DOIS

Destroyer of Ice and Snow

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Inspiration

What inspired us to create DOIS was that York University spends a portion of their budget on resources such as salt and brine to melt ice unnecessarily. We wanted to create something that solves their problem and changes how the world goes about melting their snow and ice as well!

What it does

An IOT Device that will push weather updates to multiple wifi connected sprinklers. These updates will initiate the use of the liquid to melt snow and ice in many areas. Use a sprinkler type device to spray the surface with a biodegradable liquid.

How we built it

We modelled out the sprinkler we will be using with Solid works. Designed code that controls the pressure ff the liquid that shoots out.

Challenges we ran into

We spent a great deal of time brainstorming ideas to solve the problem as we wanted to come out with the most sustainable and efficient way. We’ve had several ideas to solve this issues. We thought about heating sidewalks, using different substances such as potassium acetate and liquid deicers. Liquid deicer proved to be the most cheapest and practical option. As this liquid will be shot in the sidewalks and such, this liquid will have to environmentally friendly and harmless to organisms. We’ve narrowed our list of possible de-icers to beet juice. Had minor and major problems with the code here and there. 3-D Modelling the sprinklers and making sure it was designed huge enough to cover a long range was challenging.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

This will potentially eliminate labour costs and the use of this will result in massive sustainability, saving enormous costs on snow plowing services and materials. Overall, this could be implemented in many areas leading to more sustainability!

What we learned

We learned about the many chemicals that are used to clean up snow and ice. Salt is a popular substance to use for melting ice. However it is not the most environmentally or cost friendly! This is due to the fact that a salt accumulates, chloride levels rises. This is bad for the environment and for the local organisms! Other chlorine related substances such as Magnesium Pellets, Urea and Brine are worse!

What's next for DOIS

One thing is that the beet juice leaves excess amount of sugar in the bodies of water which attracts bacteria and affects the ecosystem.This is a problem as natural resources such as oxygen will be depleted because of this phenomena. We want to see if there are ways to filter out this after use, to make it more useable!

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