Team Members
Garrett Oehlerking, Ali Elsaadany, Corinne O’Halloran, Alejandro Ruiz, Gabriel Dos Santos, Gabriela Faxas, Alexander Dominguez, Ryan Steepey
Abstract
Group 7’s goal was to design a system that maximizes the number of compartments, each capable of independent temperature control and gas composition regulation, that can be easily added if the budget were expanded. The vertical and modular design utilizes space on the bench top efficiently. A custom pipette with a linear actuator controls the flow of liquid into and out of the pipette for disbursement. Replaceable tips are pressed on and off from a foam block as needed to eliminate cross-contamination. The linear rail system combines a claw for movement of samples and the pipetting system in three-dimensional motion. Two linear rail systems supporting the shaking table are capable of linear, orbital, and double orbital shaking patterns. A custom holder for the well plates and conical tubes allows for the claw to pick up the samples to perform shaking, liquid disbursement, and OD/FI measurements outside of the compartment. A central chiller presents additional cooling capacity that can be used for multiple compartments. Within each enclosure, evaporative cooling comes from a heat exchanger while a cartridge heater supplies heat necessary to maintain the desired temperature. A fan beneath these ele-ments disburses the heating and cooling evenly. The optical density and fluorescent intensity measurements are taken at the stationary laser beam and Photomultiplier tube (PMT) sensor combination. The movement mechanism maneuvers each sample between the two and the measurements are completed.