UMass Lowell SLICE • Examples of Service-Learning Projects

The students designed and built simple prototype of free current turbines for the Tsongas Industrial History Center (TIHC) teachers to used in demonstrations to middle school students.
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Animal Enrichment Project

Course: 25.107 - Introduction to Engineering I

Semester: Fall 2007

Instructor: David Kazmer

Partner: Zoo New England - Franklin Park Zoo

The Franklin Park Zoo requested assistance in the development of animal enrichment devices/activities that will improve the life of the lions and tigers that live there.
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Displays for Tsongas History Center

Course: 25.107 - Introduction to Engineering

Instructor: David Kazmer

Partner: Tsongas History Center

Working with the Tsongas History Center, part of the Lowell National Historical Park, the Intro. to Engineering students have created demonstrations of historical devices that illustrate principles of engineering mechanisms that have been employed historically in Lowell industries. These demonstrations have been made available to over 60,000 elementary students.
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Energy Around Us

Course: 25.107 - Introduction to Engineering I

Instructor: David Kazmer

Approximately 354 freshmen students created posters and demonstrative exhibits illustrating “energy around us” principles of engineering. The Tsongas Industrial History Center displayed the exhibits to educate K-12 students about energy.
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Bridge-Building Design Project

Course: 25.107 - Introduction to Engineering I

Instructor: David Kazmer

Partner: GEAR-UP

A case study was developed by the Engineering Ethics students in which they argued the physical, environmental, economic and ethical consequences of introducing nano-based products and technologies into developing countries.
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Solar Energy Experiments for Girls (project 1 of 2 for all students.)

Course: 25.107 Introduction to Engineering I

Semester: Spring 2009 – trailer section

Instructor: David Willis

Partner: Tsongas Industrial History Center (TIHC) and Girls Incorporated

The students developed solar energy laboratory experiments for Girls Inc. to be executed by the TIHC staff.
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Renewable Energy Teaching

Course: 25.108 - Introduction to Engineering II (Mechanical Engineering)

Instructor: Sammy Shina

Partner: Greater Lowell Technical High School (GLTHS)

UML graduate student Chris Lin developed teaching modules for secondary school children on principles of renewable energy – modules that were then taught by Introduction to Mechanical Engineering II students. The renewable energy project focused on designing and testing solar ovens. This program helped the students to function effectively in groups, present technical information to diverse groups and practice MatLab code input.
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Testing Nano-technology Modules

Course: 25.108 - Introduction to Engineering II (Plastics Engineering)

Instructor: Carol Barry

Partner: UML Center for High-rate Nanomanufacturing (CHN)

The Center for High-rate Nano-manufacturing (CHN) developed modules for demonstrating nano technology for middle school outreach programs. The students of the Introduction to Plastics Engineering II class then tested these modules, exposing the students to topics such as materials, processing, design, and societal impact issues associated with nanotechnology.
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Parking Lot Redesign

Course: 25.108 - Introduction to Engineering II (Civil Engineering)

Instructor: Jackie Zhang

Partner: Lowell Community Health Center (LCHC)

Students worked with the Lowell Division of Planning and Development to maximize the number of spaces in the Davidson Street municipal parking lot.
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Big Button Switch Construction

Course: 25.108 - Introduction to Engineering II (Electrical Engineering)

Instructor: Jay Weitzen, Alan Rux, and Senait Haileselassie

Partner: Various

Students from the Introduction to Electrical Engineering II class designed Big Button Switch devices that enabled clients to easily activate electronic devices with the touch of a hand or finger. These were also integrated into other student project designs.
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Campus Recycling Improvements

Course:

25.108 - Introduction to Engineering II (Chemical Engineering),

10.308 - Intro to Materials Science and Engineering

10.508 - Material Science and Engineering

Instructor: Krishna Vedula

Partner: UML's Office of Environmental Health & Safety (EHS)

After researching the chemical structure of materials and their relevance to recycling, the Introduction to Chemical Engineering II class made a minor contribution to raising awareness about improvements to the campus recycling programs.

Another project involved the Materials Engineering students that had to research the “life to death” cycle of an assigned material in order to design a recycling/disposal program for waste materials in the engineering department.
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Analysis and Testing of Solar Panels

Course: 25.108 - Introduction to Engineering II (Mechanical Engineering)

Instructor: Sammy Shina

Partner: Greater Lowell Technical High School (GLTHS)

First year engineering students developed presentations for GLTHS students to demonstrate benefits of solar energy, and to introduce the highs school students to the engineering discipline and use of engineering analysis and calculations to predict outcomes.
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UML Parking Lot Re-Design

Course: 25.108 - Introduction to Engineering II (Civil Engineering)

Instructor: Jackie Zhang

Partner: University of Massachusetts Lowell (UML) Facilities
The students applied the knowledge acquired in the class to propose different ideas for re-designing the parking lot behind the Lydon Library located on north campus of UML. The existing parking lacks pedestrian access, has no space for snow plowing, and there are many dead-ends.
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Explaining Nanotechnology

Course: 25.108 - Introduction to Engineering II (Plastics Engineering)

Instructor: Carol Barry

Partner: UML Center for High-Rate Nanomanufacturing (CHN)

The students (in teams) were asked to develop new hands-on activities for the Center for High-rate Nanomanufacturing (CHN)’s outreach program to extended day program at the Bartlett Middle School in Lowell, MA. The freshmen were first introduced to the nanoscale and the differences in properties at the nanoscale, selected nano products, and the societal impact issues associated with nanotechnology.
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Canal Trash Cleaning Devices

Course: 25.200 – Community-Based Engineering Design Project I

Semester: Spring 2006

Instructor: John Duffy

Partner: Lowell Historical National Park (LHNP)

One student worked with the Lowell Historical National Park (LHNP) to develop trash-cleaning devices for the canal system in Lowell. The model is still under development, however, reports on the design and model have been delivered to the LHNP Facilities Director, Ted Davis. The Lowell National Park asked the college’s help in designing a mechanism for cleaning the surface of the canals in Lowell from the trash that constantly blows in. The project was used to generate ideas and to develop initial predictions of the kinematics of such a device.
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Design Playground Rides for Children with Disabilities in Villages in Peru

Course: 25.200 – Community-Based Engineering Design Project I

Semester: Spring 2006

Instructor: John Duffy

Partner: Peru Playgrounds

Two students worked on assessing and re-designing playgrounds for villages in Peru as part of the Village Empowerment project (http://energy.caeds.eng.uml.edu/Peru/index.shtm), the college has been working with a volunteer clinic in the town of Huarmey, which provides therapy for folks with disabilities. The goal of this project was to analyze and design two rides to be built with local materials for children with disabilities. The group worked with the instructor to choose specific children from a client list and developed more specific objectives and an approach.
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Developing a Wheelchair Transfer Board

Course: 25.300 – Community-Based Engineering Design Project II

Semester: Spring 2007

Instructor: Bob Parkin

Partner: Private individuals

Private individuals who are wheelchair bound and would like to transfer to/from their wheelchairs independently. One student continued the work of developing a wheelchair transfer board. This was the second credit of a three 1-credit sequence of courses to constitute a technical elective.
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Lowell Canals Trash Remover

Course: 25.300 – Community-Based Engineering Design Project II and 25.400 Community-Based Engineering Design Project III

Semester: Fall 2006 and Fall 2007

Instructor: John Duffy

Partner: Lowell Historical National Park (LHNP)

Ongoing project developed by a student to meet the expressed needs of the LHNP. More complete analysis was undertaken.
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Independent Moving

Course: 25.300 – Community-Based Engineering Design Project II

Instructor: Bob Parkin

Partner: Private individuals who are wheelchair bound

Community-Based Engineering Design Project III

Course: 25.400 – Community-Based Engineering Design Project III

Instructor: John Duffy

Partner: Lowell Historical National Park (LHNP)

Ongoing project developed by a student to meet the expressed needs of the LHNP. The student created a scale model for the LHNP.
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WiFi Communication Link

Course: 25.401 – Interdisciplinary Engineering Capstone Design

Semester: Spring 2007

Instructor: John Duffy

Partner: : Village Empowerment Peru Project

The overall goal of this project was to establish the beginning of a low powered, high throughput data and voice network. The network will begin a link between Malvas and Huarmey and possibly extend to San Miguel through the Andes Mountains. The project objectives were threefold: First, was the establishment of a link to provide internet connectivity between the school in Malvas, Peru and the hospital in Huarmey, Peru.
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World’s Largest Book project

Course: 25.401 – Interdisciplinary Engineering Capstone Design

Semester: Spring 2007

Instructor: Jim Sherwood

Partner: Groton Dunstable Regional Middle School

The College of Engineering at the University of Massachusetts Lowell has come forth to help in the GDRMS dream to spread a positive message about peace to children around the world by creating a device that will turn the pages of the large book automatically in order for it to be displayed at the Boston Museum of Science.
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Troubleshooting Huayash Water Pumping and Filtration System Using a CR10X Data Logger

Course: 25.401 – Interdisciplinary Engineering Capstone Design

Instructor: John Duffy

Partner: Village Empowerment Project

The primary goal of the project was to use the collected data to detect the root cause of the pump failure in a purified water delivery system in Huayash, Peru. Once the root cause was found, the expectation was to eliminate the defect by repairing or replacing the faulty part and or to incorporate a control device in the system.
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Water Purification Design

Course: 25.401 - Interdisciplinary Engineering Capstone Design

Semester: Spring 2006

Instructor: John Duffy

A senior student in civil engineering worked on sand filtration water purification design, and she actually installed and tested it in a remote Peruvian village. The goal of this partnership project was to improve the water purity in remote villages in Peru.
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WiFi Communication System

Course: 16.499 - Interdisciplinary Engineering Capstone II

Instructor: John Duffy

Students from the Interdisciplinary Engineering Capstone II course developed designs for a WiFi prototype to be installed in Peruvian health clinics in order to enhance communication and electronic file transfers between remote clinics and the main Hospital in Huarmey.
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Heat Loss Analysis

Course: 10.305 - Heat Transfer

Instructor: Al Donatelli

Partner: Merrimack Valley Food Bank (MVFB)

