SmartWells
|
Eric Adams - Civil & Environmental EngineeringThe SmartWells Project introduces the virtual laboratory concept (also known as iLabs ) to environmental engineering education at MIT. The objective of the project is to develop a network of permanently instrumented boreholes - the "smartwells" - which continuously monitor groundwater conditions over an area of hydrological interest. When coupled with sensors for monitoring external influences such as precipitation and contaminant sources, the SmartWells network provides a rich educational infrastructure. SmartWells combines the benefits of traditional indoor laboratories and field excursions: students have online access to data in a quasi-laboratory setting and at the same time they have the opportunity to study the complexities of a real-world hydrological system.
The SmartWells system is being developed in three stages. The first stage is an indoor prototype consisting of a pair of hydraulically connected Plexiglass cylinders. This serves as a testbed, which students use to experiment with different types of sensors, test and debug the field data acquisition system, and conduct simple laboratory demonstrations. The second stage is an outdoor system of wells and rain gages in the neighborhood of Building 48. Four wells have recently been drilled in the Building 48 parking lot. Data acquired from these wells will be transmitted indoors wirelessly and then published on the Internet. Students of hydrology will use this data in a variety of studies, for example, to estimate hydraulic conductivity. In addition, the problem of designing a suitable online data acquisition system brings significant educational value to those students who are interested in the information technology aspects of the project. The third and final stage of the project is to expand the SmartWells network to cover a larger geographic area, which will make the hydrological studies even more meaningful.
The SmartWells system is being developed in three stages. The first stage is an indoor prototype consisting of a pair of hydraulically connected Plexiglass cylinders. This serves as a testbed, which students use to experiment with different types of sensors, test and debug the field data acquisition system, and conduct simple laboratory demonstrations. The second stage is an outdoor system of wells and rain gages in the neighborhood of Building 48. Four wells have recently been drilled in the Building 48 parking lot. Data acquired from these wells will be transmitted indoors wirelessly and then published on the Internet. Students of hydrology will use this data in a variety of studies, for example, to estimate hydraulic conductivity. In addition, the problem of designing a suitable online data acquisition system brings significant educational value to those students who are interested in the information technology aspects of the project. The third and final stage of the project is to expand the SmartWells network to cover a larger geographic area, which will make the hydrological studies even more meaningful.
An undergraduate laboratory subject, 1.106 Environmental Fluid Transport Processes and Hydrology Laboratory, will be one of the first subjects to make use of SmartWells. Several instructors responsible for teaching undergraduate and graduate hydrology subjects also expect to make use of SmartWells.
The SmartWells project was proposed by a group of Master's students in Course 1. Much of the development work is taking place in the form of M.Eng. projects with focii on Environmental Engineering and Information Technology. Students in these two tracks of the M.Eng. program have historically had limited academic contact; hence the SmartWells effort is also an excercise in team collaboration. Faculty consultants to the project include those who are involved with M.Eng. project supervision and those who are involved in teaching the hydrology lab.
