For my capstone engineering project, I worked in a team of five engineering students to address our sponsor’s proposed problem: human feces on the streets of San Francisco. San Francisco’s high cost of living has resulted in a large homeless population. That, in combination with a lack of 24-hour public toilets, makes for a very unpleasant and potentially dangerous situation on the streets. My team of mechanical, chemical, and environmental engineers worked together to first research the issue by speaking with professors, city officials, and public health experts, and ultimately develop a solution.
Given our time and monetary constraints, we chose to develop a hybrid vacuum-power washer device that contains and collects feces and sanitizes the affected area. After many months of testing and redesigning, we presented our sponsor with a device that removed over 95% of feces every time in approximately 1 minute or less without releasing particulates into the surrounding environment.
