficiently retrieve data on dog training sessions as well as other pertinent information.

IDEAS - IDEAS