How to Make a Smart Buoy for Water Quality #CitizenScience #Arduino #DIY #science #water #STEM
High school students are stepping up the game nowadays doing tech projects that target real life problems. According to Hackaday, Bergen County Academies in Hackensack, New Jersey is doing some innovative work with its own Mechatronics Research Lab. Students there decided to explore the health of the Hackensack River by creating Intellibuoy, a system that uses PVC pipes, Arduinos and sensors to capture data above and underwater.
Specifically, two Arduino Unos power weather monitoring near the top of the unit, including wind direction, wind speed and rainfall. The Arduinos also power some sensors below, including temperature, oxygen saturation, turbidity and pH. Apparently the team has also created another version of this unit using an Arduino Mega, so it looks like they are already working on simplicity. You can check out the documentation of this project on Instructables, and hopefully there will be an update once a field test is performed in the river. What will boats think of this floating LED beacon, and what does the Hackensack River look like in numbers?
