Happy October, everyone!

Our team has had a productive week with many exciting things happening as we prepare for this next phase of our project!

1. EvapoGATOR members completed the Vacuum Evaporation lab on Friday 10/7 with our liaison, Dr. MacIntosh, a professor and researcher in the Food Science and Human Nutrition (FSHN) department.
2. The team also took a tour of the IPPD lab in the new Herbert Wertheim engineering building to see the modern and sleek workspaces, machine shops, and 3D printing labs.
3. We have been working on our concept generations, design matrices, and a preliminary design report (PDR) to break down our system for thorough understanding.

Each of these events held essential learning experiences for our team. Most importantly, the evaporation lab allowed for better comprehension of the current vacuum evaporation system and the process used in labs involving the apparatus. Dr. MacIntosh uses the system to teach his students about the dependency of pressure and boiling point, and while they focus on the measurements and basic concepts, EvapoGATOR honed in on the system inputs and outputs to find the total energy balances of the condenser and evaporator. By performing this lab, we expanded our knowledge of the components in the system, how they interact with each other, and the thermodynamics behind the whole process. This laboratory experience is helping our team finish the reverse engineering of the current system so we can design a better one.

Our week ahead is looking promising as we near our PDR presentations. These presentations will show our sponsor and any stakeholders our plans for the design along with our understanding of the problem. While bringing all the pieces together for this project has proven challenging, our team of three has excelled with the tasks laid before us, and we plan to continue our hard work.

This weekend and next week, we will be completing the first draft of our PDR presentation and report, and in the coming week, we will practice and perfect it. Below are some pictures from the evaporation lab.