alu017seniorproject-blog

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Week 14

This week I deployed the sensor in the Gowanus and also completed the Instructables guide for my project: https://www.instructables.com/id/Flooding-the-Urban-Microbiome/. I also finished setting up the showcase and was able to get documentation of that as well.

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Week 13

This week, I went to home depot and picked up PVC piping to build the final enclosure. I wasn’t able to go to Elizabeth’s studio because of a time conflict, but a very nice staff member at the store helped me cut and drill the PVC to size, and then I assembled everything in the Makerspace myself. The circuit I soldered last week works, so now it’s just a matter of putting everything together and doing final touch-ups to prepare for deployment and for the showcase.

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Week 12

For week 12, I worked on minimizing everything by using the pi 0 and soldering the circuit onto there. This will also require testing it to make sure it works and updating the code as well. There’s a few more things to do in terms of refining the code and touching up the twitter bot, but for the most part, the software side is complete.

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Project (for the most part) complete - the software side is mainly finished, just need to refine some things and make sure everything is working correctly. This week, I figured out how to implement live graphing with a python script that calls the urllib_request library, and linked it with Thingspeak, an IoT platform that can visualize data. I connected Thingspeak to Twitter, and basically set it up so that anytime there’s risk of a flood, the twitter bot will send a tweet saying “It’s flooding!” In the next week, I’m going to add more to this description, including the estimated flood depth and possibly other factors. I still need to figure some stuff out with the actual enclosure, which will be fully built after Thanksgiving break.

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Beta Prototype (Week 10)

This week, I did a lot of research and figured out data logging for the prototype. I got the eTape sensor logging values to a csv file, which was nicely formatted in a table format. I also soldered headers onto the RTC module and attached that to the circuit.

I also started to work on data transfer through email and the twitter bot. I created a new Gmail account called floodmonitordata@gmail.com and started setting up SMTP (simple mail transfer protocol) for my pi. Eventually, I want the pi to be able to email the data log csv file to this address every morning or so.

For the twitter bot, I found that Twitter has actually made their rules a lot more strict in terms of developing apps and using their API. I had to fill out a developer application, talk about what I wanted to use their API for, and answer questions about privacy and whether or not we would be collecting Twitter user’s data. Creating a twitter bot may not be possible anymore if Twitter doesn’t accept my developer application, so I may have to find another way of integrating the community aspect/feature into my project.

Next steps include doing testing and line plotting for the eTape sensor, refining the data logging, continuing the data transfer protocols, and figuring out the community aspect of it all.

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Week 9 Progress Update

This week was spent on basically transferring everything from Arduino to Raspberry Pi. I did a lot of testing, and eventually got the eTape hooked up to an MCP3008 to a Cobbler breakout board to the Rpi. I started getting readings and was working on data logging to a CSV file.

For the pi, I had to first format the sd card, install raspbian, and thought that using SSH from my laptop (as the client) was the best of way of accessing the pi. All the code I write and actions I perform are basically through my laptop through SSH, and I also set up Filezilla to download and upload files from my pi.

To do this, I had to run a few tests before hooking everything up immediately. After connecting the cobbler to the pi, I wrote and ran an led_blink python script just to make sure the cobbler was working correctly. Then, I hooked up the MCP3008 analog-to-digital converter since the eTape is an analog sensor. Instead of attaching the eTape first, I used a photocell to test the MCP. That didn’t work, and I thought the MCP was broken. Then I tested it with a potentiometer and some sample code, which worked. I finally attached the eTape and was eventually able to get the raw value and voltage output to the terminal. I had to use a voltage divider equation to calculate the resistance, which is still not completely accurate.

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Midterm Feedback Reflection

I think yesterday’s Midterm Presentation went pretty well - I got a lot of good feedback from faculty that I can use to iterate on my project. For my current alpha prototype, I had the base functionality of my device working, which is basically a demo of the water level sensor outputting voltage and resistance readings to the serial monitor in the Arduino IDE. I found the relationship between sensor depth and resistance, which is inverse. I spoke to Samantha first who suggested I look into SONYC and ask for Graham Dove, who’s doing a lot of great work surrounding citizen science and noise pollution. What I got from her is that I should also think a bit more about how to frame the project within IDM and towards empowering the community. I spoke to Luke as well, who gave me a lot of suggestions on how to make this project more IDM-y as well. He talked about doing something like displaying the water level to residents and gave examples of current projects like in shopping malls where they display time and temperature. We also talked about the Gowanus Almanac group, which is some kind of website where I might be able to publish this project on. Finally, I talked to Tega, who gave me a lot of insight on the project as well. I got a better idea of the differences between using a wifi board vs a raspberry pi and also got a sense of next steps. I found that it’d be a good idea to talk to some community members and ask them how they feel about the flood situations and what they’d like to see in terms of this project. I also got suggestions on how to make this more artistic, whether it is a public display like a sign that residents fill out or have something a bit more wacky like “40 days since last flood.” Overall, I got some really good feedback on this project and a lot of great suggestions on how to proceed within the next few weeks.

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This was the first test I did for the flood monitoring project actually last week. Since I didn’t have the eTape sensor yet, I substituted a photocell in place of it and served up a webpage showing a bit of data.

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For Demo Day tomorrow, I created a “testing grounds” enclosure for the water level sensor, which I hooked up to an arduino. I did some initial testing and found a correlation between the sensor depth and voltage/resistance. As the liquid level increases, the resistance decreases, and vice versa. I also drew up a set of info cards/mockups for what I’m planning on doing moving forward

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Project Update 10/15

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1SdEwmfSdmAZNid7YKaLDJ6dU-IYe2UW3ITkNLdSJSko/edit?usp=sharing

Started working on my project and compiled what I worked on in a short presentation. Mainly consists of design sketches, a circuit build, and arduino prototype.

