Track 12 - Learning the sustainability and social compromise skills Authors: Anna Mesas Llauradó, Arlene Docherty, Gwénaël Méry, Natalia Sokolowska, Sean Keane, Abel J. Duarte, Benedita Malheiro, Cristina Ribeiro, Fernando Ferreira, Manuel F. Silva, Paulo Ferreira and Pedro Guedes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcnOkoH_Nf4&index=2&list=PLboNOuyyzZ86u2azNBqNh4cuOs5v_9M2s

1. Aquaponics System
An EPS@ISEP 2014 Spring
Project
TEEM 2015
International Conference on Technological
Ecosystem for Enhancing Multiculturality
Manuel Silva
ISEP/IPP – School of Engineering,
Polytechnic Institute of Porto

2. Outline
1. Introduction
2. State of the art
3. Project development
4. Experimental tests and results
5. Conclusions and future developments
6. Acknowledgments

3. Outline
1. Introduction
2. State of the art
3. Project development
4. Experimental tests and results
5. Conclusions
6. Acknowledgments

4. Introduction
 EPS 2014 Spring project proposals
 Aquaponics System, incorporating eco-friendly
sustainable techniques
 Multinational team
 five students, five countries, five fields of study
 “… as a group we were all interested in creating our
own aquaponics system as this is a system/technique
that is becoming ever more popular throughout the
world, more so in poorer regions and where water is a
limited resource.”

5. Outline
1. Introduction
2. State of the art
3. Project development
4. Experimental tests and results
5. Conclusions
6. Acknowledgments

6. State of the art

7. State of the art
 Several aquaponics
systems on the market
 no commercial producers
in Europe
 Small indoor aquaponics
market
 one “real competitor” in the
household market

8. Outline
1. Introduction
2. State of the art
3. Project development
4. Experimental tests and results
5. Conclusions
6. Acknowledgments

9. Project development
 Goal
 design and build an aquaponics system, sustainable
as possible, support both fish and plant culture, based
on water recirculation
 system should monitor / control important system
parameters, ensuring good conditions for fish / plants
 overall prototype budget 250 €
 mandatory requirements
 reuse provided components or low cost hardware solutions
and use open source and freeware software
 comply with regulations

10. Project development
 Define their own set of conflict resolution rules
 Team Work Agreement signed by all team members
and archived in the team folder
 Creation of work plan and Gantt chart
 tasks allocated to the team members according to
their skills and knowledge

11. Project development
 Knowledge of the characteristics of some
electrical components and materials
 understand their differences and make a sensible
choice of the materials to use

12. Project development:
Eco-efficiency measures for sustainability
 Addressed three spheres of sustainability
associated with the product to develop
 environmental
 economic
 social impacts
 Product lifecycle analysis

13. Project development
Marketing plan
 Defined the market plan for the product
 PEST-Analysis of the macro‐ and of the micro-
environment
 SWOT analysis
 defined the strategic objectives for the project
 performed the market segmentation
 defined the positioning of the product
 defined the marketing mix

14. Project development
Marketing plan
 Target the EU household
market
 organic food production gained
popularity in USA, Australia and
EU during the last 15 years
 main competitors in Australia
and USA

15. Project development
Ethical / deontological concerns
 Ethical issues surrounding the product
addressed
 engineering ethics
 sales and marketing ethics
 academic ethics
 environmental ethics
 liability aspects
 intellectual property rights

16. Project development
 Design aims
 sleek and simple
 avoiding an intrusive object
in the home

17. Outline
1. Introduction
2. State of the art
3. Project development
4. Experimental tests and results
5. Conclusions
6. Acknowledgments

18. Experimental tests and results
 Functional tests accomplished successfully
 water pumped from the tank to the grow bed at a set
time according to the Arduino
 water slowly drains from the grow bed over a set
period of time
 fail-safe pipe removes all water in case of a pump
malfunction
 sensors permanently relay information to the user
through the LCD screen
 plant and fish culture live together safely in a
symbiotic environment

19. Experimental tests and results

20. Experimental tests and results
 System has been running successfully for > year
 Sustained
 six Cichlid (Amatitlania nigrofasciata) fishes
 two ornamental plants
 maidenhair fern (Adiantum capillus veneri) and creeping fig
or climbing fig (Ficus pimila)
 During this period
 plants pruned several times due to extensive growth

21. Outline
1. Introduction
2. State of the art
3. Project development
4. Experimental tests and results
5. Conclusions
6. Acknowledgments

22. Conclusions
 Main objective
 create a working system that supported both fish and
plant cultures
 “...we have completed the requirements and also
expanded so that the system will be successful within
the intended target market due to an aesthetic design
and simple functionality.”

23. Conclusions
 “... moving swiftly through the design stages and using
all aspects (ethics, marketing, etc.)... found that it was
possible to create a simple product that fitted our needs.
... we were pushed to change many features of the
design and many of these simplified the final product and
led to an overall cheaper and easy to manufacture
prototype. ... we found that from the initial brainstorming
to the final renders, our ideas of a successful and quality
aquaponics system had changed vastly. This knowledge
was gained mostly through research and we believe that
this led to the creation of a desirable and functioning
system that fits well into the intended markets.”

24. Conclusions

25. Outline
1. Introduction
2. State of the art
3. Project development
4. Experimental tests and results
5. Conclusions
6. Acknowledgments

26. Acknowledgments
 Abel Duarte (client)
 through the FCT for funding the REQUIMTE / LAQV
research unit (UID / QUI / 50006/2013)

27. Thank you for your
attention!
Questions?
Aquaponics System
An EPS@ISEP 2014 Spring Project
TEEM 2015
International Conference on Technological Ecosystem for
Enhancing Multiculturality
(October 7-9, 2015)
Manuel F. Silva (EPS@ISEP)
epsatisep@gmail.com