Developing a Prototype to Collect Ocean Waste

Khuyen Vo, Verrazzano Class of  2022, completed major in Electrical Engineering and minor in Mathematics 

 

My capstone project developed a water-based robot prototype that would spot the waste and collect it on its own, aided by modern technologies of machine learning and computer vision.

In modern society, there is a lot of waste flowing within and beneath the water's surface. For many years, this waste has been damaging the marine life in these areas and has accelerated climate change. Because of the increasing amount of pollution in the water, the quality of the water has been deteriorating. The goal of this project is to help remove garbage contaminating the water surrounding numerous sites in the environment.

The boat structure water sweeper prototype was designed using software such as Canva and Solidworks. PVC pipes and connectors were used to make the base of the sweeper. The brushless thrusters connecting with Electric Speed Controls (ESCs) were used to move the boat properly. Lead acid batteries supplied power to the boat. The transmitter and receiver circuits of the controller were built in the lab by soldering the circuit components on the Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs). C++ and machine learning codes were developed and compiled onto the Arduino IDE to develop the two types of operations for the sweeper. A Husky Lens camera was installed on the boat and trained to spot trashes by inserting a waste data library. For the waterproof purpose, an acrylic box was developed to cover the micro-controller as well as the transmitter circuit. The boat could be operated by itself or remotely controlled by a user.

This project allowed me to pursue my interests, to learn something new, to hone my problem-solving skills and to challenge myself in new ways. Working on this project gave me the opportunity to work closely with a mentor, and learned a lot from her.

If I continued to develop this project further in the future, I would include more features that could help to perfect this sweeper. The first feature would develop sensors for water quality to let the operator know the quality of the water before and after they collect the trash. I also want to add an underwater camera and app for the robot, and use data analytics to understand the patterns within the trash collected. Currently the sweeper uses batteries to operate so in the future I would add solar panels to charge the sweeper and interconnecting drones for the sweeper, and develop a route planning to make the boat travel the least amount of distance to the trash.

Remote control for sweeper

Connection between motor thruster and receiver

 

Base of sweeper

Receiver of sweeper

                 

                                           

Patriarchal Society in 1900's China and It's Effects on Women

 Stephanie Lui, Verrazzano Class of 2022, completed major in SLS (1-6)

When I took a humanities course about modern culture in China it became clear to me what my capstone project would be about. What fascinated me and made me want to further my research was that I got to learn more about my culture.

The texts that we read and analyzed revolved around the major themes of gender and sexuality. Growing up in a female dominated household, my grandma told me stories about how women were supposed to dress and act a certain way because of their gender. One traditional custom that took place in China was feet binding for females. My grandma had friends whose feet were bound, and she saw how difficult it was for them to walk. It was shocking to see images of what foot binding looked like and how women would walk when their toes were broken. It made me wonder why women had to undergo painful changes while men did not have to endure the same thing. 

One of the many captivating texts I read was Regrets for the Past by Lu Xun. Tze-chun was an orphan who was disowned by her guardian because she decided to be in a cohabitation relationship, meaning she lived with her boyfriend without first getting married. It may be more common in this generation to live with someone without getting married, but back in the 1900s it was unconventional. It portrayed how society viewed Tze-chun because she went against society's cultural norms and through her action, she was disowned by her only family member. 

Lu Xun described how women were portrayed in society in different circumstances using two perspectives, one from a male and the other from a female. This showed how males and females were portrayed under a patriarchy system and the outcomes from it. Understanding the historical background of the text allowed me to grasp a full understanding of why the author wrote it in a certain way and how it led to other events. 

If I were to develop this research further, I would envision the project to go in more depth about how women's liberation in China could connect to America today. Since China went through the May Fourth Movement and the New Cultural Movement during the early 1900s, the westernized ideas gave women the push to fight for their rights.

It would also be interesting to look into other westernized ideas besides the “walk away” movement that was introduced by the play, A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen. The walking away movement gave Chinese contemporaries the courage to walk out of the house and out of the patriarchy system to gain personal freedom.

Comparing how these westernized ideas came to China and the influence it had can also be seen the other way around. The impact of China’s version of the women's liberation movement may have some influence on America today and it could explore progression between the two countries.

Learning About Gender Roles in 1800's Fairytales

 Mehnoor Khan, Verrazzano Class of 2022, completed major in English Literature 

When I first began my capstone project I was excited to see where it would lead me. I had taken so many Science and English classes, but I didn't learn much about historic Pre-1800 Literature. This capstone helped me learn about a new world of literature that encompasses fairytales. 

