Overview

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At first, a sizable hydroponic machine was used. As the capacity of the machine is fairly large, an excessive amount of nutrient solution is required to meet the desired concentration. With the limitation of resources, it is not feasible nor optimal to sustain such a large amount of nutrition liquid in our school lab.

To overcome this issue, we used beakers and chopsticks as our hydroponic container to keep the same concentration using significantly less amount of nutrient solution. Beakers were put into the original hydroponic machine and used the machine to assist in the simulation of sunlight. Also, to further collect and monitor data, cloud-driven pH sensors were inserted into each beaker. The beakers hydroponic system shows our creativity in constructing an easy and accessible model of hydroponics.

However, the beakers are not well-designed for our future promotional purposes. For further stabilization, we designed and 3D printed a customized cover for each beaker. While designing this cover, we dealt with variables, such as thickness, diameter, and the number of holes. The only slight problem with the 3D-printed covers is that they are not portable. This causes difficulty in promoting the model.

Therefore, we continue to optimize our model. We manage to combine all the functions of every previous model into a hexagonal prism prototype, designed and assembled by our teammates through brainstorms and teamwork. This prototype home kit, allows users to put it together by themselves, bringing out a space-saving idea perfect for small balconies in Macau.