Merna Wael Soliman Ibrahim

2219164

221927

merna.2219164@stemsharkya.moe.edu.eg

Sharkia STEM School

Although the more time we spend meeting on floor, the same work efficiency can be
achieved by following many strategies we read about since the decision of working
online. One of those strategies is to meet on any platform for online meetings twice a
week and this can be modified according to the work we have, set reminders and alerts
on the platform I mentioned before to follow the capstone calendar strictly, every
deliverable has to be delivered in time. Some programs as: word, excel, PowerPoint,
and drive are now designed to work with your group from a specific link online; thus our
tasks can be readable and compiled easily with just an internet connection. This
strategies proved to the world that there are no limits for academic support and we don’t
have to be in the same room for the spirit of working. Technology has a great favor in
this feature as it provided a saver for an unexpected disease in time, and technology has
no limits: some devices now are programmed to meet in Hologram feature. Hologram is
the collection of light when light rays comes out from a device to illustrate the details of
the person’s face and body proportions by the 3d technology; so the person is almost
with you in the same room without the need of moving from his place.

According to the engineering design process to solve a problem first of all you have to
define the problem and search widely about the related concepts to it. We did a detailed
search about treating water and knew the difference between treating wastewater and
changing a process to make wastewater more useful in other processes.

Firstly, treating wastewater can be summarized in treating: biologically, mechanically,

and chemically. Treating wastewater biologically is done by inserting a biological
organism that feed on the pollutants coming out from the source of waste; thus the water
at the end of the process ends without the presence of the pollutants.
For example: when irrigating wheat the water at the end comes out with phosphate but
when inserting in the agriculture field an algae that feed on phosphate the water at the
end is without it.
While, treating mechanically is by inserting a system as: inserting filters in the output
water, and finally treating chemically is by inserting chemicals in water that neutralizes
the acidity or the bases in water as: cerium acid.

Changing a process to make wastewater more useful is done by switching a chemical by

a less pollutant one, more efficient, and low in cost or it’s preferable to use a permanent
replacement and an ongoing process without the need of human.
Example: in iron and steel industry chlorine can be exchanged by ethyl alcohol to
decrease the amount of heavy metals in output water and thus can be reused in any
other process or even in cycle in the same process.
When concentrating on quantitative analysis it can be said that it is the hard data, and
the actual numbers. While, Qualitative analysis is less touchable. It concerns particular
traits and thoughts: things that cannot be expressed as a number. Focusing on our
capstone project we hardly need to know about data analysis to measure and describe
the amount of pollution in water after and before our solution, other parameters also
needed in measuring pH., heavy metals, and total dissolved solids. But are not limited to
them.
For Example: if we have salt solution (solute: salt 5 gm, solvent: water 100 gm) we use
qualitative analysis to describe the solution and solute as their color (colorless for salt
solution). And the quantitative analysis is to measure the amount of each material in the
solution before and after a process (before is 5 and 100 but, after is 105) and their
properties, traits, and the amount of dissolved oxygen for instance.(good conductor of
electricity)
This can be used in analyzing the data of the parameters of water and its traits as pH,
TDS amount, its color before and after the process.

In this semester we learned about The GMO (Genetically modified organisms). It’s a
result of biotechnology called genetic engineering and it is process in which genetic
material is changed in such a way to make new substances or new functions.
This technology is very helpful in our project because using it to modify food crops could
have beneficial consequences in terms of water use.
For instance: genetic modification can reduce the water requirement of the principal
cereal crops (maize, rice, etc. ) by selection for traits that increase the rate of
photosynthesis and depth of root structure, as well as decrease the rate at which water
is lost through transpiration process.
Examples:
1- Avicennia is a crop that can be fed on the salt water; thus scientists can take the gene
responsible for this property and insert it in other agricultural crops to widely use salt
water in irrigiration.
2- Genetic modifications of the wheat plant focused on particular parts of the plant, such
as the root systems, and processes, such as transpiration, that can increase water use
efficiency by the plant. Then wheat can be genetically modified to have deeper roots by
extending the vegetation period of the plant through selection for later-flowering
genotypes. Deeper root systems promote more water uptake, which means the plants
require less irrigation and perform better under drought conditions efficiently and then it
improves the quality of farming.