Engineering Design and Development The Grand Challenges: Education, Energy, Environment, Food, Health, Poverty, Security, and Water David Berkey KE4 P4 EDD September 16, 2015

5 Topics within the Grand Challenges Energy: Non-renewable Water: Clean water access Environment: Environmental longevity, environmental safety Health: Secondhand smoke prevention

10 Significant Problems within the 5 Topics Non-renewable: Leftovers of old non-renewable facilities, Nuclear waste disposal Clean water access: Clean water extraction, Clean water filtration Environmental longevity: Cemeteries taking up space and trees Environmental safety: Some roads having lack of visibility causing accidents Secondhand smoke prevention: Smoking in public causing secondhand smoke, Cigarette butts create a lot of litter

Choosing 3 Significant Problems Secondhand smoke prevention: Secondhand causes cancer and no one likes to be around it, cigarette butts litter the environment and create pollution Environmental longevity: Crypts for caskets take up space in the ground and cemeteries actively cut down trees to have more space Environmental safety: On some roads, a lack of visibility can cause many accidents, specifically side roads

Environmental Longevity Current state of burials takes up space in the ground Trees actively cut down for more burial space and headstones Caskets and crypts currently made from steel/concrete so they don’t degrade Cost of funerals and burials is very high**

Environmental Longevity Problem Statement: Today, the current state of burials takes up space in the ground, is very expensive, causes cemeteries to actively cut down trees, and is made in a way that does not degrade. This causes environmental damage, ruining the longevity for the future. There should be a way to eliminate the current burial procedures, effectively eliminating the environmental damage and cutting the price down to make things much more affordable.

Justification Ethics: Current burial processes do not cater to certain religions/practices/cultures [1] Embalming fluid is a cancerous substance often leading to respiratory problems later in life for morticians [2] 100,000 tons of steel, 1,500,000 tons of concrete, and 4.8 million gallons of formaldehyde are buried every year [3][7] Caskets are treated with toxic preservatives and filled with non-degradable plastic liners [1]

Justification Continued Market Research: Current burial process is very expensive, average funeral costing usually over $7,000 [6] In the US, 48.7% of people were buried in 2013 [6] Survey conducted showed that 43% of participants would consider an environmentally friendly funeral/burial [5] Green funerals are catching on in states like Texas, New York, South Carolina, Florida, and California [4]

Prior Solutions Wicker Caskets - caskets or coffins made from wicker fibers [1] Wooden Caskets made from untreated wood [2]

Initial Design Sketches: Idea 1 The design would be made from a wooden frame, which would then be plated with mulch tiles around the rest of it to cover it up. Then, as per usual tradition, the casket would have a pillow and mattress.

Initial Design Sketches: Idea 2 The second design would be more simplified, a main body piece with two sliding lids as well as a sealing piece to go on the foot end. All would be made from untreated wood.

Initial Design Sketches: Idea 3 Idea 3 would be the most complicated but most traditional design. Basically, it would be a regular casket made entirely from untreated wood, only without the raisable bed in caskets.

Selection of Ideas via Decision Matrix Based on the criteria of cost to build, durability, time to build, ease of build, complexity, amount of materials needed, and cost to implement, ultimately design 2 was chosen.

Animation of Design on Autodesk

First Partial Build of Prototype

Resources/Citations *: sheet#q4http:// sheet#q4 **: Justification: 1. William Berkey, Jr. Supervising Mortician at Loudon Park Funeral Home, Inc

Resources/Citations continued Prior Research:

Image Resources