Engineering for Development

2015 – Present

Student Researchers: Gabriel Ramirez, Michelle Graham, Alviez Chagan, Kyla Semmendinger, and Esha Shah
Improving Household Environmental Practices in Central Georgia: Low-Cost Renewable Energy Systems

For the past 4 years, the E4D program has been researching low-cost renewable energy systems for Central Georgia in order to improve household environmental practices. This research focuses on low-cost solar PV (solar panels) and geothermal heat pumps. A low-cost starter kit for solar PV has been designed and tested by a senior design team with successful results. System design and work with local partners continues, including using social marketing (‘marketing behavior change’) to spread the idea and benefits of using household solar PV. Geothermal heat pumps are a way to ‘capture’ energy from Earth’s subsurface and use it to cool or heat a home/building. The current issue is that they have very expensive upfront costs and research is being conducted to determine how the use of low-cost drills for shallow geothermal heat pumps will reduce the cost to a reasonable level.

2014 – Present

Student Researchers: Mónica Resto-Fernandez, Charlotte Dungan, Caroline Bowers, and Sarah Binet
E.coli Contamination of Mountain Springs and Drilled Well Alternatives
Dominican Republic Research, Service, and Teaching: Drinking Water and Indoor Air
Lead Contamination of Self-Supply Systems in Coastal Madagascar

The E4D program has been researching innovative groundwater supplies since 2014. Currently, research is being conducted on improved mountain-spring protection in the Dominican Republic in order to improve access to clean water to the communities, and investigating the effectiveness of improvements to manual pumps in improving livelihoods and health in developing communities (e.g. in Madagascar). In the Dominican Republic, data from three previous Mercer on Mission trips indicates that, in most cases, the mountain springs/ spring boxes from which the communities receive their water supplies are contaminated. The next phase in this research is to use portable drills in order to bore diagonal wells in mountains to access uncontaminated water for the communities. This research is being conducted on numerous summer Mercer on Mission trips. In Macon, the team is researching adding a duckbill valve to a suction pump in order to improve the pumping efficiency of the pitcher pump. This research could not only increase the speed and quantity of water being pumped out, but also increase the depth from which the water can be pumped.

In past research projects a Mercer on Mission trip to Madagascar focused on rainwater harvesting and reducing lead (Pb) contamination in household groundwater supply systems. This trip focused on using social marketing techniques to better understand why pump manufacturers were using lead parts in their pumps they were selling and convincing them to use iron components instead. The groundwater being pumped through the lead parts was being contaminated with lead — resulting in negative health effects for families and particularly children. This program has also investigated the use of rainwater harvesting in the area.

2014 – Present

Student Researchers: McPherson Newell, Emilie Vanness, Annabeth Miller, and Rebecca Etter

Currently, multiple projects are involved in investigating the use of low-cost materials to construct items for use in developing countries as well as low-income areas. One project currently being worked on is the design and construction of a low-cost forearm walker, which would be an affordable way of providing assistance to those with mobility issues to walk while maintaining their center of balance and a comfortable posture.

A recent senior design group investigated the use of ferro-cement (a low-cost alternative to standard reinforced concrete) to build a break pressure tank/ spring box combination. This project resulted in the design of a tank to be used in the research regarding the Dominican Republic and a prototype of a tank built out of this low-cost material.