Students performed a heat transfer analysis of the Merrimack Valley Food Bank to determine the cause of heat loss problems in the winter, and excessive heat in the summer. A cost analysis was also performed to determine the payback period of the alterations proposed that would reduce the energy consumption.
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Winter Heat Loss Analysis for the Historic section of UTEC

Course: 10.304 - Heat Transfer

Semester: Spring 2008

Instructor: Al Donatelli

Partner: United Teen Equality Center (UTEC)

UML students made a site visit to take measurement and hear about the mission and function of the organization and the current space. Aaron Chalek, Development Coordinator and Building Project Manager gave the students a tour and introduced them to some on the teens present. The students were later give data about the furnace and heating and lighting usage and cost data, broke into group each analyzing a different month.
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Heat Analysis for the Mental Health Association (MHA) of Greater Lowell

Course: 10.304 - Heat Transfer

Semester: Spring 2007

Instructor: Al Donatelli

Partner: Mental Health Association (MHA) of Greater Lowell

UML students in the Heat Transfer course performed a heat transfer analysis for the office areas on the first and second floors of the MHA. They determined heating requirements for a worst-case scenario in the winter as well as for a typical winter day. Students proposed alterations to improve the heating process in the office areas.
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Winter Heat Loss Analysis and Redesign for the MVFB

Course: 10.304 - Heat Transfer

Semester: Spring 2006

Instructor: Al Donatelli

Partner: Merrimack Valley Food Bank (MVFB))

Structural Evaluation of CMAA building

Course: 14.204 - Strength of Materials

Instructor: Don Leitch

Partner: Cambodian Mutual Assistance Association

Students performed a preliminary structural evaluation of the mill building housing the Cambodian Mutual Assistance Association.
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Statistical Crime Analysis for the City of Lowell

Course: 14.286 - Probability & Statistics for Engineers

Instructor: Oguz Gunes

Partner: City of Lowell, Lowell Police Department

The students were able to apply the concepts of statistics and probability by relating the historical data of crime trends in Lowell, MA with the rate of unemployment.
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Statistical Analysis of Chloride Levels in Wells in Dunstable

Course: 14.286- Probability & Statistics for Engineers

Semester: Fall 2006, Fall 2007

Instructor: Oguz Gunes

Partner: Town of Dunstable

Students in the Probability and Statistics course for Engineers collaborated with the City of Dunstable to investigate and analyze levels of chloride in local wells. The project involved a statistical analysis of chloride levels in wells in the Town of Dunstable, and provided a correlation between the well type and its proximity to highways.
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Geotextile Research

Course: 14.310- Engineering Materials

Semester: Fall 2008

Instructor: Sanjeev Manohar

Partner: American Textile History Museum (ATHM)

Civil Engineering students in 14.310 Engineering Materials course were asked to research and to produce an individual report on the History and Impact of Geotextiles. Since this course is aimed at the students majoring in Civil Engineering, this research was focused on the impact of Geotextiles in Civil Engineering applications, such as road pavement and construction.
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Nominal Problem – Alleyway Maintenance

Course: 14.310- Engineering Materials

Instructor: Krishna Vedula

Partner: Lawrence Community Works (LCW) and Groundwork Lawrence (GL)

The LCW and GL have worked with the neighborhood residents that live near some alleyways owned by an absentee landlord. The alleyways have been converted for other uses, but ongoing maintenance has been an issue, with rains sweeping mulch away and clogging sewer drains, etc. The students were asked to find materials that could be used in the alleyways in order to decrease the frequency of maintenance.
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Lowell Green Roof Project

Course: 14.330- Soil Mechanics

Instructor: Pradeep U. Kurup

Partner: Merrimack River Watershed Council

The Merrimack River Watershed Council, Inc. (MRWC) in cooperation with other organizations and institutions proposed a green roof project for the roof of the Lowell National Historic Park Maintenance Shop. The students reviewed literature on green roofs, researched different plants to choose one suitable for the climate and determined the nutrient and composition requirements of the soil medium, among other tasks.
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Measurement of Road Salts in Water

Course: 14.332 - Environmental Engineering Lab

Semester: Spring 2006, Spring 2007, Spring 2008

Instructor: Clifford Bruell

Partner: Town of Dunstable and Board of Health

The Town of Dunstable Board of Health partnered with the Environmental Engineering Lab course students through Dr. William Moeller’s long time participation on the town board and board of health. The Environmental Engineering Lab students conducted a Measurement of Road Salts in Water, Laboratory Exercise as a service-learning research and education activity.
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Intersection Analysis

Course: 14.341 - Transportation Engineering

Instructor: Nathan Gartner and Chronis Stamatiadis

Partner: City of Lowell, Division of Planning & Development

Students from the Transportation Engineering class focused on sections of Pawtucket Street and Stevens Street to study traffic volume, compute capacity, evaluate congestion, analyze accidents and determine turn prohibitions.
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Facilities/Terminal Building

Course: 14.352 Concrete Design, 14.555 Advanced Structural Design

Semester: Spring 2008

Instructor: Susan Faraji

Partner: University of Massachusetts Lowell – Civil Engineering Department

The Civil & Environmental Engineering Department is proposing a large-scale service-learning project that involves the development of a trolley service between the North, East, and South campuses by means of a trolley/pedestrian bridge crossing the Merrimack River. The proposal will also include for a facilities/terminal building to be located between the Costello Gym and the Pinanski Nuclear Reactor. In this class the project involved dealing with a small part of the design of the facilities/terminal building; the students were able to design one of the concrete support columns for the building: they determined the column’s size, the type, size and arrangement for reinforcement, and they also designed the footing.
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The Yanacaca Bridge, Peru Project

Course: 14.431 Foundation & Soil Engineering

Semester: Fall 2007

Instructor: Sam Paikowsky

Partner: Village Empowerment Peru Project - Village of Yanacaca, Peru

The project is to design a bridge so that trucks can pick up their crops on the other side of a river. The design project was aimed at obtaining this goal by designing and constructing a bridge that will be feasible under local conditions and that will be economically viable, promising the communities to always act after consultation, to act with a serious consideration of each step and in partnership with the people affected, to know whether or not the technology is suitable for the area. The students were divided into eight groups each assigned with one alternative.
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Using Hydrology to Gain Insight on Chloride Levels in Wells In Dunstable

Course: 14.460 - Water Resources Engineering

Instructor: Xiaoqi (Jackie) Zhang

Partner: Town of Dunstable, Massachusetts

UML students in the Water Resources Engineering course were asked to look at the hydrologic conditions at the sites of the various wells tested for chloride concentrations by the students in the Environmental Engineering Lab (Spring 2006) in order to try to explain to the Dunstable Board of Health (BOH) the hydrologic conditions that may contribute to the chloride values found at the various wells.
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Preliminary Design of a Light Rail/Pedestrian Bridge Connecting East and North Campuses of UML

Course: 14.485 Capstone Design

Semester: Spring 2008

Instructor: Oguz Gunes

As the title describes, the project investigated the feasibility of building a light rail/pedestrian bridge over the Merrimack River to connect East and North Campuses with a futuristic vision of connecting the light rail to the MBTA station in Lowell. In addition, the project also investigated building a Student Center building on North Campus to improve student life.
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Waste & Storm Water Technology

Course: 14.570 - Waste Water Treatment & Storm Water Management & 18.510 Water Resources System Assessment

Instructor: Bill Moeller

The Waste Water Treatment & Storm Water Management course partnered with the Mesoamerican Development Institute (MDI) to develop a list of questions that MDI could ask any village regarding: geography and hydrology, while designing coffee cooperatives for coffee drying small business. Students were also involved in making a report that addressed issues of certain regional locations regarding water resources.
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Water Resources Analysis for Honduras

Course: 14.570 - Waste Water Treatment & Storm Water Management

Instructor: Bill Moeller

Students were assigned the development and writing of a report for the National College of Forestry in Honduras that addressed issues in their regional location regarding water resources using concepts learned in class.
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Jackson Street Mill Bridge

Course: 14.350 Structural Analysis, 14.452 Steel Design, 14.733 Masters Project in Civil Eng Lab

Semester: Spring 2007

Instructor: Susan Faraji

Partner: The Architectural Heritage Foundation (AHF)

The Jackson Street Mill Bridge was a covered pedestrian timber bow truss bridge spanning the Hamilton Canal between the mill and storehouse buildings on each side of the canal in Lowell, MA. In bad shape structurally, the bridge has been removed and is currently lying on the ground. The plan is to replace the bridge while maintaining its historic external appearance.
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Water Resource Assessment for Hormiguero, Nicaragua

Course: 18.510 - Water Resources System Assessment

Instructor: Bill Moeller

Students of the Water Resources System Assessment class were assigned the development and writing of a report for the people of El Hormiguero that addressed issues in their regional location regarding water resources using concepts learned in the class.
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Water resource analysis for the National College of Forestry in Honduras

Course: 18.510 Water Resources System Assessment

Semester: Spring 2007

Instructor: Bill Moeller

Water Resource Assessment for Hormiguero, Nicaragua

Course: 18.510 Water Resources System Assessment

Semester: Spring 2006, Spring 2007

Instructor: Bill Moeller

Three MDI representatives presented information to this class about MDI in general, and specifically regarding their essential oils small business and farming diversification opportunities, including a cooperative located in El Hormiguero, Nicaragua. Students were assigned the development and writing of a report for the people of El Hormiguero that addressed issues in their regional location regarding water resources using concepts learned in the class.
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Capstone project for the Masters Certificate in Sustainable Infrastructure for Developing Nations

Course: 18.584 - Sustainable Infrastructure Practicum

Semester: Spring 07

Instructor: Bill Moeller

Partner: University of Massachusetts Lowell Facilities: Ball Hall Mechanical Room, Ball Hall Boiler Room, and UML Engineering Building Window System

The Mesoamerican Development Institute (MDI) hosted one graduate student in Honduras, with other financial support, to explore methods of composting coffee waste to make organic fertilizer. The goal was to create a way for coffee farmers to switch over to organically grown coffee thus earning more for their crop.
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Switch Tester

Course: 16.100 Introduction to ECE

Semester: Fall 2007

Instructor: Xingwei Wang

Partner: Kennedy Day School and Shore Educational Collaborative in Chelsea

In this project, students will build a switch tester, which is a device to test the functionality of big switches especially designed for disabled persons who have difficulty in handling standard size switches. Before the fabrication, a speaker from the hospital gave the students a talk about how the switch tester helps the disabled persons so that the students can understand that their study and work can contribute to society, can serve the community, and help people.
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LED Luminosity-Cost Optimization

