How Researchers Build Low-Cost Water Monitoring Tech (From Scratch) | Part 1

How do researchers turn abstract technical requirements into rugged, field-deployable hardware on a limited budget? In Part 1 of this guest lecture series for Colorado State University first-year engineering students, host Dr. T sits down with Manny Deleon, Technical Research Lead for the CSU Agricultural Water Quality Program (AWQP). This session deconstructs the hardware development cycle behind low-cost environmental monitoring systems. Manny details how the AWQP team replaced $17,000 commercial ISCO samplers with $800 open-source alternatives using Particle Boron microcontrollers, deep sleep algorithms, and custom 3D-printed solar radiation shields, all without sacrificing data integrity. Watch Part 2:    • From CAD to the Field: Why Stakeholder Fee...   KEY TOPICS COVERED: • The cost barrier in agricultural research and the need for high-density spatial data. • Developing the $150 "Swiss Army knife" AWQP logger for interchangeable sensor payloads. • Firmware and hardware design for remote field deployments (cellular telemetry, solar power, and precision pumping). • Validating low-cost hardware against industry-standard equipment. • Open-source hardware publication and the hands-on technical skills CSU students learn in the field. RESOURCES & AFFILIATIONS: • CSU Agricultural Water Quality Program: https://waterquality.colostate.edu/ • Build the AWQP Sampler (HardwareX Paper): https://www.hardware-x.com/article/S2468-0... • CSU Walter Scott, Jr. College of Engineering: https://www.engr.colostate.edu/ #AgTech #STEM #EnvironmentalResearch #IoT #ParticleBoron #ColoradoStateUniversity #WaterQuality #OpenSourceHardware #awqp #EoF #agriculture