My journey began reading the textbook From Instruction to Delight: An Anthology of Children's Literature to 1850, by Patricia Demers. After reading several stories in the book, I wanted to learn more about Charles Perrault's fairytales. I started to research the various fairytales he had written and noticed a gender bias in many of them, leading to the overall topic I wanted to pursue. 

“Discovering a Woman's Role in Pre-1800 Children's Literature” was the topic I chose to learn more about. It was pretty overwhelming at first! I didn't know how I would manage to write a 14–20-page paper on this topic using fairytales. I started to create mini drafts, the first one being three pages, and would send them to my professor, who would guide me in our monthly meetings on what to improve.

In each draft, I saw my writing improving. It was fascinating to see how far I had come, and I finally got up to my benchmark of around 15-16 pages. I learned about culture through Charles Perrault's writing and the gender roles women had at that time. The stories he had written were timeless and simply engaging. 

I had many struggles along the way with the most prominent one being a struggle to find my voice in my writing. I followed all the “textbook rules” of annotating the various fairytales and summarized them in my writing, but my thoughts and voice were slowly disappearing from my writing. I overcame this obstacle by doing several rewrites, picking apart the paragraphs I had written and by the end even I was surprised by the analysis I had written. 

This capstone was a fantastic project where not only did I learn about myself and my writing style, but discovered what it takes to become a great writer. 

Charles Perrault

Little Red Riding Hood 

Researching the Effects of Working Full Time While in College

 Herman Low, Verrazzano Class of 2022, completed major in Psychology and minors in Biochemistry and French 

Three out of every four students work, and 20% of them at a full-time job. For my capstone project, I explored the negative effects of working while attending college. As a full-time student who also possesses a full-time job, I have felt overwhelmed and stressed from time to time. I have always accepted that I needed to work to pay my bills and also needed my degree. Before doing this project, the only reasonable thing for me to do was to suck it up and deal with it.

From my capstone project titled “The Efficiency of Financial Aid”, I learned that many other students share the same experience as me; some of them have it even worse. I learned that many of these stresses are caused by an inter-role conflict called work-school conflict (WSC). It is when an individual deems work as interfering with their education. If left unattended, WSC can cause detrimental effects on an individual's mental health.

As common as it is, the negative effects of work on college students are often overlooked, and there has been limited research done on this topic. I wish to learn more about WSC, its effect, and ways to tackle it. I also hope that my research can be used to bring importance to WSC so there will be more help available for students who experience WSC.

Last but not least, I envision that one day my research can be used to support campaigns that fight for affordable college tuition, higher education funding, or financial aid so that students will no longer have to worry about working full-time just to afford college.

Researching for Capstone and Becoming an Animal Rights Advocate

Heather Mancino, Verrazzano Class of 2022, completed major in English Literature (7-12) 

One of the biggest achievements during my college career was completing my capstone project. When I first heard about this project during my freshman year, I instantly became stressed. I thought to myself “what kind of project needs 4 years' notice?” But as Cheryl and Cynthia warned, time flew by and before I knew it, it was time to start preparing.

At first, I didn’t know which direction I wanted to go in with my project. I didn’t feel like I had any passions or interests that I could research further and write about in twelve pages. Then one day I came across a video on social media that scared me enough to start taking some action.

The stop motion video was titled “Save Ralph”, which featured a bunny detailing what happens during animal experiments and what it has done to his body. Although animated, the video was heart-rendering; it hit me where it hurt. To this day I cannot say that I ever finished watching it. However, the few seconds that I did see was enough for me to change my life and become an advocate for animal rights.

This was the push I needed to really begin my capstone. I decided to tie in my English major to pose the question of whether or not literature could be used to raise awareness towards animal cruelty, including fiction. After all, my awareness was raised through a video, not a book.

I wondered why I never read stories or articles about animal abuse but there was always a plethora of texts on other social justice topics. I did a little more research and found that there are tons of texts that can be used to raise awareness about all different types of animal abuse, ranging from what happens in the meat-packing industry, to animal testing, to animal captivity. These texts are out there, but we as a society need to shine the light on them that they deserve. These texts matter in our society even if they are fiction.

As I worked on finding research for my capstone, I became a long-term volunteer at AMA, Animal Rescue in Brooklyn. I have been surrounded by other animal lovers daily who remind me that I am not alone in my advocacy. From my freshman year to now, I believe that I have truly found myself and my passions, and the capstone has given me the perfect outlet to share what I know and what I’ve learned.