Senior Design Project 2018/2019; Seawork
1 in 9 people are undernourished in the world today, and this number is only expected to grow as the population nearly doubles over the next hundred years. With dwindling resources and rising demand in the field of agriculture, SeaWork looks to provide a solution for organizations and governments plagued by the world hunger crisis. The DORM (Deep Ocean Remotely Monitored) System is a technologically integrated ocean farming system, designed with sustainability in mind. While contemporary shore-based agriculture continues to damage our ecosystem and drain our planet’s resources, the DORM System will provide environmentally conscious seaweed farming in the deep ocean.
SeaWork aims to design and develop a sustainable, offshore farming system. Current farming practices are outdated and contribute to global warming and the climate crisis. There is a market need for a bigger and better ocean farming system to help mitigate the climate crisis as well as provide an alternative food source for humans. Currently, there is one small-scale offshore farming system on the market. SeaWork’s proposed system will improve on current techniques with the ability to apply to a larger scale. The product allows stakeholders to have the tools to cheaply produce large amounts of healthy seaweed, from which they have the opportunity to turn seaweed into a marketable product.
Project progress
Concept system drawing - oct
Initial autocad model
final autocad model
first prototype iteration
integrated prototype testing
The Team
Alexandra Austin - Naval Engineer
Alex is proudly graduating with a B.E. in Naval Engineering after 4 years in the rigorous naval program at Stevens. She has been inspired, since early high school, to find sustainable solutions to ever increasing population growth in the world and this project is the perfect opportunity to bring to fruition a long-time dream. Following graduation, Alex looks forward to immersing herself in any one of the many aspects of the maritime industry while simultaneously keeping an eye on sustainable solutions throughout her career.
Alessandra Chieff - Mechanical Engineer
Alessandra is looking forward to completing her Bachelor’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering and her Master’s Degree in Systems Engineering this May. She pursued a concentration in Sustainability with her undergraduate degree, which is what inspired her to join the SeaWork team. She’s enjoyed applying the skills of project management and business development towards this project, working on team logistics and communication as well as project scope documentation.
Julianne Depardieu - Mechanical Engineer
Julianne is graduating in May with an undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering focused on product development and a minor in Music and Technology. She has enjoyed working on an interdisciplinary team focused on developing a sustainable solution to the world hunger crisis. She looks forward to continuing to develop environmentally friendly and meaningful products that improve the lives of others.
Samuel Fuller - Electrical Engineer
Sam is an Electrical Engineering major, graduating in May. He has a concentration in embedded system, which originally drew him to this project. The chance to apply his skill set in meaningful ways, especially to combat the world hunger crisis, brought him to this project and helped inform many of the design choices throughout the year. Upon graduating, he will be working at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab in Maryland to further innovate and grow as an embedded engineer.
Mary Libera - Mechanical Engineer
Mary is a fifth year Mechanical Engineering student graduating with her Bachelors of Engineering in May. She has particularly enjoyed working on a project with four female team members, which is something of a rarity at Stevens. After graduation, Mary will be moving to Connecticut to work for Accenture in their Consultant Development Project.
BUSINESS Objectives
The SeaWork system, or DORM (Deep Ocean Remotely Monitored) System, is a data monitoring system that will measure temperature, pressure, and weight of seaweed to ensure ideal growing conditions for seaweed. The system will be powered sustainably with a wave energy generator. The DORM System is a cost effective option to produce healthier harvests of seaweed as a food source. Small countries and governments can then introduce seaweed into cultures that do not have it yet. All monitoring of this system improves usability by the industry.