The title of my research project was Desalination as a Solution to the Grand Challenge of Providing Access to Clean Water. I was engaged with this project between January of 2015 and May of 2016 with Dr. Tirupalavanam Ganesh serving as my research mentor. The project was funded through the GCSP Research Stipend for the semester of Spring 2015 and through the Fulton Undergraduate Research Initiative for the Fall 2015 and Spring 2016 semesters.

I developed this project because I wanted to invent a more sustainable approach to provide access to clean water though desalination. The goal of this project was to develop a solution that can use concentrated solar power in desalinating seawater. The concentrated solar power system needed to be completely renewable to require low frequency of maintenance, to require low complexity of maintenance, and to provide a sustainable supply of drinking water. This device uses the process of distillation to remove salt from water and make it drinkable for people in underdeveloped regions. Providing access to clean water is an engineering challenge evident in both developed and underdeveloped regions warranting a sustainable solution that succeeds over the long-term. This sustainability focus falls in line with my theme also. The included poster in the "Research Poster and Report" section shows the methods that the project used and the results.

I enjoyed working with my mentor on this project and feel that the experiences and skills that I developed from this project. I learned that research projects require months of planning to ensure that they are successful the first time around. I experienced this myself when my project took multiple turns because I planned everything sequentially. This was inpart due to my desire to jump in and build something without properly designing and simulating the design. Since I was only junior at this time it was understandable considering my knowledge of separations was limited, but I would have benefited greatly from simulation data for my designs or in other words, the measure twice and build once approach. Due to the fact that poster presentations are a requirement for FURI/GCSP research stipend, I was able to hone in my poster preparation skills and my presentation skills. In addition to presenting at the FURI symposiums where I was talking with students and faculty, my mentor, Dr. Ganesh, had brought me to elementary and middle schools to talk to students about not only engineering in general, but also what my research encompassed. Therefore, I needed to develop the skills to effectively communicate my research goals and results to a wide range of audiences with vastly different amounts of technical background which will be helpful when discussing my project to interviewers or when I need to explain a project to a future employer/supervisor.