Course: 16.208 - Basic EE Lab II

Semester: Spring 2007

Instructor: Alan Rux

Partner: Village Empowerment Peru Project (VE)

Off-grid remote villages in the Peruvian Andes rely on renewable energy to power light sources. Since power is limited, LED devices have been employed for various tasks as a way to save energy. Subsistence farmers can harvest more of a ready crop by harvesting into the night by use of headlamps. Headlamps using LEDs have been used for night farming and VE is working to help develop microenterprises for local manufacture and rentals. Representatives from VE presented the students with a slideshow and discussion about the conditions in the Peruvian villages and the need for their experimental results.
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Human Voice Volume Monitor

Course: 16.317 Microprocessor Systems Design I

Instructor: Yan Luo

Partner: Life Links, Inc.
LifeLinks, Inc. is an advocate and service & support provider for people with developmental disabilities and their families in Lowell, Massachusetts. The students from the Microprocessor System Design I designed a microcontroller-based device to measure the volume of a human voice. This device will assist the hearing impaired, which can speak and have normal vision, to get visual indication of their voice volume. The students applied the knowledge of PIC microprocessors and microcontroller system design and programming to create the product, which is expected to be delivered to clients after additional improvements on the design have been made.
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Embedded Control System for World Largest Book

Course: 16.317 - Microprocessor Systems Design I

Instructor: Yan Luo

Partner: North Chelmsford Life Links; Boston Museum of Science and Groton Dunstable Middle School
The aim of this S-L project was to design and implement an embedded control system for the World Largest Book project. The students learned about PIC microcontroller programming to control a bipolar stepper motor, which is an analogy to the page turner of the WLB. Through this S-L project, students were motivated to study the assembly language and the PIC microcontroller datasheet, and to apply their knowledge in the experiments.
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Assistive Technology Capstone Project Proposal

Course: 16.399 Capstone I

Semester: Fall 2004, Spring 2005, Fall 2005, Spring 2006, Fall 2006, Spring 2007, Fall 2007, Spring 2008, Fall 2008, Spring 2009

Instructor: Donn Clark, Alan Rux, Senait Haileselassie

Partners: Lowell High School, Daley Middle School, and others.

For the Electrical and Computer Engineering Capstone I course, teams of approximately five students developed a business plan to design and develop a product which would be useful to some segment of the disadvantaged community. In doing research for the product, students interacted with care providers, individuals who may be an end user of their developed products, and associated agencies that might make use of final products. The collective ideas were in many cases used to generate proposals for student Capstone II Projects.
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Remote control for opening of canal locks

Course: 16.365 - Electronics I

Semester: Fall 2007

Instructor: Joel Therrien

Partner: Lowell National Historical Park

Students in the Electronics I course designed a circuit to remotely control the canal lock located near the hydro station. This will remove the need for a person to be present to open the gates for the boats. This project was perceived by students as one where they had a ‘job to do’ and one where they could appreciate “the importance of the course material in that it could actually be used, not just studied”. One of the goals of this project is that the cost savings that this project brings might allow for more canal tours, or at least protection against budget cuts
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Design of remote control water lock opener

Course: 16.365 - Electronics I

Semester: Spring 2008

Instructor: Joel Therrien

Partner: Lowell National Historical Park

This project consisted on analyzing last semester’s design. The students critiqued the solutions and identified problems with them; improvements to the designs were then proposed. The students were able to apply transistors as switches during this project, which is one of the topics and objectives of the course. Implementation of the revised solutions are scheduled for next semester, and it is hoped that this will reduce the operating costs for the national park service and potentially allow canal tours to continue.
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Design of a Power Meter for the Tsongas Waterwheel Displays

Course: 16.365 - Electronics I

Instructor: Joel Therrien

Partner: Tsongas Industrial History Museum

For this project, students from the Electronics I class were instructed to come up with a circuit for measuring and displaying the power generated by the waterwheels on display at the Tsongas museum. Students used concepts of amplifiers and transistors (a central component of the engineering course) to design the circuits.
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Redesign of the Waterwheel Display at Tsongas Industrial History Museum

Course: 16.365 - Electronics I

Instructor: Joel Therrien

Partner: Tsongas Industrial History Museum

The goal of the project was to replace the display that had a hardwired output. Previously the waterwheel display at the museum was underused because it did not have an accurate display of the waterwheel power. The new student designs should address this issue.
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Design of a Control System for the World’s Largest Book project

Course: 16.409 Directed Studies

Semester: Fall 2007

Instructor: Yan Luo

Partner: Groton Dunstable Regional Middle School

This project was to design and implement a control system that would enable users to interact with the WLB through a computer. The student team implemented a preliminary design with a PIC microcontroller, a power supply, and an electromagnet, all of which would contribute to obtain the system’s status information and send control signals back to the WLB. The students designed the microcontroller to control the force of the electromagnet via a digital potentiometer. By the end of Spring 08, the students will have integrated the PIC microcontroller-based control circuitry and its associated software to a ¼ scale prototype of the WLB and will then deliver to the community partner.
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Transfer of emails and Files via Radio Modems and PCs in Peruvian Clinics and WiFi Prototype

Course: 16.499 Interdisciplinary Engineering Capstone II

Semester: Spring 2006

Instructor: John Duffy

Partners: Village Empowerment Peru Project

Three students worked on capstone designs that were implemented in Peru during June 2006. Students developed designs for a WiFi prototype to be installed in Peruvian health clinics in order to enhance communication and electronic file transfers between remote clinics and the main Hospital in Huarmey. Transfer of emails and files via transceiver radio modems and PC’s in the Peruvian clinics provided communication support that has served to save lives in these remote villages.
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Assistive Technology Project Implementation

Course: 16.499 Capstone II

Semester: Fall 2004, Spring 2005, Fall 2005, Spring 2006, Fall 2006, Spring 2007, Fall 2007, Spring 2008, Fall 2008, Spring 2009

Instructor: Donn Clark, Jay Fu, Alan Rux, and Senait Haileselassie, Chuck Maffeo

Partners: Lowell High School, Daley Middle School, and others.

For the Electrical and Computer Engineering Capstone II course, approximately 50 projects were delivered to care providers, individuals and care providing agencies, impacting approximately 130 individuals touched by our students and projects during the past academic year. All projects are classified as Assistive Technology, that is the application of technology to enhance the quality of life for disadvantaged persons.
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Mentoring Program with Lowell High School

Course: 16.541 - Introduction to Biosensors

Semester: Spring 2007

Instructor: Xingwei Wang

Partner: Lowell High School (LHS)

During the Spring of ’07 HS students were once again paired with UML grad students to work on specific projects in the biosensors lab; the grad students work with the high school students in 3 projects and help them gain knowledge and interest in biosensors. The interest of the HS students has been great and they have even continued the cooperation with their mentors during the summer.
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Deployment and Monitoring of Real-Time Sensors for UMass Lowell

Course: 16.671 - Advanced Computer Architecture

Instructor: Yan Luo

Partner: UMASS Lowell Campus Facility Management Team

The students of the Advanced Computer Architecture course installed a wireless sensor network and programmed the sensor nodes to monitor the hallway lighting—data that would later be analyzed statistically in an effort to propose a power saving program at UMASS Lowell Campus.
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Design and Manufacture Assistive Technology Devices

Course: 22.201 - Design Lab I, 22.202 Design Lab II

Semester: Fall 2005, Fall 2006, Spring 2006, Spring 2007, Spring 2008

Instructor: Robert Parkin and Byungki Kim

Partner: Individuals with Disabilities

Students each identified a relative, or a friend, or communicated with the Assistive Technology Program (ATP) to locate a client with a disability. Then each identified individual with a disability partnered with a student to specifically identify a challenge related to each individual’s respective everyday activities. Students then designed and tailored devices to assist each client or individual. Individuals and their families and or caretakers reviewed design solutions and provided feedback on student designs and solutions.
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Designs to Help Friends with Disabilities

Course: 22.201 - Design Lab I

Instructor: Robert Parking

Partner: Various

Students each identified a relative, or a friend, or communicated with the Assistive Technology Program (ATP) to locate a client with a disability. Examples of student projects included: developing specially designed bed rails for a mentally and physically challenged person, designing an artificial leg for a client, developing a special PC communication board for a friend, and specialized designs for a student’s grandmother.
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Bed Rail Design/Rolling Walker Design/Design for Disabled Persons

Course: 22.202 - Design Lab II

Instructor: Professor Robert Parkin and Assistant Professor Byungki Kim

Partner: Hogan Regional Hospital

The students in the Microprocessor I course were given design challenges to improve assistive equipment for disabled persons. The project provided the community and disabled persons with design reports for improvements of existing bed rails, rolling walker designs and assistive tools.
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Analyze Playgrounds for the City of Lawrence

Course: 22.213 - Dynamics

Semester: Spring 2007

Instructors: Faize Jamil and John Duffy

Partner: City of Lawrence - Department of Parks and Recreations, Additional Local Lowell playgrounds

The project was similar to that described for the Spring of 2006. Four teams composed of four students in each team assessed playground safety in the City of Lawrence. One team visited the Seargent Lucien Bourgoin Playground located in the City of Lawrence to assess the safety of the playground equipment, along with possible improvement options.
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Playground Ride Safety Analysis

Course: 22.213 - Kinematics

Semester: Spring 2006

Instructors: Faize Jamil and John Duffy

Partner: Local Playgrounds

Working groups of two to three students selected one of two sets of suggested miniproject playground sites; or proposed one of their own. Students surveyed, analyzed and evaluated inherent safety hazards of playground designs, spacing, surfacing materials and equipment, turned in a joint group report. Students finalized their playground assessment and suggested improvements in a report that was shared with community partners (listed above). By the end of the course and s-l project, students reported increased awareness of engineering roles that contribute to increased safety capacity as a part of engineering design and assessment
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Development of methods to test local playground surface hardness for safety and suggest optional improvements to enhance playground safety

Course: 22.403 - Mechanical Engineering Lab II

Semester: Fall 2005, Fall 2006

Instructor: Peter Avitabile (Fall 2005), Majid Charmchi (Fall 2006)

