Sponsor: Mr. Alvan Amar, CEO

Organized Organics [www.organizedorganics.org]

San Diego, California

Team Members: Andrew Polasek, Cody Nedbalek, Grant Weaver, Cody Mertink

Faculty Advisors: Gregory Stark, Dr. Srinivasulu Ale

Organized Organics is a San Diego based non-profit organization working with the community to provide expertise and assistance in growing organic, sustainable, affordable food. Organized Organics is a federally endorsed 501c3 Non-Profit Organization specializing in AquaPonics.

This BAEN senior design team developed an aesthetically pleasing indoor aquaponics unit. Their design is a vertical farming system that will have a vegetation bed at the top and a fish tank at the bottom of the unit; the entire unit can be placed indoors. Water from the tank will be used to irrigate the plants and any excess water will re-enter the pond, where the fish will thrive on the nutrients from the water. The team also considered choices for the most suitable source of lighting for the plants, ultimately choosing an LED to minimize electricity consumption. The end result is an environmentally friendly design that offers a natural food-growing methodology that harnesses the best attributes of aquaculture and hydroponics and eliminates the need to discard any filtrate, add chemical fertilizers, or waste water.

The team was asked to offer a low power indoor aquaponics system that is aesthetically pleasing, has a low carbon footprint, and is fully automated. Students retrofitted used furniture to make a custom grow bed using an innovative flooding system, sensors and solenoid valves to control flow and water levels in the system. The sponsor received a detailed power consumption analysis on the prototype, including a water conservation and evaporation analysis and a completed indoor aquaponics system prototype.