On May 30th GMT, three 2018 students from Birmingham Institute of Fashion and Creative Art (BIFCA) —Li Yikun, Wang Yiren and Cheng Mo—got the recognition of the judges with their works “The Plant Automatic Irrigation Machine” and won the Best Innovation Award of the Birmingham City University(BCU) Innovation Fest. They also received admiring comments from Professor Philip Plowden, President of BCU.
It took Professor Richard of BCU, the supervisor, and the three students a month and lots of sweat to turn the award-winning work into reality. In the design and improvement of the work’s appearance, students and faculty of BIFCA also lent a helping hand, especially Professor Li Wanjun, the dean, who provided solid support and constructive suggestions.
Combining digital and hardware technology, "Plant Automatic Irrigation Machine" created a closed automatic irrigation system. With programming and sensors, it can automatically detect lighting conditions, soil moisture and water level, thus providing necessary conditions for plant growth. In producing this work, the three students smartly used the computer programming knowledge they had learned, and applied programming knowledge to practice through circuit design and connection, sensor installation and setup, as well as the use of LED lights.