Partner: Local Playgrounds

Students in this course developed methods to test local playground surface hardness for safety and suggest optional improvements to enhance playground safety. This course was a continuation of Mechanical Engineering Lab I. Course content focused on digital data acquisition systems used on mechanical engineering equipment. Students designed measurement systems composed of various transducers, their associated signal conditioners and digital data acquisition and recording devices.
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Analyze Playgrounds for the City of Lawrence

Course: 22.213 - Kinematics, Miniproject for Dynamics

Instructor: Faize Jamil and John Duffy

Partner: City of Lawrence -Department of Parks and Recreations, along with additional Local Lowell playgrounds

The students assessed the safety of the playground equipment, the playground surface and also addressed possible improvement options to different playgrounds in the city of Lawrence. Equipment included for dynamics analyses consisted of a slide, a swing set, a merry go round, and a play fire pole.
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Researches in Electrospinning, Carbon Fibers, Biomedical Textiles, and Textiles in Fire Fighting for ATHM

Course: 22.296 - Mechanical Behavior of Materials

Semester: Spring 2007

Instructor: Emmanuelle Reynaud

Partner: American Textile History Museum (ATHM)

Four topics of the highest priority were selected by the ATHM, including electrospinning, carbon fibers, biomedical textiles, and textiles in fire fighting.
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Analysis and Design of Heating Systems for UML Buildings

Course: 22.341 - Conduction & Radiation Heat Transfer

Semester: Spring 2006

Instructor: Hongwei Sun

Students in this course partnered with Mark Lukitsch, UML Facilities Manager, to investigate real industrial problems such as analysis and design of heating systems for UML buildings. Within the context of this partnership, teams of students collaborated to evaluate heat transfer conditions in several UML building locations, and analyzed ways to optimize existing thermal systems.
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Energy Saving Analysis for Window System at JFK Civic Center

Course: 22.341 - Conduction & Radiation Heat Transfer

Semester: Spring 2007

Instructor: Hongwei Sun

Partner: City of Lowell, John F. Kennedy Civic Center, Division of Planning and Development

Students in the Conduction and Radiation course assessed and analyzed winter heat loss for the city of Lowell’s civic center building. The students provided a heat loss analysis of the current window system along with a payback analysis according to a suggested window replacement system. This project provided a helpful opportunity for students and faculty to gain an enhanced understanding of local community needs. In addition, the city was provided with useful information and an informed heat loss analysis of their current window system in the JFK Civic Center.
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Window Improvement Project

Course: 22.341 - Conduction & Radiation Heat Transfer

Semester: Spring 2008

Instructor: Hongwei Sun

Partner: UMASS Lowell Campus Facility Management Team

Students investigated energy saving strategies and practical application of heat transfer. However, in the window design project, students discovered that based on their analysis, a window replacement would not be cost effective. The objective of this project was to calculate the heat loss of the current window system of a building constructed during 1950, and to redesign the window system to minimize the annual heat loss in order to save money expended on heating over time.
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Air Conditioning System Analysis for the Engineering Building

Course: 22.341 - Conduction & Radiation Heat Transfer

Instructor: Hongwei Sun

Partner: UMASS Lowell Campus Facility Management Team

Within the context of this partnership, teams of students collaborated to evaluate heat transfer conditions in several UML building locations, and analyzed ways to optimize existing thermal systems. They were able to identify existing problems within the engineering system, analyze thermal performance and developed a potential solution.
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Design of a Water Irrigation System for a Farm in the Rural Community of Laguna, Huarmey, Peru

Course: 22.342 - Convective Processes

Semester: Fall 2008

Instructor: Eugene E. Niemi, Jr

Partner: VVillage Empowerment Peru Project

The students redesigned an earlier irrigation system, in which the size of the piping system in the design was found to be too large, and therefore too expensive. The new design specifications had restricted pipe sizes to fully suit the site requirement. The goal of the irrigation system was to increase the crop production and to bring convenience to the life of people in the rural community of Laguna, Huarmey, Peru.
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Design of Small Hydropower System for Village of Paty, Peru

Course: 22.342 - Convective Processes

Semester: Fall 2007

Instructor: Eugene E. Niemi, Jr

Partner: Village of Paty, Peru

The objective of this project is to produce approximately 500 W of electricity (preferably more) for a four-hour period during the early evening for the village of Paty in Peru, utilizing a small hydropower system. (This would amount to about one light bulb per home.) This course requires a piping system design project, therefore this project was a good fit, since the students of this course were able to: specify the piping system’s overall length, the pipe diameter and material, number of elbows, tees, valves, unions, etc., calculate the head loss in the system and total head delivered to the turbine, the turbine’s specifications and cost analysis.
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Water System Design for Muchipampa

Course: 22.342 - Convective Processes

Instructor: Eugene E. Niemi, Jr

Partner: Village of Muchipampa, Peru

A water system design project was focused upon the design of a water delivery system to provide 1 gallon per minute from a spring fed source to each of six homes spread over a distance of 500 meters in Muchipampa, Peru. The students of the Convective Processes course were to identify a pump, estimate pipe length, diameter, material and cost.
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Water System Design for Yanacaca

Course: 22.342 - Convective Processes

Instructor: Eugene E. Niemi, Jr

Partner: Village of Yanacaca, Peru

The students were given the challenge to design a water delivery system to carry water from a spring to 15 homes in a remote village in Peru. The design challenges included piping and pump selection, water routing plans, selection of valves and fittings, and calculation of flow rates for various valve open configurations.
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Survey Statistics

Course: 22.361 - Applied Analysis, Mathematical Methods

Instructor: John McKelliget

Partner: SLICE Project

Students in the Applied Analysis-Mathematical Methods class used the survey distributed to all students that are part of the SLICE program and applied statistics to the independent and dependent variables of the survey in order to provide analysis and evaluation of questionnaire results.
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Analysis and Evaluation of Questionnaire Results for SLICE Program

Course: 22.361 - Applied Analysis, Mathematical Methods

Semester: Fall 2005, Fall 2006

Instructor: John McKelliget

Partner: SLICE Project

Students in this course and S-L project applied statistics to the independent and dependent variables of the SLICE service-learning questionnaire for students to test relationships between variables and items on the survey. In this course and S-L project, students applied their knowledge of statistics to provide analysis and evaluation of questionnaire results. The first part of the survey inquired about general student demographics (independent variables). The second part of the survey inquired about student opinions relative to their S-L experience.
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Drip Irrigation System for a Farm in Laguna, Peru

Course: 22.381 - Fluid Mechanics

Semester: Fall 2007

Instructor: Dr. Majid Charmchi

Partner: Village Empowerment Peru - Project Village of Laguna

The students used concepts such as conservation of mass, the Bernoulli Equation and fluid principles (such as friction factors and head losses) to determine the flow of water required from the system and the necessary diameters of the drip holes to each tree. Twelve students participated in this project: some presented various design solutions, and some took the initiative to use Matlab to create a program where a user can change different parameters, making the program available to “aid in the development of irrigation systems for other plantations”.
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Canal Locks Mechanism Analysis

Course: 22.381 - Fluid Mechanics

Semester: Fall 2006

Instructor: Dr. Majid Charmchi

Partner: Lowell National Historical Park (LNHP)

The Lowell National Historical Park (LNHP) was interested in having UML engineering students analyze the canal locks system in order to develop a design for an automated spring.
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Windmill pump design for the Tohono O’odham Reservation

Course: 22.423 - Capstone

Semester: Spring 2009

Instructor: John Duffy

Partner: Tohono O’odham Reservation, AZ

The Tohono O’odham Reservation is located in southern Arizona, relatively close to Tucson and the Mexican border. The majority of the people living on the Tohono O’odham Reservation are very poor. Most people in this area still live without running water or electricity. The extremely dry climate in this area of the country brings on many problems and hardships. Therefore, the students wind powered water pump design will solve one of their problems of water. A small scale wind pump was designed and built to pump from a 15 ft well. The main goal is for the people of the Tohono O’odham Reservation to craft these machines themselves as a microenterprise.
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Design of a motoambulance for remote villages in Peru

Course: 22.423 - Capstone

Semester: Spring 2009

Instructor: John Duffy

Partner: Village Empowerment Inc, and health clinics in remote villages in Peru

The goal of this project was to design a motorcycle ambulance that can safely transport an injured person to the nearest hospital. This motorcycle ambulance should be able to transport through rough terrain and manage tight turns and be a relatively comfortable ride. A full scale prototype was designed and manufactured for a relatively low cost with materials available in rural Peru. The analyses performed indicated that the model have satisfactory performance as far as frame construction, engine power, brake and suspension systems, and safety.
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City of Lowell “Getting to Zero Energy” Contest – Findings of the Student Group’s Aid in the Application Process

Course: 22.423 - Capstone

Semester: Spring 2009

Instructor: John Duffy

Partner: City of Lowell

The city of Lowell, Massachusetts has collaborated with students from UMass Lowell, MassSAVE, and National Grid to complete its first ever “Getting to Zero Energy Challenge”. Designed for residents of Lowell Massachusetts, a contest that yields two $25,000 grants will be awarded by a panel of judges to two (2) homes which are determined to be the most energy efficient. To help the homes become more energy efficient, energy audits were conducted by the students at multifamily and single family residences of applicants to the contest, and analyses and simulations performed to provide ideas of improvements and estimates of energy (and cost) savings.
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Tohono O’odham Reservation: Energy Efficient House

Course: 22.423 - Capstone

Semester: Spring 2009

Instructor: John Duffy

Partner: Tohono O’odham Reservation, AZ

An affordable, energy efficient home was designed and analyzed by the students for the Tohono O’odham Nation, located in the southwest region of Arizona. The main purpose of this house was to improve the quality of life for the citizens of the reservation by incorporating modern engineering and energy efficient principles with their culture and traditions. The home was heated and cooled entirely from passive solar techniques, such as south-facing windows with overhangs, thermal mass, and insulation.
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Development of a wind driven/ human powered water pumping system for small farm irrigation in Peru

Course: 22.423 - Capstone

Semester: Spring 2009

Instructor: John Duffy

Partner: Village Empowerment INC.

