Page 2 - The Malvernian - July 2022

THE MALVERNIAN
Qinetiq Young Engineers Project 2022
This year, three teams were set the challenge of developing a prototype pollution sensor to be deployed around the College to measure levels of pollution in the local area. The project began well, with the visiting mentors from QinetiQ joining the teams to support them develop the requirements and solutions. When Covid started to raise its head again, the weekly meetings went on-line, which certainly added an extra layer of complexity, particularly when examining and troubleshooting coding between the teams and their Mentors. This has been one of the most successful projects completed and our thanks go to the following Mentors from QinetiQ, whose enthusiasm, and commitment to working with our students, gives them a wonderful insight into the field of Engineering. Stephen Beer, Ben O’Neil, Diana Hawkins, Bethan Gibson and Abigail Morris.
Darren Stokes |
Director of Design, Technology and Visual Arts
❱ TEAM 1 Sam Shardlow, Millicent Dodson, Amy Grammaticas and Finlay Davidson
For the set task given to us by our customer, we started by working with our mentor who gave us various ideas on where to start on our pollution sensor. Our aim was to create a design that would measure the average number of particulates per area, allowing us to research the effects of particle pollution. Our initial design consisted of a 12VDC fan which would use suction to pull air over the particulate sensor with a casing made from a mixture of aluminum, acrylic, and silicon seals. The sensor was then able to give readings of the number of particles, from particles in sizes of 1 μm to 10 μm. We believe our project was a success as we tested it in different areas around the school campus and the sensor gave us accurate and reliable readings. As well as time management and teamwork, one of the biggest skills we took away from this project was learning how to code our sensor using a Raspberry Pi 4 and the coding software 'Thonny', with the help of our mentor.
Amy Grammaticas
❱ TEAM 2 Chloe MacKellar, Hector Mellor, Leo Westwood and Alice Schwarzenberg
Our QinetiQ project spanned over two and a half terms and we ended with a product that met the brief of our customer. We were tasked with making an air pollution detector, specifically to detect particulate matter. This can be found around campus as it is generated by many things near the college, such as construction sites or garden machinery. We made a product that met the brief and more; it could also detect humidity, temperature and pollutants other than particulate matter. The project was divided into three separate components; firstly, we had the ordering and construction of the product. After this we went through the painful process of coding the product, operated by a Raspberry Pi. As none of our team had any coding experience this proved a tricky one. Finally, to finish our product we had the construction of the box, 3D printed and designed by our lead engineer, Hector Mellor. After this we had to test our product and finally give a presentation to QinetiQ on our final result.
Leo Westwood
❱ TEAM 3 Shyam Sira, Thomas Isherwood and Vincent Schomaker
For our QinetiQ engineering project, we were tasked with creating a box that could measure the pollution around a site, in our case, the school. Using requirements from our ‘customer’, we created a 3D printed box that could withstand a multitude of weather conditions. We tested the box in different locations in order to prove our device’s effectiveness. Comparing data collected from near a road and in a garden, we clearly saw a correlation in the amount of particulate matter.
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THE MALVERNIAN