Hi guys, a little bit of a different blog post today.
Last night I volunteered at the Night of the Open Door at ASU, which is this massive community outreach event. Think of it like a temporary science center across the entire ASU campus. I was helping outside of Goldwater Center for Science and Engineering. The main focus of this building is environmental science. More specifically, grad students are trying to find ways to integrate engineering with natural environments.
One of their current research projects is trying to find ways to prevent liquefaction on beaches. In lay mans terms this just means keeping houses from sinking during an earthquake. Normally, before we build on the sand we drop massive weights on the beach to compact the sand together. Unfortunately, we can't do this where there are already buildings.
So what ASU students are trying to do is find ways to make the sand under already existing houses sturdier. They did this by using already existing enzymes and microorganisms that are in the sand to create sandstone.
Normally, for this process to occur naturally, it will take hundreds of thousands of years, but with the enzymes, it will only take 1 - 2 days and by only using the microorganisms it will take 7 - 21 days.
Students haven't been able to test this under actual buildings yet because the costs are simply too high, but they are working on ways to optimize it so that they can treat massive areas for a low price!
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ReplyDeleteHey Nic! This is so interesting that they are taking the sand that is already there rather than moving the houses. It seems more practical that way. How is ASU aiding these student's research. Do the students have a grant and/or have they received resources from ASU?
ReplyDeleteFrom what I understand, students can receive work study grants to do research like this. I'm not sure if course work falls under this umbrella though. For example, one of the Grad students I was helping at that event was working on a side project, which she got a grant for.
DeleteI heard about these Open Door Nights at ASU when I was there for the Science Bowl Competition. It seems like a great way to get middle and high students excited about science and thinking about majors and careers.
ReplyDeleteThis research seems particularly interesting and useful. I once had tree roots growing into my shower pipes. So I definitely know what it's like to have an issue underneath the house that is difficult and expensive to take care of. This research could potentially save thousands of homes even outside of California. Of course it's always about making these solutions economically effective.
- Ms. Holtzman
Definitely, I can't give a specific price tag, but at the moment students have been treating small areas and they said that was expensive. I couldn't imagine how costly it would be treat an entire house.
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