AIDE Update: Textbook Chapter

In the past few months, we have been continuing to develop our design tool, the AguaClara Infrastructure Design Engine (AIDE). To begin publicizing AIDE for broader use, we have prepared a few public-facing documents that give more insight into how the tool works. 

The AguaClara textbook now contains a section that introduces AIDE, explains how we at AguaClara use AIDE, and describes how you can use AIDE to explore AguaClara technologies. The relevant section of the textbook can be found here. This section includes videos that guide you through an exploration of AIDE within Onshape, the CAD program that we use to design AguaClara plants. 

Introductory videos for AIDE

In addition, there are public demos available for various configurable components, which make up our customized water treatment plant designs. These public demos include a CAD model and an explanatory PDF. In the demo model, you can adjust certain parameters and quickly see how the new parameter values affect the physical model. The attached PDF describes the configurable component and defines the relevant parameters. This allows you to know more about the changes you are making and how they fit into the physics of the code integrated into the model.

We encourage you to explore our design tool and welcome feedback through this form.

AguaClara Textbook Introduction

Planned to be a compendium of AguaClara research and design methods, the “AguaClara textbook” titled The Physics of Water Treatment Design has become an indispensable resource of AguaClara design. Over the past several years, many individuals have contributed their time and knowledge in developing what the textbook has become. 

Not simply a narrative of how designs come to be, the textbook also includes design challenges for students taking the Safe Water on Tap course. These challenges are supported by direct links to Onshape 3D Models, the derivations of key principles, a glossary,  parameter convention list, and links to interactive code snippets where users can see directly how changes will affect the design.

The homepage of the textbook

The recent additions mentioned above supplement most chapters, allowing students to have nearly all course documents in one place, as well as a straightforward means to edit the design challenges. Within most chapters, the structure follows a pattern: the introduction to the component followed by derivations, then design, then the Design Challenge, ending with design solutions and future work. This structure allows readers to understand the big picture before working on the design and solving the design challenge.

The design challenges are incorporated into the text to make it easy for students to connect the design challenges to course concepts.

Another feature, designed specifically with readers in mind, is the labeling and tagging of each equation, image, heading, and reference. This allows these features to be linked within the text and can send the reader directly back to where the equation or image was first cited. The tagged headings allow important portions of the text to be cited specifically. This is helpful in guiding students towards the cited concepts in place of page numbers, which are not present in the website version of the text.

This equation is named and is automatically linked when you refer to its name elsewhere in the text. This makes it simple to refer back to other concepts.

Another unique feature of the textbook is the publishing rate of new versions. With a typical textbook, years go by before edits can be made and published. However, in our textbook, once an edit is made, a new version can be available in a few minutes. This rapid turnover means that the information is rarely out of date. The rapid changes also ensure that the textbook is never finished.

The version number can be found in the upper left-hand part of the webpage, it is updated every time a new version is pushed.

Every design change made, and each insight gained, leads to a better, more thorough version. We know that it is a short walk to the edge of knowledge and this textbook lets that be true, in a way impossible through traditional methods. Every set of reviewers makes changes to make the material easier for students and others to understand, and this allows the text to be something that can change depending on the needs of users. Some plans for the future are to simplify the way in which edits are proposed, as well as adding additional sections on plant operation and troubleshooting challenges, along with the tentative completion of several additional sections. Though it will never be truly complete, The Physics of Water Treatment Design is an incredible resource for anyone interested in learning about the AguaClara design philosophy and treatment technology.

Check out the textbook and let us know what you think!

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Blog post author: Clare O’Connors