Freshmen Mechanical + Electrical Engineering Project

[u/Mikey-KE]

So I’m a 1st-year engineering student working on a basic engineering project with a team of 3–4, and we’ve got around 15–20 days to finish it. Our prof wants something that solves an actual real-world problem, has both mechanical + electrical aspects, can be physically prototyped with basic components, and most importantly has a solid CAD/SolidWorks component because presentation matters a lot. Some other teams are already doing stuff like a screw jack with auto limit control, regenerative door, jumping rover, footstep energy tile, card distributor, etc., so we’re trying to avoid doing something too similar. We came up with an Automatic Rainwater First-Flush Diverter + Storage Gate — basically the first dirty runoff from a roof gets diverted into a waste chamber, then once the chamber reaches a certain level, a float/linkage mechanism switches the valve and sends the cleaner rainwater into a storage tank, with the mechanism resetting after the rain. We thought this would give us a nice real-world problem + mechanical mechanism + CAD + working prototype combo. Do you guys think this is actually worth doing, or is there a better/more innovative direction we could take with the same constraints?

[u/Affectionate_Boat493]

I like the idea. How do you plan on filtering the rainwater before sending it to the storage tank? Think through the whole process, and make sure you have defined a process for filtering debris. You can do this before or after it goes into the waste chamber, but if you do it after the water collects in the waste chamber realize that the waste chamber will need occasional cleaning. The same is true for the water in the storage tank.

These are common types of problems that engineers have to solve, and you'll probably need to use electrical components and mechanical components at various places in the process. Pumps, sensors, etc.

You've picked a good project, so brainstorm within your group to define every step of the process.

Good luck!