08/28/2026
Biological engineers know how to measure flow in streams, stormwater pipes, wetlands or even in gutters. The units are typically measured in cubic feet per second or liters per second. But what about tiny flows, 1,000 times smaller, that we encounter during our experiments?
Izzy Hedges and Georgia Reichling, rising seniors in Biological and Agricultural Engineering, turned to new technique! They designed a tipping-pipe system inspired by a Japanese Shishi-Odoshi bamboo water fountain!
They 3D printed the parts in Weaver Labs and used the electronics from an old tipping bucket rain gauge to automatically count the number and timing of the tips, and voilà! BAE now has a system to continuously measure tiny flows less than 10 milliliters per second. 🐺💡
The flowmeter is part of a larger project aimed at understanding how denitrification removes nitrate in watersheds. François Birgand, director of BAE graduate programs and professor, is designing lab experiments to understand how natural cleaning processes interact with polluted rainwater before it reaches rivers and streams. 🌊
