Overview
The goal for Innovation for Rural Alabama is to increase awareness of the challenges rural citizens face and promote civic engagement in the state that The University of Alabama and its students are home to. This project revolves are four main topics: Education, Food Deserts, Healthcare, and Water and Sanitation.
Over the course of a semester, students are challenged to design an innovation project with a rural environment in mind. In order to provide students with proper information, each fall semester, a Rural Alabama Speaker Series is held with five to eight experts in the four topics above. In addition, interns for the STEM and CREATE office have designed an Innovation for Rural Alabama website which contains different interviews, articles, and websites to aid students in gathering data for their projects.
Over the course of a semester, students are challenged to design an innovation project with a rural environment in mind. In order to provide students with proper information, each fall semester, a Rural Alabama Speaker Series is held with five to eight experts in the four topics above. In addition, interns for the STEM and CREATE office have designed an Innovation for Rural Alabama website which contains different interviews, articles, and websites to aid students in gathering data for their projects.
Previous Projects
Fall 2019
Weed Weave
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Group Members: Abby Feeder, Todd Harrison, Parker Johnson, Connor Meadows
Description: Weed Weave promises a reduction in farming labor while also offering a positive environmental impact. Currently, hay bales come wrapped in rope to hold them together. Farmers and ranchers must manually cut these ropes from each bale in order to use the hay which is a painstaking and inefficient process. Weed Weave offers rope manufactured out of hemp and seaweed extracts which can be used in the hay baling process and left on the bales in the field. The hemp/seaweed rope would provide high amounts of vitamins and minerals as a healthful supplement to livestock feed. |
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Art on Wheels
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Group Members: Nick Lenart, Peter Murphy, Julie Sommer, Jackson Haag, Josie Berry
Description: Art and music therapy has been proven to increase quality of life and mental stimulation in patients with Alzheimer's and Dementia. Art on Wheels takes student art shows, art therapy projects and music therapy sessions to nursing homes and care facilities across the state of Alabama. |
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Fall 2018
Chicken Scratch Solutions
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Group Members: Abby Feeder, Todd Harrison, Noah Patterson, Andrew Sucato, Will Crumley
Description: Chicken Scratch Solutions aims to provide a hydrophobic additive solution for both preventing and filling potholes. This additive would be made of a mixture of keratin from chicken feathers. This mixture would be combined with wet concrete during mixing, prior to the road being laid down. Since keratin is naturally hydrophobic, it has the ability to prevent water from leaking into cracks in the concrete, which prevents potholes in the long term. Additionally, the additive would also be usable as a solution for pre-exisitng potholes. The keratin solution promises to prevent water damage, therefore allowing roads and repaired potholes to have a longer lifespan. This makes Chicken Scratch Solutions an investment with long-term benefits and payoff. |
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SepSwamp
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Group Members: Cooper Allenbrand, Matt Mills, Ben Noël
Description: SepSwamp looks to solve issues surrounding wastewater movement and treatment. Many septic systems are inadequate or fail after some time, causing water backup into homes, potential groundwater contamination, and a host of other issues. SepSwamp utilizes a "constructed wetland" that could be paired with septic systems to act as an extra barrier against groundwater contamination. A constructed wetland has the ability to improve water quality, disinfect pathogens, treat sewage water, and collect storm runoff. It is eco-friendly and cost-effective. SepSwamp designed it's own specific constructed wetland to incorporate aspects necessary for their planned applications. For example, the SepSwamp constructed wetland uses only subsurface flow. Removing surface flow decreases odor issues, and decreases the potential for mosquito problems. |
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Alabama Analytica
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Group Members: Demetrius Boykin, Reed Campbell, Robbie Bergstone, Chris Seidleck, Luke Perdikis, Jake Elkins
Description: Alabama Analytica offers cutting-edge data science to bring industry-leading tech to nonprofits, specifically ones aiming to bring food resources to rural Alabama in a strategic manner. The business plans on implementing Amazon Web Services and machine learning to use past data to predict the locations and times that would be optimal for food distribution in rural areas. With data analytics it would be possible to predict details such as the likely number of customers, and therefore the amount of supplies needed for different locations. Alabama Analytica offers this information on an user-friendly dashboard display. Initially they plan to partner with the Food Bank of Central Alabama, which has secure resources for distribution. |
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CommuniTrade
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Group Members: Hayden Lawrence, Savannah Olmstead, Mary Robinson, Madeline Rodgers
Description: CommuniTrade looks to create a community effort in education for youth looking to gain trade skills. The business plans on doing this through engaging retirees to participate in CommuniTrade as mentors and educators for students in an after-school program. CommuniTrade also looks to partner with local trade schools, as well as companies like Alabama Power. By connecting different parts of the community, CommuniTrade would be able to provide students with education on a trade that interests them, practical experience in that trade, and then networking opportunities with companies looking to hire. |
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No Fuss Doctor's Bus
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Group Members: Brooke Hughes, Tom Jackson, Amelia Peach, Ethan Haynie
Description: No Fuss Doctor's Bus is an effort to provide vaccinations for rural Alabama by utilizing a mobile vaccination effort. A bus with vaccinations aboard would travel to areas in rural Alabama like Perry County, where nearly a third of school-aged students are not up to date on vaccinations. When vaccinations are not up to date, children end up having to visit the emergency room for avoidable ailments, which costs money for the government. In this way, No Fuss Doctor's Bus would improve the daily lives of children in rural Alabama while also saving taxpayer dollars. The company plans on partnering with Capstone College of Nursing to help jumpstart it's efforts. |
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Fall 2017
Oasis Delivery
Group Members: Andrew Tao, Chesley Neptune, Josh Hunt, Reed Morley
Description: Oasis Delivery was designed to attack the issue of rural Alabama food deserts. Using a subscription-based delivery system, Oasis would deliver foods with long shelf-lives such as pasta or canned vegetables on a timed basis (weekly, monthly, bi-monthly, etc). The timing and contents of the subscription could be customized based on the size and needs of the group/individual purchasing. This would effectively give people in food deserts consistent access to foods necessary for healthier living.
Description: Oasis Delivery was designed to attack the issue of rural Alabama food deserts. Using a subscription-based delivery system, Oasis would deliver foods with long shelf-lives such as pasta or canned vegetables on a timed basis (weekly, monthly, bi-monthly, etc). The timing and contents of the subscription could be customized based on the size and needs of the group/individual purchasing. This would effectively give people in food deserts consistent access to foods necessary for healthier living.
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H 2 Oh!
Group Members: Trey Brothers, Giovanna Scott-McCabe, Cole Wagenhals, Kira Wence
Description: H 2 Oh! addresses the issue of poor water sanitation in rural Alabama. It is a fourteen-stage water purification system that comes in a 750-gallon refillable water tank. Contaminated water supply can cause side effects including diarrhea, vomiting, and fever, so H 2 Oh! hopes to expand to other areas with clean water issues to prevent more people from suffering from these side effects.
Description: H 2 Oh! addresses the issue of poor water sanitation in rural Alabama. It is a fourteen-stage water purification system that comes in a 750-gallon refillable water tank. Contaminated water supply can cause side effects including diarrhea, vomiting, and fever, so H 2 Oh! hopes to expand to other areas with clean water issues to prevent more people from suffering from these side effects.
