The College of Engineering is giving students the chance to provide solutions to real world challenges in developing nations.

Under the direction of Brian Thompson, professor of mechanical engineering, six student teams completed design projects that included solutions for mango processing, cooking devices, flour production, maize harvesting and water pumping for countries in Africa and Latin America. Each team presented their designs in a forum that included multi-college professionals, such as anthropologists, sociologists, agriculturalists, horticulturalists, food scientists and public health experts among others.

Erika Crosby, a recent mechanical engineering graduate, was part of a four-member team that took on the challenge of designing and building a device to help rural farmers harvest a diet staple—beans. Crosby completed several design courses during her college career, but ME 491 is something she said she’ll take with her as she moves through life. “It was very rewarding. I’ve been through five other design classes and each time it was the same process, and afterward, nothing else happened. Once I realized the impact we will have on the people of Guatemala, the class meant so much more,” she said.

She and her teammates Ben Ambrose, Zach Albright and Khoa Nguyen, knew they could come up with a device that would help rural farmers harvest their crops more efficiently. For generations, farmers have employed back-breaking manual labor to accomplish this vital work. “They were putting the bean stalks on large tarps and hitting them with long sticks to harvest the beans. I don’t think anyone should have to do that kind of manual labor when other solutions exist,” said Crosby.

The team’s threshing device uses a foot-pedal system that will decrease the amount of time required to thresh beans, minimize the amount of beans lost, and decrease the negative effects on the human body. It also decreases the amount of time required to thresh beans, increasing efficiency of the postharvest processing.

Their advisor, Luis Flores of the Institute of International Agriculture, is originally from Guatemala, and was instrumental in providing insight into what people will need in order for the project to succeed. The language barrier and the fact that technology and innovation have not made their way to the rural areas of Central America, made for some interesting challenges. “We found that the majority of farmers didn’t care how it happened, they were more concerned with the power source. We knew they’d like to use human power, because electricity is scarce and expensive,” she said.

“This is a different course than any other at MSU, I believe. We were trying to be successful to get the grade, yes, but also to help those who need it most. To come up with a unique, low-cost device that will change people’s lives is just amazing,” said Crosby.

The process was similar to other engineering design courses in that after identifying which projects they would be assigned, the teams came up with design parameters taking cost, weight, stability, weather resistance, and up to 15 more variables into account. Then possible concepts were generated and in-depth research was conducted to develop the prototype. Materials were then sourced, cut, drilled, assembled and tested. Crosby’s team presented their threshing machine to Flores, then disassembled it to be shipped to Guatemala where it will be put to work in the fields. “Now they will try and get farmers to adapt, test and validate it. It is rewarding to know it will be used on the beans it was intended for,” said Crosby.