Open Source Design Team Seeks Your Input

A recently formed virtual design team, which is building a human-powered device to provide potable water to the developing world and to disaster areas where power is not readily available, is now taking your suggestions on how to optimize the machine's design through a new Community of Practice (COP) on ASME.ORG.

As reported in the story "Open Source Design Team Named" in last month's ASME News, the five-person team will collaborate on a virtual design for several months and then build a prototype at Western Kentucky University, the host school, in late May.

The team includes Bill Hagen, University of Miami; José La Verde, Lunds University in Skane, Sweden; Javier Lopez, Simón Bolívar University in Caracas; Zach Pearl, Western Kentucky University; and Ken Ruble, New Mexico State University. Kevin Schmaltz and Robert Choate, both associate professors in the department of engineering at Western Kentucky, are the project managers.

The design team is developing specifications for the prototype through its ASME Community of Practice called "Water Purifier Design." If you are interested in providing your design input, visit www.asme.org/Communities/Open_ Source_
Design.cfm. You will need to register and choose a screen name before you will be given access to the "Water Purifier Design" community.

This water purifier design project is a followup to the 2007 ASME Student Design Competition. To find out more about the competition, visit www.asme.org/Events/Contests/DesignContest/
Student_Design_Competition.cfm. Major funding for the Student Design Competition is provided by Boeing.

 

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