Date of Award

6-2023

Document Type

Thesis

Publisher

Santa Clara : Santa Clara University, 2023.

Departments

Bioengineering; General Engineering

First Advisor

Jes Kuczenski

Second Advisor

Prashanth Asuri

Abstract

This project aimed to develop a system to improve the Climate Foundation’s (CF) existing Marine Permaculture (MP) technology in the Philippines. MP is the cultivation of seaweeds and other macroalgae on submerged structures in offshore ocean waters to support food security, carbon sequestration, ecosystem restoration, and more. Current MP arrays feature a circular platform with substrate for seaweeds to grow on, manually raised and lowered by a winch on the above-surface control platform. The team designed the system to provide real-time temperature and pressure data sensing at depth, real-time platform-to-surface data transfer, real-time winch actuation, and data storage. The team designed small-scale prototypes for a Cable Length Tracking System, Programmable Logic Controller, and Data Storage Module. The team calculated the efficacy of creating an inductive coupling circuit to transfer telemetry data in real-time in the marine environment, designing a system circuit, telemetry sensors, and an attenuation measurement experiment. In July 2023, team members Anna Gabriele and Connor Grady will travel to the CF’s MP testing sites in the Philippines to deploy full-scale design prototypes and research telemetry data transfer in marine environments for MP.

Available for download on Friday, August 01, 2025

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