BAE305 Aquaponics Project (University of Kentucky)
Summary
The BAE305 Aquaponics Project (github.com/joedvorak/BAE305_Aquaponics-Project) is a Spring 2022 final project from BAE 305, the biosystems engineering design course at the University of Kentucky taught by Dr. Joe Dvorak, whose GitHub account hosts a long-running, public series of student design projects. The goal was an autonomous aquaponics system combining a fish tank and a plant growing environment that service each other: water is pumped from the fish tank into the garden when soil moisture drops below a threshold, and excess water percolates back to the fish tank, with the fish waste fertilizing the plants and the plant bed filtering water for the fish. A grow lamp runs on a schedule, and each sensor includes displays so users can monitor the vital parameters of both environments. The repository documents the design with photos, a supplies list, and supporting files — a complete example of a semester-scale engineering design cycle. BAE 305's broader project library (github.com/joedvorak/BAE305Projects) links dozens of similar student builds, making this a model for how a university course can run open-documentation design studios. License: none specified (flagged). Last pushed April 2022; dormant as a codebase but valuable as a teaching artifact.
Guiding Principles
- STEM Integration — a capstone merging biology, water chemistry, sensing, and engineering design process in one semester build.
- Open Source — the course's practice of publishing every student project's "online design file" on GitHub makes student engineering work inspectable and reusable.
- Transferable Skills — requirements, prototyping, documentation, and presentation mirror professional engineering workflows.
- Youth Empowerment — students own a complete, physical, working system by semester's end.
Learning Outcomes & Transferable Skills
Students practice Project Management (semester-scoped team design), Electronics (moisture sensing, pump and lamp control, displays), Coding (microcontroller logic), Water Chemistry and Biology (fish/plant nutrient symbiosis), and Systems Thinking (closing the loop between two living subsystems). Educators gain a template for open-documented design coursework.
How to Replicate or Build On It
- Clone
https://github.com/joedvorak/BAE305_Aquaponics-Project; read the Summary and Design Description, and study the build photos. - Review the supplies list in the repo for the component baseline (pump, soil moisture sensing, grow lamp, displays).
- Browse the course-wide index at
github.com/joedvorak/BAE305Projectsfor peer projects and adjacent water/sensor builds (e.g., BAE305-SP25-pH-Monitoring). - Adapt the threshold-triggered irrigation logic to your own tank/bed volumes; document your variant as an "online design file" in the same style.
Considerations & Constraints
- Cost: Low — student-budget commodity parts; exact BOM cost not itemized (unknown).
- Skill Level: Intermediate undergraduate engineering; accessible to motivated secondary students with mentoring.
- Space/Climate: Tabletop-to-cart indoor system; classroom-friendly.
- Tools Required: Microcontroller kit, pump, sensors, basic hand tools; no specialized fabrication documented.
- Ongoing Maintenance: Living aquaponics care (feeding, water checks); code is a semester artifact, not maintained.
- Access Barriers: No license file (flagged); documentation is photo-heavy and light on wiring diagrams; course-specific context assumed.
Prerequisites
Introductory electronics; basic aquaponics concept of nutrient exchange between fish and plants.
