High School Senior Engineering Diving Project

[jasa2018.edd]

We are senior engineers that are starting our final projects. We all have a passion to scuba dive so we decided to incorporate our project with scuba diving. We are investigating certain problems that every diver experiences. We have attached a survey so the community can help us decide on a specific problem.

https://tinyurl.com/ycugjym3

 

[Diver0001]

Your questions are mostly about fins. It's not entirely clear to me how broadly you're defining your scope.

If you ask me, I think a "problem" or at least something that could be made more simple for an aging population of divers is getting tanks into the car or other lifting tasks. Single tanks are ok but getting a double set on for shore diving can be less than obvious if you don't have a solution for lifting it. In my case I bought a Fiat Doblo (see picture -- that one is not my car but it is similar) specifically so I can transport and get in/out of my double set easily.

An engineering solution that wouldn't require buying an actual automobile in order to lift, shift and get in and out of your gear without risking back injury would make for a feasible Sr. level project. It would need to be light weight, collapsible quick to set up and strong enough to take some abuse...

Is that an idea? sounds more interesting to me than redesigning fins.

R..

 

[Aviyes]

Agree with Diver0001. As it stands, the questions guide the survey taker into focusing on fins. Is that your chosen topic? If you are looking for other topics, I would brainstorm a list of other topics and redo the questions to keep them more open-ended. Maybe guide it from the perspective of asking about challenges during specific phases of the dive. Such as, travel to location, dive planning, pre-dive checks/equipment issues, during dive, etc.

 

[lowviz]

I've done senior projects too. Much good advice above. You either have a hidden agenda concerning fins or you are just focussing too much on one aspect of diving.

Senior projects do best when they show creativity. Thinking outside the box stuff. Fins are boring unless you are seriously into them.

I have a landing light from a DC-10. Yes, really. One of these days I want to put a couple of marine lead-acid batteries into an enclosure, add a cheap propeller, a GoPro, a cheap wing, and the headlight of all time. Night dives in the back bay...

Tow a fish-finder on your dive flag and map a previously uncharted lake, pond, or river? Do you know the difference between a lake and a pond? Never hurts to inform the casual audience.

Design a specialized marine dropsonde? You can do better than fins...

 

[JMBL]

done

 

[northernone]

Done. Appears heavily fixated on fins. That isn't a problem to the vast majority of divers and there are quite unlikely any useful contributions to be made for the recreational dive market. Submitted a few ideas in that survey.

 

[TMHeimer]

Agree. Most divers find the fins they like and stick with them quite a while. I have no idea what I'd spend to replace my split fins as I won them at a "Treasure Hunt". They apparently help me with cramping.

 

[jonhall]

Was wondering if you had a specific problem in mind (that every diver experiences) and what that problem is? Had a student (in my middle school science class) back in the mid 90’s want to redevelop the fin for better propulsion for a class project. His thought was fins weren’t very efficient. This was a few years before I started diving although I had worn fins for snorkeling in a pool and used them as a training aid for swimmers.

Your survey leads me to think of a couple things that you consider may be problems with fins - one fin for all types of diving, length, material, and cost. If you wind up making fins the focal point of your project, I’m all about using lighter materials while maintaining the strength and versatility of the fin as is done with other sports equipment (i.e. golf clubs and tennis racquets.)

Good luck.

 

[kelemvor]

There is already loads of fins and fin designs, imo it's probably the piece of diving equipment that is the most mature. Try anything else unless you've already got a project underway and are simply trying to justify it with a survey targeting that justification.

 

[jasa2018.edd]

Thank you guys for all you're feed back. We are going to expand our scope and try to find a general problem that most divers face.