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In collaboration with Quest Science Center, the engineering design and development class of the Green Engineering Academy (GEA) at Livermore High School participated in an air purifier design challenge.
The students were tasked with building, evaluating, testing, documenting and presenting results for a low-cost air purifier that addresses requirements for healthy indoor air filtration.
Nine teams of three students each were given a baseline design and building materials for a DIY air purifier known as the Corsi-Rosenthal Air Purifier.
The materials included a 20-inch box fan, furnace air filters and testing equipment. The resources were provided to students through donations made to the Quest Science Center by the Livermore Valley Education Foundation and Sandia National Laboratories.
Student teams were assigned to different areas of the campus and were challenged to find vulnerable spaces that could benefit from the addition of an air purifier. They were asked to create a box fan filter design that best fit the identified location and the population it serves.
"This project has been super eye-opening, since I never really knew that there was such an approachable way to create air filtration systems with such accessible materials. If done correctly, these devices could make a lot of public indoor spaces much safer, while being relatively inexpensive," said senior Avery Loll in a statement.
Retired scientists and Quest members Rick Stulen, Vaughn Draggoo and Joel Bowers served as advisors and mentors to students throughout the design process with oversight from Quest’s chief learning officer, Caleb Cheung.
"My hopes with this project are that some effective designs will become viable options in the community, especially with the winter months coming up," Loll said. "It has been great getting guidance from people that work or have worked in this field before. It's a great opportunity to do a project that has real-life positive impacts," he added.
Students assembled and tested the performance of their unique purifier design over a three-week period, and presented their results to a panel of engineers, scientists and other industry professionals for feedback on Nov. 19.
The panel included Walter Blevins, director of maintenance and operations for Las Positas College; Beth Dzenitis, a senior project engineer at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL); Buddhinie Jayathelake, electrochemist and postdoctoral researcher on energy and climate at LLNL; Jack Kotovsky, Micro and Nano Technology Section leader at LLNL and Phoebe Shamp, an environmental safety and health professional at Sandia National Laboratories.
Officials from Quest and Livermore Valley Joint Unified School District (LVJUSD) said in a statement that they plan to team up for future learning opportunities that bring the community and youth together.
"This was a wonderful opportunity to build our partnership with LVJUSD and consider exciting future collaborations as well. This is a great example of Quest's mission to provide experiences that nurture skills for our students to thrive in today’s technological world," said Quest CEO Monya Lane.
Superintendent Kelly Bowers shared similar sentiments.
"Collaborations like this remind us of how fortunate we are to educate students in a thriving scientific community. Our students will be able to apply these experiences to their post-secondary education and future careers," she said.
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