Project Summary

Floods had been devastating southern British Columbia in late 2021. They caused serious damage to public infrastructure and put the lives of the local communities at risk. The primary objective of this design challenge was to propose a solution that would improve emergency response capabilities during these devastating incidents. Using our combined engineering knowledge and teamwork skills, we had 8 hours to deliver a solution that would appease a panel of judges. Points were given based on the feasibility of the presentation, as well as the overall engineering concepts that went into the design.

It was up to our team to select which part of the disaster relief effort we wanted to focus on. We wanted to pitch a design that would aid first responders in locating communities that needed a faster response. Design criteria we set out for this pitch included providing feedback on regions that require a faster emergency response, as well as focusing on a design that was inexpensive, non-invasive and easy to install.

We proposed a smart outlet design that integrated moisture sensors as well as hardware capable of data transmission. They would be installed on multiple floors of a given building, creating a vertical network of sensors. A central communication hub would collect that sensor data and transmit it to first responders. Areas with greater water elevation would have a higher concentration of data being transmitted, thus creating a centralization of which regions potentially needed greater attention. This data would then be displayed on a heat map, offering a clear and immediate visual of the flood situation.

Exploded View

Link to Presentation

First Place Certificate