Thomas Kaisen
During the 2013 Fall Semester, I took an elective class with five other students to better the water quality in Benin, Africa. At the time, there were ceramic water filters being made at the Songhai Center in Benin. Our goal was to better the quality of water from the filters. To accomplish this, we designed a point of use household chlorination system to use with the current water filters.
As part of the ciriculum in the Engineering Department at JMU, students entering their third year choose thier capstone project. This is a two-year long project including a student team and a faculty advisor. This project is at the hands of the students, giving them experience with a real engineering project. I am currently working with four other engineering students and an advisor to design a wastewater treatment facility for Northumberland County, Virginia.
I took the first engineering design sequence (Desing I & Design II) during the 2013-2014 school year. The end deliverable for this coursework was to have a working prototype of a human powered vehicle to be used by a young worman with cerebral palsy. Working with student groups of three and ten, we were able to successfully complete the entire design sequence (discover, ideate, prototype, implement).