Patrick Coman Email & Phone Number

I have become engrossed in the world of Civil and Environmental Engineering in the past three years. I took multiple courses that followed a collegiate curriculum (Project Lead the Way or PLTW) such as Principles of Engineering, Civil Engineering and Architecture, Architectural Drawing and Engineering Design and Development. Principles of Engineering was my first real introduction to engineering and I very much enjoyed using programs like Autodesk Inventor and learning about beam deflection and structural design. My passion for Civil Engineering continued when I took both Civil Engineering and Architecture and Architectural Drawing, gaining experience using programs such as Autodesk Revit and Sketchup. During my senior year of high school, I took a class called Engineering Design and Development, which was a full year design project in small groups, similar to the Interdisciplinary Design Project for first-year students here at Villanova. My group focused on solving the problem of water pollution as a result of agricultural runoff to prevent blue-green algae growth. This project allowed me to gain experience working in groups, managing time for myself and the group and using Autodesk Civil 3D to model the stormwater runoff of a farm site near out school.Currently, in my Interdisciplinary Design Project at Villanova University, my group is focused on solving the issue of plastics and other waste eventually ending up in the ocean. Our solution consists of a modification to an existing solution which is a device that floats on the surface of the water and uses the currents of the ocean to separate and collect plastics from the ocean. Our modification consists of adding both bladeless propellors and solar panels to the "floater" to allow the device to actively move through the ocean collecting trash rather than relying solely on ocean currents. Our solution will also include a microfiber net that will allow microplastics (small particles of plastic) to be removed from the ocean.

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  Villanova University

  Civil Engineering