Coral Keepers
Case Study
Overview
My Role
The corals are dying!
Current coral restoration efforts rely heavily on specialized scientists, limited funding, and localized nurseries, restricting the scale and speed of recovery.
Where does our problem start?
Ten weeks of primary and secondary research pointed to three main areas of concern.
Introducing Coral Keepers
An LMS platform that gives educators the tools to teach coral restoration, and gives students the chance to actively participate in the process. Paired with a full scale classroom coral growing tank.
Physical Prototype
I led the physical product design phase of our solution, leading a team of 5 other students. Building a 3d model of the tank in Rhino and using those specs to laser cut the acrylic sheets and 3d print the parts.
Building the Tank
Now that all of the specs of the tank were finalized, I led the building phase of the project. Assembling the 3d printed parts and laser cut acrylic sheets into the final tank.
Final Product
The final product includes a 2x2x1 ft coral growing tank, with a real time AI health Score from the sensors in the filtration system.
Digital Rendering of the tank.
Physical prototype of the tank.
Demo Day
As a group, we were able to present our physical and digital prototypes for our university's students and faculty at a demo day.
The Impact
Turning classrooms into a network of small coral nurseries. Spread across enough schools, that adds up, potentially thousands of coral fragments donated to restoration partners every year. Educationally this isn't a just a one-day lesson on climate change. Students spend an entire school year keeping something alive, which changes the science from something they read about to something they're responsible for. For a lot of them, it could be the first real, hands-on brush with marine science, and maybe the thing that points them toward it as a career.
You can read the full case study here.
