Project Information
Mosquitos are the number one killer world wide, as they carry/transmit several diseases (viruses and other microorganisms). West Nile, found in Arizona, is a high concern in other more remote countries and areas of the world. Dr. Hepp and her research team want to catch mosquitoes, to grind them up, and to look for virus as a means of surveillance. To do this, her and her team distribute traps over a large geographic areas such as the southern US and Mexico border. These traps must be able to last for a full night and have mosquito bait to attract them. The current and standard approach is to load a trap with dry ice (not available everywhere) as a CO 2 emitter, powered by D-cell batteries that run a fan that then catches and retains the mosquito. While this method works, it has several limitations that impact the science. One of these limitations that stands in the way is power access, the CO 2 source, and having to visit the trap daily. Dr. Hepp would like a trap that can run at least 12 hours, that is also able to retain the mosquito should the research team not be able to return to get the mosquitos the next day. Better yet, these could be deployed for a week, utilizing ethanol or other stabilizing reagents to keep the mosquitos in good shape for the week. There are several electromechanical aspects that could change the paradigm of mosquito collection. Maricopa County has the best sampling resources of anywhere in the world (surveillance). This results of this project will allow the research team to do high resolution, season long surveillance in remote locations of the world, starting with Maricopa County. This may also allow us to understand where viral hotspots are, so that we can implement proactive interventions, thus decreasing human illnesses or deaths due to mosquito born viruses. There are two primary objectives to this capstone this year, and will be supported by two independent teams. The first team will focus on the power supply and basic radio communication (using off-the-shelf radio equipment). The second team will focus on mosquito detection using lower power electronic. These teams will work together in that team one will supply the power for team two, and will relay a binary state variable representing the detection of the mosquito. Team two will focus on robust methods to detect the presence of a mosquito, or mosquitos, in the trap. They will provide the binary state to team one, who will relay this information via a radio.
