Hello dear readers, I am sad to say that this will be the last installment of EvapoGATOR’s weekly blog. However, I’m happy to say we achieved our goal of creating a brand-new, functional food vacuum evaporator for UF’s FSHN department! Also, we crushed it at FDR!
To begin, our team presented our final design at the FDR event on Tuesday, 4/25 in the Reitz Union. We first shared our project journey with a 15-minute presentation to two other teams, the coaches, and the liaisons; then, there was a poster session that the general public could attend, which was nice because all IPPD students’ friends and family could come and see everyone’s poster and prototype. EvapoGATOR feels very accomplished after the event because of our thorough presentation and impressive physical prototype.
Now, at the end of our project, let’s talk logistics. Our team wants to emphasize that our prototype met every specification in our scope of work and every metric our team set back in August. Something cool that sets our project apart from everyone else’s is that the apparatus we built was never meant to be just a prototype; it needed to be functional because it will be used in FSHN labs for many years to come. Another unique aspect of our project is that EvapoGATOR had a budget of $10,000 to construct a new vacuum evaporator; buying a similar system on the market would cost $80,000 or more. The system we produced cost about $8000 to construct and contained about 250 individual components. Not to brag, but it’s kind of a modern mechanical wonder of the world.
Though we did fulfill all of the customer’s needs, there were a few things we didn’t get to because of time constraints. Therefore, here are some next steps we recommend for the FSHN department:
- Weld tri-clover connections on evaporator HEX to lower risk of injury or accident with steam
- Integrate a 360॰ rotary spray ball cleaner and pressure transmitter
- Attach labels to the system
Aaaand some next steps for us!! EvapoGATOR actually submitted an abstract and draft of a research paper about our project to the American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE), and we will be presenting at the conference this summer in Baltimore!
As for the team, Ryan is graduating next weekend, while Emily and Alli are completing one last semester before graduating in the fall. It has been a great experience working together, and I think we’re all a bit surprised at how well this turned out but also very proud of ourselves and our hard work! Personally, I can’t wait to add this to my resume and talk about it in interviews.
Well, that’s a wrap on EvapoGATOR’s senior design project with IPPD. I hope you’ve enjoyed reading these weekly updates as much as I’ve enjoyed writing them. For the last time, steam off!
