September 17, 2007
Bowling Green, Ky. - Western Kentucky University's Mechanical Engineering program will continue to develop a
prototype for a human-powered water purification device using an “Open Source” design technique thanks to a $30,000 grant from the American Society of Mechanical Engineering.“This is a tremendous opportunity for WKU engineering to be a leader in an emerging engineering design practice at a national and international level,” said Kevin Schmaltz, associate professor of mechanical engineering.
Schmaltz and associate professor Robert Choate teach the WKU Mechanical Engineering Junior Design class and received the ASME grant to extend the prototypes developed for the 2007 ASME-sponsored student design competition. The device uses a stationary bike powered by a human to purify water so that it is drinkable.
“The system purifies water by boiling and then cooling the water so that it can be collected into a clean water reservoir,” Schmaltz said. “The students use the bicycle gearing to turn an electrical generator, which is used to boil the contaminated water. The clean steam is then cooled and directed into another water storage system.”
The device designed by WKU students Zachary Pearl of Bowling Green, Ryan Simpson of Glasgow, Brent Stubblefield of Bowling Green and DJ Thompson of White House, Tenn., qualified for this fall’s final competition at the ASME International Mechanical Engineering Conference and Exposition in Seattle.
The WKU team and others that qualified for the competition finals will continue their work to design a prototype water-purification device.
As part of ASME’s first “Open Source” project, the WKU faculty will interact with students from other campuses and their ongoing work will be posted to the ASME website, providing mechanical engineers worldwide with an opportunity to critique or contribute to the design.
“We are looking forward to working with a group of very talented students from around the world on this project,” Schmaltz said.
If the final design proves technically feasible, he said, the Open Source team will request support from the ASME Center for Engineering Entrepreneurship and Innovation to commercialize the design. “This project will bring positive exposure to both ASME and WKU’s Department of Engineering,” Schmaltz said.
Two other WKU teams designed devices for last spring’s ASME District C Student Design Competition at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind. The district competition included teams from 25 other schools, including Purdue, Wisconsin, Iowa, Nebraska, Rose-Hulman, Southern Illinois and Kentucky.
“Our success in being selected to lead this effort is certainly a reflection of the WKU mechanical engineering students who have earned the right to compete in the international ASME competition for the past four years,” Schmaltz said.
Photo caption: Mechanical engineering students Brent Stubblefield, DJ Thompson and Zachary Pearl demonstrated their human-powered water purification device during WKU’s Engineering Expo in May. The WKU team, which includes Ryan Simpson, will compete this fall at the ASME International Mechanical Engineering Conference and Exposition in Seattle. (Photo by Sheryl Hagan-Booth, University photographer)
More WKU news is available at www.wku.edu. If you’d like to receive WKU news via e-mail, send a message to WKUNews@wku.edu.
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