IMECE2008-69165 VERTICAL INTEGRATION OF EXCEL IN THE THERMAL MECHANICAL ENGINEERING CURRICULUM

ABSTRACT Microsoft Excel is a ubiquitous tool used frequently by practicing engineers. A recent survey of alumni from The University of Alabama's Department of Mechanical Engineering regarding software tools revealed that 100% of the respondents used Microsoft Excel regularly on their jobs, while a low percentage used standard packages such as ANSYS or MATLAB, and that none used software tools which had been bundled with textbooks. The spreadsheet environment offers a great platform for computation and organization of engineering work, and the Visual Basic engine allows for great extensibility of Excel through the development of special functions and addin modules. This paper reports on a proof-of-concept project to implement sustained emphasis on Microsoft Excel in the thermal mechanical curriculum at The University of Alabama. Specific add-in modules for use in thermodynamic analysis and heat transfer analysis have been developed and are continually being refined. These add-in modules have been utilized in a sequence of courses Thermo I, Heat Transfer, Thermo II, and Energy Systems Design. Features of the add-in modules are detailed in this report and feedback from students and teachers are given

Integrating Greenhouse Cherry Tomato Production with Biofloc Tilapia Production

Integration of intensive aquaculture systems with greenhouse plant production has been shown to improve aquaculture water quality conditions and improve plant nutrient use efficiency. The majority of the focus of integrated systems has involved raft culture or true hydroponics. Little work has been done on soilless culture utilizing drip irrigation. This study investigates the feasibility of integrating biofloc Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) production with greenhouse cherry tomato production (Solanum lycopersicum var. cerasiforme). Nile tilapia (157 g/fish) were stocked at 40 fish/m3 and grown for 149 days. The cherry tomato cvs. “Favorita” and “Goldita” were grown with aquaculture effluent (AE) waste and compared to plants grown with conventional fertilizer (CF) in soilless culture. Plants were grown for 157 days. Few differences in yield occurred between treatments until fish harvest (117 DAT). Post fish harvest, there was an 18.4% difference in total yield between CF and AE at crop termination for “Favorita”. Differences in yield between AE and CF were observed for “Goldita” at fish harvest (117 DAT) and crop termination (157 DAT). Results from this study suggest the potential for successful integration of cherry tomato grown in a substrate-based system with AE from a tilapia biofloc production system