Spirulina Algae Cultivation

As a student at the Illinois Institute of Technology I was an active member of our chapter for Engineers for a Sustainable World (ESW). I founded and led a project trying to grow spirulina, a blue-green algae with the goal to develop a small-scale cultivation system so that a group/family of 3-5 people could supplement part of their diets with this highly nutritious algae. While I was still a student we successfully started a set of growth tanks for preliminary study of algae growth rates, water quality, and to become familiar with the general cultivation process. Next steps were underway to create an automated monitoring system of the tank growth conditions using Arduino microcontrollers and a variety of digital sensors.