Mesh

︎Makethon at Dyson School of Design Engineering 
︎Honourable Mention Award
︎Duration: 48 hours

Smart Cities act as a dynamic living system which can react and respond to the different needs of their citizens. Investing in reliable technology and building a sensor-based network, and ensuring responsible engagement.

Installing digital interfaces in traditional Infrastructure or streamlining city processes are not the only aspects of "smartness." It's also about making smarter decisions and providing a better quality of life by strategically utilising technology and data. Inventing new tools or systems isn't always essential. Our focus was on how we can use current materials, Infrastructure, and tools to create smarter, more responsive, and resilient cities. Focussing on SDGs, which discuss sustainable cities and innovation and Infrastructure, the question was;

How might we implement a mesh that uses current Infrastructure to help identify and respond to real-time changes in a
city in an effective and scalable way?

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WHAT IS THE TECH?

We decided to seek alternative approaches to transfer today's cities to tomorrow's smart cities by utilising current Infrastructure. Steel, the *third* most commonly used construction material in most cities, is also a highly conductive metal. Buildings, for example, have been made up of the world's largest steel meshes since the 1930s. According to a NASA report, open-ended steel meshes have the potential to act as capacitors with up to 80% efficiency, allowing us to tap into this resource and multiply its capacities. We aim to quantify the capacitance fluctuations induced by objects between the two plates by observing changes in voltage caused by changes in permittivity between the two meshes because structures act as enormous capacitors.

                                                            

Tags:
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Design Research
Design Engineering                     

Team
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Adhesh Shenoy
Nirmal Thomas
Hunaid Nagaria
                                                                               

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SOLUTION

Mesh is a data collection API that uses today's infrastructure and a single small intervention to make it simple to install and scalable across cities without needing large-scale sensor deployment. Instead, it uses a single fire alarm-sized box screwed into a load-bearing member in most modern buildings.

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HOW DOES IT WORK?

Drill a hole in the detecting steel reinforcements, insert the probe, snap the device into place on the investigation, attach the device to power, and the sensor is ready to use.

The Mesh's expanded capabilities to turn raw data into warnings, insight, and action providing a structural platform to build future interventions. Therefore, it becomes a fundamental enabler of sustainable smart cities with the ability to share information and integrate it with contextual data that can then be reviewed in real-time.

The Mesh's urban informatics can aid in optimising services like security, transportation and congestion management, learning more about air quality, collecting environmental data, and more. The era of ubiquitous connectivity is approaching. It will alter the way our cities operate. Cities can leverage their existing infrastructure, engage citizens as co-creators, and be better prepared to handle the challenges ahead by thinking of the city as a platform that provides connection, exchanges data, and creates capabilities.