Design Climate Wave Trough

Design Climate is a Duke course focused on creating solutions to urgent environmental challenges. The course has partnered with DesignHub to make these solutions into functional prototypes, and the Wave Trough was the first of these projects. The Wave Trough demonstrates how seagrass beds can reduce the intensity of ocean waves and reduce shoreline erosion by creating and measuring waves when the trough is filled with water. A waterproof servo moves a paddle back and forth under the water, creating a wave that induces microcurrents in an electromagnet, which are displayed on a galvanometer. When seagrass is added or removed from the trough, viewers can see the difference in the size of the waves produced by looking at the galvanometer readings. 

The project was featured in a WRAL news article here: https://www.wral.com/story/duke-university-students-showcase-climate-solutions-at-energy-week-event/21722662/ 

CoLab blog post here: https://colab.duke.edu/blog-post/design-hub-and-design-climate-collaborate-wave-tank-project/