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Class Catalogue/Zine Description

Name: Allen Lu

Title: Urban Flood Monitoring with Computational Technology

Project summary (200-300 words on the what, why, how of your project):

Urban Flood Monitoring with Computational Technology explores the ways in which we can utilize physical computing to better understand the impacts of flooding on urban environments. Specifically, we are investigating the microbiomes of these city surfaces. Microbiomes are essentially the genetic composition of a site (including bacteria, viruses, etc.) and are present everywhere - inside and on our bodies and on surfaces around the world. Likewise, they exist on urban surfaces like sidewalks, floor and walls of homes, and soil. This project is set in the low-lying neighborhood of the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn, where residents experience frequent flooding from a variety of sources like sewage overflows or stormwater surges. These flood waters also have a certain microbial community that may include harmful pathogens. Consequently, a pre-flood sidewalk with a specific microbiome may now contain the pathogens present in these waters after flooding occurs in the neighborhood. This is an issue of public health, as residents may be affected by the possibly dangerous microbes. To study these microbes, our research team will collect DNA samples of both the flood water and the surface that has been flooded. My role is to facilitate and optimize this process with computational technology. Since we don’t live in the Gowanus Canal, we have no way of knowing when the neighborhood actually floods. By building a sensing system and integrating it within the community, we can get this information. This system will detect when flood waters occur and send us a signal through Wi-Fi so we can be on location as soon as possible to collect samples. Additionally, this system will measure flood depth, time, and frequency, all of which provide useful information for research. We can also work with a community member to help with observing and collecting data.

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Project Proposal

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1DEwpTkHx9KhzkdxEyYO3HIUi7uzel31ZwVhMlO1r0K8/edit?usp=sharing

Last Monday, I created a Project Proposal presentation, which includes the general background, motivations, timeline, and more of my project.

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TCI article reflection

I decided to read an article by Jeffrey Silverstein called “How to balance full-time work with creative projects.” Jeffrey is an musician, writer, and teacher and throughout the piece he gives a lot of tips on how to balance all of your pursuits. Something I related to was being able to say no. I feel like a lot of times, I want to sit down and do some creative work, but something interesting or fun will come up and I can’t say no, so I go do that instead. It’s important to find that balance of saying yes and no and not overdoing either one too much. I also like how he talked about chipping away at work, rather than trying to do a bunch of it all at once, which is something that Willa talked about as well. I also relate to when he talks about going easy on yourself. I always feel like I need to do work for every second of the day, or else I’ll feel like I’ve wasted part of that day. When really, I should do as much work as possible, but try to set aside a small portion of that day to relax and unwind.

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This week, I decided to take a tour of the Makerspace vertical farm from Omar Gowayed and his team, who run and maintain the farm throughout the year. I wanted to learn more about urban environments and how the landscape is being affected by human-made efforts.

The overall setup of the farm can be seen in the pictures above, which contains a vertical row of plants on the far side, and two covered fish tanks on the left. On the right are chemicals for testing and other supplies. It turns out that this farm runs on principles of aquaponics and hydroponics.

One fish tank contains gourami fish, while the other is a shark tank. The fish waste generates ammonia in the water, which is converted into nitrate by the presence of nitrifying bacteria. Aquaponics is using this nitrate-rich water to water the plants. The plants are actually soil-less, and the water is circulated throughout, resulting in less waste. This is hydroponics.

The farm grows a variety of plants, like tomato, swiss chard, peppers, and more. While I was there, I also got the opportunity to do some water testing. I collected water from the shark tank in several test tubes, then added drops of pH, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, GH, and KH solution into each individual one to see the concentration of those chemicals in the water. Overall, we found that the shark tank had a higher level of nitrate (around double that of the gourami tank), which means it would work better for watering the plants.

This was an amazing experience and has inspired me to continue working with the vertical farming team throughout the semester.

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Are.na Inspirations Post

https://www.are.na/allen-lu/senior-project-kyei7bba4ri

I posted a total of seven sources to my arena channel - 3 projects and 4 research pieces. Some of these sources I looked into a bit more deeply than others, but I think all are related to my project in some way.

Mainly, all the projects I found relate to IoT or smart cities in some way. Tetrabin was created by Sencity, an NY startup that inspires good behavior through its products. It functions as an interactive waste receptacle that encourages people to throw away their trash. Other projects include a vertical farm and an IoT pet feeder, which are also in the realm of “smart” things. I think these projects are a pretty good representations of my interests and my senior project. Building a flood monitor that can send data is definitely also within the realm of smart cities, and has the potential to help a lot of people.

Research pieces include 2 articles on climate change and a TED talk by Kotchakorn Voraakhom on sinking cities. I also added in a book I had on the universal principles of design, which I think could be applied here as well. The articles on climate change had a lot of statistics, general facts, and ways to prevent flooding. It also talked about how climate change brings about flooding, but I felt that they lacked substance in terms of what I wanted to pursue. However, Voraakhom’s talk was incredibly inspiring. She is a landscape architect who essentially transformed Bangkok (known for its vulnerability to flooding) into a city properly equipped to handle floods. Her solution was to install a massive, sloped park, where the rainwater would run downwards and collect in a sort of pond. That water would be reused and could keep the park watered for a month. I think her work is ingenious and inspires me to think of creative urban solutions to flooding as well.

All in all, both the projects and research pieces explore issues of sustainability and public health in urban environments that make me want to learn more about the subject. This brings up questions of how we can improve these issues of urban environments through solutions like Voraakhom’s.