Freshman team keeps green roof green

BY ROLANDO GARCIA
Special to Rice News

In just their first year of college, several Rice engineering students got the chance to make their mark on the university and use their problem-solving skills to improve water usage and sustainability on campus.

The project was part of a new course offered last spring, ENGI 120, that gives engineering freshmen hands-on experience tackling real-world problems.

	JEFF FITLOW
	Students designed an advanced irrigation system based on measurements of soil moisture. The system could be functioning on the roof of Rice’s Oshman Engineering Design Kitchen later this summer.

Freshman engineering students are typically busy with foundational classes in math and science but it is crucial they also get a taste of actual engineering early in their college careers, said Ann Saterbak, professor in the practice of bioengineering education and instructor of the course.

Four students designed an advanced irrigation system based on measurements of soil moisture. The system could be functioning on the roof of Rice’s Oshman Engineering Design Kitchen (OEDK) later this summer. The OEDK is a 12,000-square-foot facility on the north side of campus that provides engineering students with labs, machinery, instruments and workspaces for major projects.

The roof of the building is covered with hundreds of trays of Mexican feather grass. Such green roofs are designed to improve a building’s insulation and reduce energy consumption. However, the irrigation timer on the OEDK roof was not functioning properly, and Bart Sinclair, associate dean of engineering, had to climb atop the building to manually water the roof during dry spells.

Vivas Kumar, Shep Patterson, Sophie Chang and Chet Kupchella designed a system to automatically dispense just the right amount of water. Twelve strategically placed soil sensors collect and transmit moisture data to network nodes and then to a computer inside the building. When soil moisture levels fall below 5 percent, the computer triggers the irrigation system and it dispenses water for approximately two hours so soil moisture can reach 15 percent, the optimal level for healthy Mexican feather grass.

Getting all the system components to communicate wirelessly and then crafting the software to interpret the moisture data and control the irrigation were among the most challenging tasks, said Patterson, a mechanical engineering major.

The team often put in eight to 12 hours a week on the project, he added.

For Kumar, the course was well worth the effort. Initially a natural science major, he became interested in engineering and enrolled in the class to see if it was what he really wanted to pursue.

”This class definitely sealed it for me,” said Kumar, now an electrical engineering major. ”It feels really good to be able to leave a small mark on campus, to produce something that is actually helping Rice maintain its commitment to sustainability.”

The system still needs minor tweaking before it can be installed, but it will likely be completed this summer, Saterbak said. Student interns working for the Rice Center for Engineering Leadership (RCEL) will complete the project in the coming months.

ENGI 120, an RCEL initiative, will double in size to 40 students this fall. In the course, students form teams and choose design projects targeting real-world problems. Each team has an upperclassman engineering student who provides technical guidance and mentoring.

This arrangement gives not only freshmen a taste of real-world engineering and project management, Saterbak said, but also offers upperclassmen valuable experience in leadership.