team photo

Figure 1
project photo

Management and Engineering for Manufacturing
Team 7

Team Members

Faculty Advisor

Ryan Agro
Mitchell Aureli
Thomas Smith
Zhiqiang Xie

Craig Calvert, Frank J. Cunha

Sponsor

Keney Park Sustainability Project

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The Internet of Things (IoT) is a collection of interconnected devices capable of transferring data throughout a network. These devices are linked together to create technological synergies throughout the system. As with any rising technology, commercial adoption is a key factor in its worldwide use. This project integrates IoT at UConn’s Spring Valley Student Farm for use as a prototype to guide the design of a larger system at Keney Park, a park in Hartford, CT. Both setups consist of a solar thermal water heater and backup propane tank providing thermal energy to hot water radiators that heat an internal space. The farm uses the heat to maintain a growable soil temperature for plants year-round. Keney Park uses the heat for a public display area. Our method of integrating IoT started with data collection. Our prototype collects data from sensors in the greenhouse. Examples include soil and solar panel temperatures, and the flow rate of propane from our backup power source. This data is automatically uploaded to Splunk—a data aggregation, analysis, and visualization platform—through a Raspberry Pi computer. Splunk allows this data to be displayed on computers, phones, smart TVs, and with augmented reality. With an easy-to-navigate interface, the stakeholders of this project are able to view and make decisions based on relevant metrics from anywhere in the world.