Gaia Desert

My water quality students in ENVH 568 built these sand  filters for a class requirement. They are now up and running in the LLU Environmental Microbiology Research Laboratory. We will use them for some class activities in the ENVH 569 sampling class.  We started with a design and then a trip to the hardware store We dry-fit the pieces together in the hardware store. This is where the students realized that there are many possible combinations. Students discovered that there were a few possible combinations of diffuser pipes and spout exit styles. Our class built five filters with varying construction. All filters had about 2 inches of 3/4" gravel around the pipes with another 2 inches of pea gravel on top of that (1/4" gravel). Those were separated by a cloth to minimize sand going into the gravel and then the bottom diffuser pipe. Sand was added on top of that until it was about 2" below the spout. Our filters tested varying height

This group uses the same UAV airframe that I bought a year ago from Johnny at team legit . Its being used for a good use to bring aid into Syria. The BBC video is worth a watch. The group has a non profit called the Syria Airlift Project . My current project Talon fixed wing has a Pixhawk flight controller, a downward facing Canon sx260, and wing extensions.  I'm still deciding if I want to run a large 4s or 3s battery.

Dr. Steve Kurti's TTinvent allowed our lab to borrow his Afinia 3D printer for 2 months. In that time, we printed many useful things for the lab and the ideas keep coming! Here are a few of the successful prints we made: Links on Thingiverse: A clamp for the microscope A centrifuge tube holder Pipette rack Octopus A clamp to turn a 1967 microscope into a digital microscope! A centrifuge tube holder! Finally! A cuvette holder for that old HACH spectrophotometer. Many pipette holders. Octopus Surprise Attack!