Irrigation is one of the greatest challenges for small independent farmers to overcome. The use of renewable energy as a means of acquiring water can greatly improve the level of production for small farms. Previous pump systems, while performing well, have been expensive to install and difficult to maintain. The goal of this project was for students to design a wind driven pump system that it is simple to construct, easy to maintain, while still maintaining a desired level of performance.
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Solar bathroom module for the Tohono O’odham Reservation

Course: 22.423 - Capstone

Semester: Spring 2008

Instructor: John Duffy

Partner: Tohono O’odham Reservation, AZ

Students developed a study of the energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies that are suitable for implementation on the modular bathrooms and reservation houses in order to achieve sustainability and energy independence. These green building techniques include the optimization of passive solar measures, the design of an energy efficient evaporative cooler, the implementation of a solar hot water system and a photovoltaic electrical system. The systems are designed to be suitable for manufacture by a microenterprise at TOCC.
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NPS Hydro Lock Automation for Canal Gate

Course: 22.423 - Capstone

Semester: Spring 2007

Instructor: Sammy Shina

Partner: Lowell National Historical Park (LNHP)

UML students in the Mechanical Engineering Capstone course were given the challenge to automate a manual canal lock for the Lowell Historical national Park (LNHP). The Pawtucket canal lock gate system was previously operated manually for tour boats. UML Students were very enthused by the project, and took multiple trips to the Pawtucket Canal gate to make field measurement, as well as attend many meeting with Ted Davis, national park facilities director, and others from the national park service.
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Mechanical Engineering Capstone

Course: 22.423 - Capstone

Instructor: John Duffy

Partner: Village Empowerment Peru Project, Kenya Village, and Assistive Technology

Within this capstone course, four separate student projects emerged: a motorcycle ambulance design for Peruvian remote villages, the design of lanterns and headlamp devices for the Village Empowerment Peru project, a page-turner assistive technology design for a child with disabilities, and a solar design for a chicken farm in Kenya.
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SOLO Gear Case Load Cell for the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute

Course: 22.423 - Capstone

Semester: Spring 2006

Instructor: Sammy Shina

Partner: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute (WHOI)

Mechanical engineering capstone students were asked to design a tester mechanism for a high torque motor and gear case used in the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute (WHOI) Argo Program. The program consists of a global array of 3000 free-drifting profiling floats that measure the salinity of the upper 2000 meters of ocean, allowing for continuous monitoring of temperature salinity and velocity of the upper ocean.
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FIRST Robotic Competition

Course: 22.423 - Capstone

Semester: Spring 2006

Instructor: Sammy Shina

Partner: Lowell High School (LHS), and FIRST Competition at Whitinsville Christian High School

This S-L partnership represents a collaboration between UML, the FIRST Competition and Whitinsville Christian High School since 2001. The FIRST Robot program with high schoolers linked with UML S-L students in which students acted as ambassadors to the local high school to work with high schoolers around robotics designs. This program has been in been in place and under continued improvement over the last four years. Students performed independent design work and participated in team efforts to develop conceptual designs from functional requirements. Students performed design analysis and synthesis, modeling, fabrication, testing, cost estimating, and documented the essential elements of the system design.
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Hand Powered Swing for Children with Disabilities

Course: 22.423 - Capstone

Semester: Spring 2007

Instructor: John Duffy

Partner: Village Empowerment Peru Project, and Assistive Technology for one Individual with Disabilities

Three UML students aimed to generate a new rehabilitation method that was both inexpensive and entertaining, as well as to increase effectiveness of physical therapy for use by children in Peru. The team decided to create a playground element and began to develop plans for a rehabilitation swing that uses an input crank to move the legs from a bent position to an extended position. This type of swing can be used for paraplegics and undernourished children with extremely weak legs. By providing an input crank, most of the force required to lift the legs can be distributed to the arms; and through repeated use, the patient may develop hand and leg strength. The swing also provides a physical activity while maintaining an entertainment element.
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Composting Solar Toilet: Village Empowerment Peru Project

Course: 22.423 - Capstone

Semester: Spring 2007

Instructor: John Duffy

Partner: Village Empowerment Peru Projects

The primary goal of this capstone student project was to design a sanitary composting toilet for remote Andean Peru villages for considerably less cost than commercial models. The composting toilet provides a natural solution to sanitation challenges and provides villagers with a safe and free fertilizer. The final design consisted of an outhouse like structure and incorporated temperature controls and aeration to promote composting conditions.
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Motorcycle Ambulance Design for Remote Villages

Course: 22.423 - Capstone

Semester: Spring 2006

Instructor: John Duffy

Partner: Village Empowerment Peru Projects

The Motorcycle Ambulance Design for Peruvian remote villages was developed and the design idea discussed with remote health clinics in Peru during June 2006. However, the motoambulance design will need further development. Lanterns and headlamp devices for the Village Empowerment Peru project were developed and delivered during June 2006. The page-turner assistive technology design for a child with disabilities, also needs further development.
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Gym Running Mat Roller

Course: 22.425 - Design Machine Elements

Semester: Fall 2006

Instructor: Chris Niezrecki

Students analyzed the mechanical components for static and dynamic loading failure and fatigue failure. Each of the five Design of Machine Elements projects were different and conducted in collaboration with a partner organization listed above. The S-L projects were reported to have engaged students’ interests and enthusiasm. The S-L projects also provided student motivation for working on the assignments. The S-L projects also provided the professor with creative problems that needed solving, versus just a classroom exercise.
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Motorcycle Ambulance Trailer Analysis

Course: 22.425 - Design Machine Elements

Semester: Fall 2006

Instructor: Chris Niezrecki

Hydro-Lock Automation Stress Analysis Project

Course: 22.425 - Design Machine Elements

Semester: Fall 2006

Instructor: Chris Niezrecki

Partner: Lowell National Historical Park (LNHP)

Water Tank Design and Analysis for Yanacaca, Peru

Course: 22.425 - Design Machine Elements

Semester: Fall 2006

Instructor: Chris Niezrecki

Clean the Lowell Locks Project

Course: 22.425 - Design Machine Elements

Instructor: Chris Niezrecki

Partner: Lowell Historical National Park (LNHP)

The Lowell National Historical Park recently asked the students in the Design Machine Elements class to help in designing a mechanism for cleaning the surface of the canals in Lowell from the trash that constantly blows in. The design would take into account the analysis of yielding failure and fatigue failure.
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Canal Lock Automation Project

Course: 22.425 - Design Machine Elements

Instructor: Chris Niezrecki

Partner: Lowell Historical National Park (LNHP)

The purpose of this project was to design a mechanism to perform the task of opening and closing automatically an upstream water gate to allow boats to travel through at two different water levels. The students focused on an analysis of the forces acting upon the gate in addition to a stress and fatigue analysis.
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Failure Analysis of a Prosthetic Knee

Course: 22.425 - Design Machine Elements

Semester: Fall 2005

Instructor: Chris Niezrecki

In addition to mechanical designs for removing canal trash, three other students also worked on a Failure Analysis of a Prosthetic Knee. A single axle knee joint for an economical prosthetic leg was the subject for a static and dynamically loaded failure analysis. A prosthetic leg is a complicated mechanical machine of various components. From prior research performed by the capstone student group that originally designed the leg, the bracket for the knee joint was assessed as the component most susceptible to failure.
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Recommendations for using a Commercial Heat Recovery System to Save Money

Course: 22.441 - Thermo Applications

Semester: Spring 2008

Instructor: Hongwei Sun

Partner: Pollard Memorial Library

The students performed an analysis and made recommendations for using a commercial Heat Recovery System to save money; currently the Library wastes heat because of their existing Air handling unit. The professor reported that as evidence of positive results for the students was that they gained “good understanding of air-conditioning thermal processes and capability to improve in solving practical thermal-related problems.
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Estimating Dollar Savings of Utilizing Air-to-Air Heat Exchangers

Course: 22.441 - Thermo Applications

Semester: Spring 2006

Instructor: Majid Charmchi

Partner: Cambodian Mutual Assistance Association

Students focused on specific renovation objectives of the non-profit community building owned by the Cambodian Mutual Assistance Association (CMAA) by estimating dollar savings of utilizing air-to-air heat exchangers. The students measured the appropriate temperatures and air flow rates in a small HRV that was available in a UML lab, extrapolated the performance of this particular HRV to a larger set of these in the CMAA building and estimated heating and cooling energy that would be saved with this heat exchanger.
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Heat Recovery for Building HVAC System

Course: 22.441 - Thermo Application

Instructor: Majid Charmchi

Partner: City of Lowell, Division of Planning and Development

Students investigated and analyzed heat exchanger options for the John F. Kennedy Civic Center building for the City of Lowell.
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Analysis of Googoplex Blocks

Course: 22.425 - Design Machine Elements

Instructor: Chris Niezrecki

The Tsongas Industrial History Center approached some UML students with a recurring failure in certain parts of a googolplex construction toy. The students conducted an analysis of first cycle stress levels based on displacements and material properties determined to address the failure problem and provided suggestions to extend useful life of the toy parts.
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Failure Analysis of a Prosthetic Knee

Course: 22.425 - Design Machine Elements

Instructor: Chris Niezrecki

Partner: Assistive Technology

The students performed a statically- and dynamically-loaded failure analysis on the knee joint of an economic prosthetic leg that was previously designed in capstone course.
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Water Tower Analysis; Water Tank Design and Analysis for Yanacaca, Peru; Hydro-Lock Automation Stress Analysis Project; Motorcycle Ambulance Trailer Analysis; Gym Running Mat Roller

Course: 22.425 - Design Machine Elements

Instructor: Christopher Niezrecki

Partner: Village Empowerment Peru Project, National Park Service; UMass Lowell Athletics Dept.

