Hi! I'm Thomas from team Heaphestus from UTRGV Senior Design Team 6 Graduating class of fall 2022. I am so glad that you decided to visit our site and take a quick look. Our team took on the unique problem of harvesting mesquite beans in order to increase production of mesquite based products. I hope you enjoy our solution and feel free to reach out to us if you have questions.
Please reach out to the teaching crew for any downloadable content such as CAD models and design process files at: [email protected]
Please reach out to the teaching crew for any downloadable content such as CAD models and design process files at: [email protected]
Here is a quick video showing you our product and how it works. This is a mesquite bean harvester that uses wind to excite mesquite beans off a tree.
Meet the Team
Brien Sifuentes |
Thomas Courtney |
Luisgerardo Zamora |
Adrian Vargas |
Our Mission
Welcome! We are team from the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) 6 “Hephaestus.” We worked on this project during the Spring and Fall of 2022. Our project is titled “Mesquite Bean Harvester” The problem we tackled was how to create a device that would harvest mesquite beans at a faster rate to increase supply in order to industrialize the industry. We hope that you enjoy this project as much as we did.
The ProblemMesquite Tree Harvesting is a labor Intensive process and there are currently no ways of harvesting them at a fast enough pace to keep up with expansion of industry |
Important InformationThroughout the project we conducted a lot of research in order to help understand the needs of the end user. Remember that the solution has to be easy to use and effective for the enduser. Furthermore parts need to be easy to durable and easily replaceable. |
Faculty Advisors |
Teaching Crew |
Dr. Arturo Fuentes
|
Dr. Joanne Rampersad
|
Dr. Noe Vargas
|
Mr. Gregory Potter
|
Thoughts and Acknowledgments
Hello viewer, it's Thomas and I just want to leave you with some final thoughts and acknowledgments from our year in senior design. As the team progressed through senior design we learned that engineering is truly a process of informed trial and error, or as we call it "iterations." Coming up with an idea out of the blue is reasonable, but without the meticulous design process you might be leaving an amazing idea undiscovered. As the team faced challenges over our senior year academically and in our personal lives we learned how to embrace the process and ended up with an amazing product that can only become better over more iterations. We are excited to see where this project goes in the future and the new innovations that come from the foundation we have set. Heres to moving forward!
Acknowledgments:
Dr.Fuentes- Thank you for the constant push to be a better team and never giving up on us. We appreciate you and everything you do for your students. You have truely inspired us to become better students, engineers, and people.
Dr.Rampersad- Thank you for the "carrot and the stick." Your expertise in biology and unwavering support helped the team get through even the roughest of times. Without you this project would not be possible. And yes we answered your survey :)
The Teaching Crew- Thank you for your brutal honesty and criticism. You have pushed us to become better students and engineers. Without you we wouldn't have been able to embrace and now appreciate the engineering design process. We also appreciate you for not giving up on us.
Mr.Sanchez- "Puro Rho G H" sir! Thank you for the timely response to our question about similitude. That late night email was truly a turning point in our project.
Dr.Choutapalli- Thanks for informing our nozzle decision making process
Dr.Zgheib- Thanks for the meeting about CFD which gave us the momentum to finish this project.
The Cappadona Family- Thanks for the project and products that you provided us
Acknowledgments:
Dr.Fuentes- Thank you for the constant push to be a better team and never giving up on us. We appreciate you and everything you do for your students. You have truely inspired us to become better students, engineers, and people.
Dr.Rampersad- Thank you for the "carrot and the stick." Your expertise in biology and unwavering support helped the team get through even the roughest of times. Without you this project would not be possible. And yes we answered your survey :)
The Teaching Crew- Thank you for your brutal honesty and criticism. You have pushed us to become better students and engineers. Without you we wouldn't have been able to embrace and now appreciate the engineering design process. We also appreciate you for not giving up on us.
Mr.Sanchez- "Puro Rho G H" sir! Thank you for the timely response to our question about similitude. That late night email was truly a turning point in our project.
Dr.Choutapalli- Thanks for informing our nozzle decision making process
Dr.Zgheib- Thanks for the meeting about CFD which gave us the momentum to finish this project.
The Cappadona Family- Thanks for the project and products that you provided us