For all of the S-L projects the students analyzed the mechanical components for static and dynamic loading failure and fatigue failure. Each of the five Design of Machine Elements projects were different and conducted in collaboration with a partner organization.
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Water Tank Support System for a School in Raypa, Peru

Course: 22.425 - Design Machine Elements

Semester: Fall 2005

Instructor: Chris Niezrecki

Three students of the Design of Machine Elements course tackled this project in order to design a safe structure to locate a water tank near the perimeter of the school in Raypa. Due to the lack of running water, a design for a water supply storage tank system was analyzed to allow running water to be accessible to a school located in Peru.
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Design of Experiments for Plastic Windshield Scraper Molding

Course: 22.473 - Design Theory and Constraints

Semester: Fall 2005

Instructor: Sammy Shina

Partner: Plastics Department Outreach Program

The Plastic Engineering Department was interested in the application of statistical methods for improving quality and reducing cost for plastic injection molded parts. Ice-scrapers are manufactured in the plastics engineering molding lab during demonstrations for visitors and distributed as giveaways to promote the application of STEM education. A collaborative effort was made between the mechanical and plastics faculty with the goal of manufacturing plastic parts of higher quality and lower cost using statistical techniques.
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Green Building analysis for Habitat for Humanity

Course: 22.504 - Energy Systems Design

Semester: Fall 2007

Instructor: John Duffy

Partner: Habitat for Humanity (HFH)

Habitat for Humanity (HFH) was beginning to design and build green homes that will lower the monthly energy expenses for the homeowner as well as make for a cleaner environment. Currently, the architectural consulting firm, Building Science, has helped HFH with the layout and plans for the houses (which are a total of eight built from the same model and which will be built in the span of 4 years). Nevertheless, the two students from the Workshop course contributed additional knowledge and recommendations to this effort through the design of passive solar, heat loss analysis, solar thermal, PV analysis and cost analyses.
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Feasibility Study for Photovoltaic Energy System for Greater Lowell Technical High School GLTHS

Course: 22.504 - Energy Systems Design

Instructor: John Duffy

Partner: Greater Lowell Technical High School (GLTHS)

The Energy Systems Design Course performed a feasibility study for the GLTHS to first prove that it would be a practical investment for the school both economically and educationally. The study included: a site analysis, an energy analysis, a hardware analysis, a cost analysis and some additional recommendations.
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Green Building Upgrades for North American Indian Coalition of Boston

Course: 22.504 - Energy Systems Design

Instructor: John Duffy

Partner: The North American Indian Coalition of Boston (NAICOB)

Students conducted an energy efficiency improvement analysis for the (NAICOB) to identify and suggest remedies for the least energy efficient components or areas of the NAICOB building. Students developed a thermal model, assessed energy reduction techniques such as passive solar and conducted simulations after data collection.
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Solar Water Pumping System Design and Installation for Laguna, Peru

Course: 22.504 – Energy Engineering Workshop

Instructor: John Duffy

Partner: Laguna, Peru

Two students chose to design, model and test a solar water pumping system for remote regions of Peru. Their work focused on designing a photovoltaic pumping system that would feasibly deliver water to ten households in the community of Laguna, Peru.
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Tohono O’odham Reservation: Solar Hot Water Collector Improvements

Course: 22.521 - Solar Fundamentals

Semester: Fall 2008

Instructor: John Duffy

Partner: Tohono O’odham reservation and the TOCC

The stagnation temperature of a solar hot water collector designed the previous fall and spring by students in 22.521 and 22.423 was estimated by the students for the Tohono O’odham Nation, located in the southwest region of Arizona. Cooling strategies were also developed. The course covers solar hot water collector and system design principles and techniques. The project was a direct application of the subject matter (as were all the other projects). The collector was built by the TO tribal college students in the spring 2009.
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Optimal window Orientation for Passive Solar Housing in Peru

Course: 22.521 - Solar Fundamentals

Semester: Fall 2008

Instructor: John Duffy

Partner: Village Empowerment Inc., Village of Malvas, Peru.

Every year inhabitants of the Andes Mountains suffer from pneumonia and even death from the cold temperatures. Because of the location and altitude of this region, seasons are less pronounced and heating is needed year-round. Solar housing could potentially save lives in regions like these, and yet this solution is somewhat underdeveloped. Students analyzed the optimal window locations for a solar passive house with local available materials in the village of Malvas, Peru. A skylight window in the horizontal orientation was found to transmit more space heating energy than other orientations.
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Solar hot water system for the village of Quian, Peru

Course: 22.521 - Solar Fundamentals

Semester: Fall 2008

Instructor: John Duffy

Partner: Village Empowerment Inc.

U Mass Lowell students have for the last eleven years been working with residents of small remote health centers in the villages in the Andes mountains of Peru. Students designed a solar hot water collector for the health center of the community of Quian in Peru.
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Optimal location of solar systems for new planned buildings on campus

Course: 22.521 - Solar Fundamentals

Semester: Fall 2008

Instructor: John Duffy

Partner: UMASS Lowell.

In keeping up with their “Green Initiatives”, U MASS LOWELL is planning on using solar energy to help power the new and existing facilities. Students designed the optimal position of solar systems for proposed sites where new buildings will be built.
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Solar hot water system design for modular bathrooms for Tohono O’odham

Course: 22.521 - Solar Fundamentals

Semester: Fall 2007

Instructor: John Duffy

Partner: Tohono O’odham reservation and the TOCC

Students from the Solar Fundamentals course were assigned to design a solar hot water heating system for modular bathrooms. They were able to determine the number of solar hot water collectors needed, the size of the storage tank, the tilt that the collectors should have for an optimal hot water delivery year-round and they also decided upon the best freeze protection system that could be implemented for the location in Arizona. The systems were sized based on the assumption of a 5-8 person family and had the goal to minimize the monthly utility payments of the family.
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Measurement of Irradiation Data Analysis from Peru

Course: 22.521 - Solar Fundamentals

Semester: Fall 2005

Instructor: John Duffy

Students were provided with some hourly data from a UML data logger in the clinic in the town of Malvas, 3100 m elevation, 9.9170° S, 77.6830° W (coordinates courtesy of http://www.heavens-above.com. Additional data from Raypa, 1400 m elev. 9.6500° S, 77.9170° W and some data from Cochapeti (9.9830° S, 77.6500° W, 3400 m) were also made available to students. The sites are in the same time zone as Lowell. It was suggested to utilize (and actually have used) irradiation data from three sites to help design new solar systems in these areas. Data on photovoltaic array output and vaccine refrigerator energy use measurements were also provided in order to examine the data more closely to make sure it is reasonable and useable for future work. Good field data is hard to come by.
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Optimal Spacing and Tilt (slope) and Azimuth Collectors for a Feasibility Study for Lowell Regional Technical High School

Course: 22.521 - Solar Fundamentals

Instructor: John Duffy

Partner: Greater Lowell Technical High School (GLTHS)

The goal of this project was to estimate the optimal slope and azimuth and spacing to fit as many collectors as possible in a given roof area in order to obtain maximum incident irradiation.
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Design of Water Pumping Systems without Batteries for Villages in the Peruvian Andes

Course: 22.521 - Solar Fundamentals

Instructor: John Duffy

Partner: Village Empowerment INC, Village of Malvas, Peru, Illinois Institute of Technology.

Students from the Solar Fundamentals course analyzed the current design of one pump system existing at the village and looked at possible changes, such as connecting the pump directly to the PV modules without the assistance of storage batteries.
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Solar Water System for Yanacaca, Peru

Course: 22.521 – Solar Fundamentals

Instructor: John Duffy

Partner: Village Empowerment Project – Yanacaca, Peru

Students estimated losses, optimal diameter of pipes, pump selection, water tank height, and loss in the different joints or connections such as elbows and valves. All of this for a solar water system installation in the town of Yanacaca, Peru.
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Solar Hot Water Batch Collector and Heater Design for a Village Biogas System

Course: 22.521 – Solar Fundamentals

Instructor: John Duffy

Partner: Village Empowerment Project – Yanacaca, Peru

The students focused on the design and evaluation of performance for a batch water heater suitable for delivering 200 liters of water per day at over 35 degrees centigrade on a typical day in Raypa, Peru. These types of solar water heating systems preheat water and do not require pumps or controls and hence are ideal for low-cost solar water heating systems.
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Peru Solar Dryer Miniproject

Course: 22.521 – Solar Fundamentals

Instructor: John Duffy

Partner: Village Empowerment Project – Yanacaca, Peru

The goals of this project included the development of a solar drier design that was built and tested as a solar herbs drier prototype for the village of Cochapeti, Peru. Furthermore, the design was to be developed with locally available materials, and to monitor data in order to analyze its performance.
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Design of a photovoltaic system for a rooftop on campus

Course: 22.527 - Solar System Engineering

Semester: Spring 2009

Instructor: John Duffy

Partner: UMass Lowell

In keeping up with their “Green Initiatives”, UMASS-LOWELL is planning on using solar energy to help power the new and excitant facilities. Students designed the optimal position of solar photovoltaic systems for the several flat rooftop buildings and for proposed sites were new buildings will be built.
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Design and building experiments for middle/high schools in remote Peruvian villages: “Discovering the Sun (A brief introduction to solar optimization)”

Course: 22.527 - Solar System Engineering

Semester: Spring 2009

Instructor: John Duffy

Partner: Village Empowerment INC.

This project was developed in order to help students in the villages understand how the PV systems that we have installed work by developing experiments that illustrate the principles behind PV and batteries.
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Passive Solar Housing in the Andes

Course: 22.527 - Solar System Engineering

Semester: Spring 2009

Instructor: John Duffy

Every year inhabitants of the Andes Mountains suffer from pneumonia and even death from the cold temperatures. Because of the location and altitude of this region, seasons are less pronounced and heating is needed year-round. Solar housing could potentially save lives in regions like these, and yet this solution is somewhat underdeveloped. Students designed and one student from IIT built a prototype of a solar passive house with local available materials in the village of Malvas, Peru.
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Photovoltaic battery charging system for use in Pilco, Peru

Course: 22.527 - Solar System Engineering

Semester: Spring 2009

Instructor: John Duffy

U Mass Lowell students have for the last eleven years been working with residents of small remote villages in the Andes mountains of Peru. Students designed and installed a solar photovoltaic charging station for the little village of Pilco, near the town of Malvas. The town of Pilco lacks from access to the grid and some of the villagers have automobile type batteries, lead acid batteries,that they can now charge with the charging station.
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PV display at the Russian Icon Museum, Clinton, MA

Course: 22.527 - Solar System Engineering

Semester: Spring 2009

Instructor: John Duffy

Partner: Museum of Rusian Icons. Clinton, MA

The Museum of Russian Icons in Clinton, MA, has a relatively large PV array of roughly 10 kW (http://www.museumofrussianicons.org/). It was installed by Solar Design Assoc. Students designed an educational display for the museum explaining how the PV works, how much energy it is producing over time, how much energy and pollution it is avoiding, etc.
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Design of PV battery charging station for villages in the Peruvian Andes

Course: 22.527 - Solar System Engineering

Semester: Spring 2008

Instructor: John Duffy

The students from the Solar Systems Engineering course used irradiation data obtained from data acquisition systems (that were already installed at various Andean locations by students from previous years) in order to calculate the energy that could be available for a PV system. This was then used to determine the number of panels necessary to charge automobile-type batteries (lead acid batteries with a capacity of about 60 Ah).
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”Zero Energy” House Complete PV Design

Course: 22.527 - Solar System Engineering

Semester: Spring 2009

Instructor: John Duffy

Partner: City of Lowell

The city of Lowell, Massachusetts has collaborated with students from UMass Lowell, MassSAVE, and National Grid to complete its first ever “Getting to Zero Energy Challenge”. Designed for residents of Lowell Massachusetts, a contest that yields two $25,000 grants will be awarded by a panel of judges to two (2) homes which are determined to be the most energy efficient. This miniproject had as its focus a complete photovoltaic system design for upgrades for houses entered into the contest. It is intended to complement the capstone design project which is meant to evaluate all the potential upgrades (22.423). Three of the four students in the capstone were in this course.
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PV System for a house on Tohono O’odham Reservation

Course: 22.527 - Solar System Engineering

Semester: Spring 2009

Instructor: John Duffy

Partner: Tohono O’odham reservation

A detailed photovoltaic system design is needed for construction by the Tohono O’odham tribal college for houses on the reservation in AZ that have no electricity available or cannot afford electricity.
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Solar power for a composting system on South Campus at UML

Course: 22.527 - Solar System Engineering

Semester: Spring 2008

Instructor: John Duffy

There is a composting area located on an isolated location near South Campus at UML. Waste from the cafeterias on campus is composted there: wastes such as coffee and tea are converted into organic manure or fertilizer using an aerobic process. This process requires the use of two air sparging pumps which are currently powered by gasoline because the location is too far from the grid to connect this load to it: it would be too expensive. Therefore, a two-student group designed a photovoltaic system that would supply enough power to this load: they visited the side and performed a thorough shading analysis, they determined the optimal tilt angle for the PV panels, determined the number and type of panels and batteries needed, determined the charge controller and inverter needed, and they tested solar panels that were made available to them at the Solar lab. In addition to their theoretical calculations, they used other computer software to confirm their results.
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Design and build 4 experiments for middle/high schools in remote Peruvian villages

Course: 22.527 - Solar System Engineering

Semester: Spring 2008

Instructor: John Duffy

A group of students in this course designed four laboratory experiments that would fit into a general science, physics, or chemistry course at the middle or high school level in Peruvian villages. These experiments help students learn the basic principles of the photovoltaic effect, how PV cells work, some basic electrical circuitry, and how batteries work. The students wrote the background of each experiment and also wrote the detailed steps for each procedure, providing instruction pamphlets for both the high school students and the teachers. The Solar Systems Design students also assembled the necessary hardware for some of the experiments to be performed in Peru in addition to carrying out the experiments themselves in order to assess their usefulness.
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PV system design for Lowell National Park

Course: 22.527 - Solar System Engineering

Semester: Spring 2008

Instructor: John Duffy

Partner: Lowell National Park

A two-student group from the Solar Systems Design course chose to design a stand-alone photovoltaic system to power two Victorian-style lights located in Lowell’s National Park. As many of the other teams in this course, these two students had to use the knowledge acquired during the semester to choose the type of panels and batteries needed, to calculate how many of these would be required, they also chose the type of light fixture to be used and the charge controller. In addition to this, they also performed tests on the existing PV panels from the Solar lab, they created a wiring diagram and finally, performed a cost analysis for the project
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Design of a photovoltaic system as an educational display on campus

Course: 22.527 - Solar System Engineering

Semester: Spring 2008

Instructor: John Duffy

A group of the students from the Solar Systems Engineering course decided on a project that will provide the University of Massachusetts Lowell with a small PV system that would serve as an energy source for lights, but mainly as an educational display of new and available technology. Their task was to site the system: decide which location was suited for the system (choosing a bus stop kiosk), taking as criteria if the system would have high visibility, if it would have any shading issues, and how much irradiation would be expected at the site. The students also put their knowledge to practice by testing different PV modules available from the Solar lab for their possible use at implementation; they also selected balance of system components like charge controllers, photoswitches and timers (which would turn the lights on during the night and turn them off at dawn), and they also determined an optimal tilt angle at which the panels would receive the most radiation
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Design of a PV water pumping system for the Tohono O’odham Indian Reservation in AZ

Course: 22.527 - Solar System Engineering

Semester: Spring 2008

Instructor: John Duffy

Partner: Tohono O’odham reservation

At the Tohono O’odham Indian reservation in Arizona there are many families that live in such remote regions that no running water is available for daily use by the people, and therefore only outhouses exist for bathroom needs. Currently, the students at the Community College (TOCC) are building bathroom modules that will be used by these families, but currently, no local source of water is available for these bathrooms. Therefore the students from the Solar Systems Engineering course started their project by determining a water pump that could pump water from 300ft below the surface of the earth up to water tanks located on top of a bathroom module. The students then, using the irradiation data from nearby towns, determined how many solar panels would be needed to power the pump. These students also tested the panels available at the Solar lab as a basis of their sizing analysis, giving them a practical exercise to their knowledge.
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Green building and solar designs for United Teen Equality Center (UTEC)

Course: 22.527 - Solar Systems

Instructor: John Duffy

Partner: United Teen Empowerment Center (UTEC)

Students analyzed existing structures and proposed structure’s compositions and assessed overall heat loss coefficients in order to investigate possibilities of alternative energy sources for UTEC’s recently purchased building and proposed additions.
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Troubleshooting Huayash Water Pumping and Filtration System Using a CR10X Data Logger

Course: 22.527 - Solar System Engineering

Semester: Spring 2007

Instructor: John Duffy

Partner: University of Massachusetts Lowell - Center for High-Rate Nanomanufacturing (CHN)

A purified water delivery system was designed and installed to transport the required amount of water from a spring 1 km away to a central location in the town of Hauyash, Peru. The system consists of four 50watt photovoltaic (PV) panels, two 140Ah batteries, a 10Amp Sunsaver charge controller, and a Shurflo 2088 pump. Unfortunately, the pump failed due to an unknown cause and the Village Empowerment group has had to replace the pump after working for only one month or so. The purpose of this mini-project was to integrate a CR10X data logger to collect voltage, current, temperature, irradiation, pressure and flow data from different components in the system to troubleshoot the premature pump failure.
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Yearly Power Output of Peruvian PV Systems for Carbon Offset Credits

Course: 22.527 – Solar Systems

Semester: Spring 2007

Instructor: John Duffy

Partner: Village Empowerment Project

The students estimated the electricity produced by the systems installed in Peru and then calculated the resulting carbon offset that could be purchased by Staples.
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Green Building SLICE Training Modules

Course: 24.532 - Selected Topics in Energy

Instructor: John Duffy

Partner: SLICE Project

SLICE training modules were developed with the intention of integrating their use within SLICE efforts in order to create a good simulation of the building energy usage in order to predict the energy and cost savings associated with every added energy efficient measure that could be proposed.
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Energy to Recycle

Course: 25.107 Introduction to Engineering I

Semester: Fall 2008

Instructor: Stephen Johnston

Partner: Tsongas Industrial

The students designed and built exhibits to illustrate Energy Transfers for middle school visitors at the Tsongas Industrial History Center.
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Solar Energy Experiments for Girls (project 1 of 2 for all students.)e

Course: 25.107 Introduction to Engineering I

Semester: Spring 2009 – trailer section

Instructor: David Willis

Partner: Tsongas Industrial History Center (TIHC) and Girls Incorporated

The students developed solar energy laboratory experiments for Girls Inc. to be executed by the TIHC staff.
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Presentations to Technical High School Students about Solar Energy Fundamentals

Course: 25.108 Introduction to Engineering II (Mechanical Engineering)

Semester: Spring 2009

Instructor: Sammy Shina

Partner: Greater Lowell Technical High School (GLTHS)

UMass Lowell freshman students teams delivered 45 minute presentations on fundamentals of solar energy to the Lowell HS students, followed by Q&A. The presentation included development, economics and future trends on green technologies.
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Explaining the Nanoscale

Course: 25.108 Introduction to Engineering II (Plastics Engineering)

Semester: Spring 2008

Instructor: Carol Barry

Partner: Museum of Science, Boston

The freshmen were first introduced to the nanoscale and the differences in properties at the nano scale, selected nano products, and the societal impact issues associated with nanotechnology. Then, the students (in teams) were asked to design a new give-away for the Museum of Science’s NanoDays events; these give-aways have the goal of explaining the nanoscale. .
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Explaining Nanotechnology

Course: 25.108 Introduction to Engineering II (Plastics Engineering)

Semester: Spring 2007

Instructor: Carol Barry

UML Smith & Eames Parking Lot Re-Design

Course: 25.108 Introduction to Engineering II (Civil Engineering)

Semester: Spring 2007

Instructor: Jackie Zhang

The students applied the knowledge acquired in the class to propose different ideas for re-designing the parking lot behind the Lydon Library located on north campus of UML. The existing parking lacks pedestrian access, has no space for snow plowing, and there are many dead-ends. .
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UML Pinanski Parking Lot Re-Design

Course: 25.108 Introduction to Engineering II (Civil Engineering)

Semester: Spring 2008

Instructor: Jackie Zhang

AutoCAD drawings, brief reports and presentations for a parking lot re-design to maximize spaces and snow removal for UML Pinanski parking lot. .
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UML Southwick Parking Lot Re-Design

Course: 25.108 Introduction to Engineering II (Civil Engineering)

Semester: Spring 2009

Instructor: Jackie Zhang

The students applied the knowledge acquired in the class to propose different ideas for re-designing the parking lot enclosed by four buildings and entered under the Southwick archway, located on north campus of UML. The existing parking is is highly congested, poor for pedestrians, and has no space for snow plowing. .
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Big Button Mouse

Course: 25.108 Introduction to Engineering II (Electrical Engineering)

Semester: Spring 2008

Instructors: Jay Weitzen, Alan Rux, and Senait Haileselassie

Partners: Lifelinks, Nashua Center, Kennedy Day School, and Shore Educational Collaborative

The 130 students in this course took a basic PS-2 mouse and modified it to be able to have large buttons (about 3 inches in diameter) to allow severely handicapped students to left and right mouse click. .
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Analysis and Testing of Solar Panels

Course: 25.108 Introduction to Engineering II (Mechanical Engineering)

Semester: Spring 2008

Instructor: John McKelliget

Partner: Greater Lowell Technical High School (GLTHS), Lowell High School

Analysis and Testing of Solar Panels

Course: 25.108 Introduction to Engineering II (Mechanical Engineering)

Semester: Spring 2007

Instructor: Sammy Shina

Partner: Greater Lowell Technical High School (GLTHS)

Water Tank Support System for the School in Raypa

Course: 26.211 – Mechanics (Statics)

Instructor: Amad Tayebi

Partner: Peruvian Village of Raypa, Ancash

For many years now a school in Raypa has water flowing to it only for a couple of hours early in the morning from the town at a higher elevation. The students of the Mechanics class were asked to design and evaluate a tower upon which to place a tank to store water so that the water would be available all the time.
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Research Chemical Structure, Morphology, History, Properties, and Applications of a Synthetic Polymer used for Fibers

Course: 26.215 – Plastics Process Lab I

Semester: Fall 2007

Instructor: Carol Barry

Partner: NAmerican Textile History Museum

The students teams were asked to 1) research the chemical structure, morphology, history, properties, and applications of a synthetic polymer used for fibers, 2) create a PowerPoint presentation covering the results of their research, and 3) develop concepts for hands-on activities using the synthetic fiber.
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National Plastics Center Activities

Course: 26.215 - Plastics Process Lab I

Instructor: Carol Barry

Partner: National Plastics Center

The National Plastics Center asked the sophomores in the Plastics Process Lab I to develop hands-on activities for explaining the concepts of petroleum-to-plastics pellets and also, alternate sources of plastics.
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Impact of Additives in Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) Products

Course: 26.215 – Plastics Process Lab I

Instructor: Carol Barry

Partner: National Plastics Center

Actual samples of PVC pipe from the Village Empowerment Peru Project were collected and brought to the U.S. for study and toxicity testing.
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Examine Test Methods for Plastics Materials and Evaluate the Test Results

Course: 26.215 – Plastics Process Lab I

Semester: Fall 2005

Instructor: Carol Barry

Partner: National Plastics Center

The Plastics Process Engineering Laboratories are designed to familiarize the students with the basic plastics manufacturing and testing techniques. In the first sophomore-level laboratory (26.215), the students examine test methods for plastics materials and evaluate the test results. The laboratories incorporate three elements: 1) group experiments, 2) analysis and reporting of experimental results, and 3) Plastics Safety Lecture. In a two-week-long service-learning component, the sophomores also apply their current knowledge of plastics materials to a practical problem. The “final exam” is a presentation of the service-learning projects.
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Design of a Synthetic Drain Layer for a Green Roof

Course: 25.216 - Plastics Process Lab II

Instructor: Carol Barry

Partner: Merrimack River Watershed Council (MRWC)

The Plastics Process Lab II was given the task of developing designs for the plastic layer of a green roof by the Merrimack Valley Watershed Association. The students used their knowledge of basic manufacturing processes (such as extrusion, injection molding, thermoforming, and blow molding) in order to complete this project.
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Design of a Sediment Filter System for Filling Water Bottles for Personal Consumption

Course: 26.218 - Introduction to Design

Semester: Spring 2008

Instructors: Steve Orroth and Nick Schott

This project was created as a complement to another service-learning project developed by various graduate students in which water bottles are being coated with TiO2 so that when the bottle is exposed to sunlight, it causes ultra violet rays to kill bacteria in the water. After this process, a filter is needed in order to filter out the sediment and coarse contaminants out of the water supply.
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Design and Manufacture of Rechargeable Headlamp Casings for Peru

Course: 26.218 - Introduction to Design

Instructor: Steve Orroth and Nick Schott

The 27 students of the Introduction to Design Plastics Engineering class worked in teams to come up with ideas for low-cost headlamp casings made out of commercially available parts.
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Animal Guard for High Voltage Transformers

Course: 26.218 – Introduction to Design

Semester: Spring 2007

Instructor: Steve Orroth and Nick Schott

Partner: National Grid

UML Students in the Plastics Engineering Introduction to Design course designed a plastic guard to prevent squirrels and wasps from shorting out electric energy transfer. It also prevents the squirrels from dying and prevents power failures to many of National Grid's customers.
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Continuation of Sophomore Plastics Engineering Course

Course: 26.418 – Plastics Product and Process Design

Instructor: Fang “Francis” Lai

Partner: Village Empowerment Peru Project, Tsongas Industrial History Center, Individual Clients with Special Needs

This course examined theoretical principles and sound engineering practice involved in the design of new end products made from polymers, applying the total systems approach to the balance between product design, choice of materials, tool design, and process techniques, as they affect competitive choices for commercial success.
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Fresh Water Condensation - Solar through Plastic

Course: 26.348 - Heat Transfer

Instructor: Jan “Jim” Huang

Partner: Developing Nations in Need of Fresh Water

Students from the Heat Transfer course devised water condensation systems that used solar devices; they analyzed if enough energy could be garnered to evaporate fresh water from the dirty water available.
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Estimation of Benefit of Insulation for Heating Pipes

Course: 26.348 – Heat Transfer

Semester: Spring 2007

Instructor: Jan “Jim” Huang

Partner: The Mental Health Association of Greater Lowell

Students in the Heat Transfer course were presented with the challenge of estimating the insulation layers needed to be put on heating pipes in order to reduce and to even the room temperature, and to reduce the cost of heating.
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Art-to-Part Project

Course: 26.373 Plastics Mold Engineering I

Semester: Spring 2007

Instructor: Stephen Johnston

For workshops with younger school aged children the Tsongas Industrial History Center uses Gogoplex building sets, in which the connecting blocks have steadily been breaking. Plastics engineering was asked to redesign a connecting block with greater strength and durability, create a mold, and produce a supply of new connecting blocks which would fit with the existing sets. The plastics mold engineering students developed unique plastic parts from initial conception through design, analysis, and manufacturing, resulting in working prototype, tooling and molded parts.
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Design of a Cooler Pack Bottle for Transport of Medical and Biological Products in a Cooler

Course: 26.416 – Capstone Design II

Semester: Spring 2008

Instructor: Nick R. Schott

Partner: Employ+Ability

The design of a blow mold for transport of medicines and bio-products using a blow molded bottle container was assigned to the two-member team. The mold was to be made with an insert so that two sizes of bottles could be molded. The plan would be that, once a mold has been built, it could be run on UML equipment.
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Redesign the Broken Plastic Waterwheel from an Exhibit at the Tsongas Industrial History Center

Course: 26.418 Plastics Product and Process Design

Semester: Spring 2006

Instructor: Fang “Francis” Lai

Partner: Village Empowerment Peru Project, Tsongas Industrial History Center, Individual Clients with Special Needs

Evaluated Polymeric Materials for use as the Housing of Solar Lanterns

Course: 26.418 Plastics Product and Process Design

Semester: Spring 2006

Instructor: Fang “Francis” Lai

Design of Shipping Bracket for Transport of Solar Modules

Course: 26.518 Plastics Product Design

Semester: Spring 2008

Instructor: Nick R. Schott

The objective was to design a disposable shipping bracket to protect stacked solar panels during their shipment to Peru. The Village Empowerment Project uses these solar panels in order to help villages in Peru to obtain electricity for basic needs such as hospital communications, water pumping, etc.; but if these panels get damaged during transportation in the plane, and later on the trucks, they can’t be used, and that is why shipping brackets are needed. Due to the low yearly volume and the limited funds at UMass Lowell a method of manufacturing low volume quantities of the bracket (<500 parts/year) with low cost tooling was required.
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8th Grade Science Teaching Module Development for Jackson Street Charter School

Course:

31.251 - Chemistry of Health & Environment I

31.252 - Chemistry of Health & Environment II

Semester: Fall 2005, Spring 2006

Instructor: John Warner

Partner: Jackson Street Charter School

During the Chemistry of Health and the Environmental five modules for 8th grade science curriculum. The class collaborated with an 8th grade science teacher at the Jackson Street Charter School in Lowell. The students were given the Massachusetts frameworks and told to develop a module that would help towards teaching a specific framework (and, in turn this would help the students for their MCAS exams). Five groups of students developed modules according to five different frameworks. These modules will soon be available on-line for any teacher to download for free. The goal in this service learning exercise was to develop modules for science teachers to use in their day-to-day teaching activities. Teachers generally stress the need for materials that are relevant to the standardized exams, therefore the modules specific target these needs.
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Earth Day 2006 – The Next Industrial Evolution – April 22, 2006

Course: 31.523 - Sustainable Materials Design

Instructor: Amy Cannon

Partner: Earth Day Exhibits at the Revolving Museum

Twelve graduate students in Adjunct Professor Amy Cannon’s course titled Sustainable Materials Design were given an assignment of constructing exhibits that could be used at the Earth Day event. Having made time for working on this assignment in the course allowed the graduate students to develop a number of exhibits ranging from one titled “The Clickable Principles” where students developed a way to explain the 12 Principles of Green Chemistry within the context of the home to another exhibit which explained the link between renewable energy and powdered donuts.
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Outreach Activities from the Center for Green Chemistry

Course: 31.572 - Green Chemistry Colloquium

Instructor: John Warner

Partner: Various

The Center for Green Chemistry students, faculty and staff from the Green Chemistry Colloquium regularly visited K-12 groups to teach them about green chemistry, perform experiments and just to talk to young students. These activities are part of John Warner’s vision to inspire kids to be interested in chemistry.
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The Application of Nanotechnology in Developing Countries: A Case Study II

Course: 45.334 - Engineering Ethics

Instructor: Eugene Mellican

Philosophical Analysis of the Diverse and Complex Ethical Issues confronting those Engaged in the Practice of Engineering

Course: 45.334 - Engineering Ethics

Semester: Fall 2005

Instructor: Eugene Mellican