Dry Design

Windsor’s football team featured a pass-heavy offense last season. When the offense was playing well, the ball spent a lot of time in the air. When not, it spent a lot of time on the ground. That posed a lot of problems, and not just on the scoreboard.

The more time the leather-clad oblong spent on the ground, the greater chance it retained water, especially in inclement weather.  
 
“We have three or four footballs we can use in a game, but even when you send one to the sideline, it might not fully dry before you need it again,” said WCHS senior Kieran Horton. 
 
Kieran Horton, Zach Adornato, Casey Hull and Deemer Decker 
 
So Horton and fellow senior teammates Casey Hull, Zach Adornato and Deemer Decker decided to tackle the problem in their Engineering Design and Development class by building a football dryer. And, they’ve picked up a new set of teammates in the process – a group at Binghamton University, led by Professor Dr. Paul Chiarot. 
 
“It sounds like a great project. There’s a lot of engineering in there so we’ll be happy to help when we can,” said Dr. Chiarot.  
 
The Windsor students and Dr. Chiarot held a video web chat during a recent EDD class for a preliminary design review. 
 
“It’s where we say, ‘This is why it’s a valid problem, here’s why it didn’t work and here’s how we can innovate it,” said EDD teacher Mark Wentka. 
This is the second year that Dr. Chiarot and his graduate students will help Windsor EDD students with what is called their Capstone Projects.
 
“I feel like he gave us great knowledge on how to move forward,” said Hull.
 
Kieran Horton, Zach Adornato, Casey Hull and Deemer Decker looking at a computer screen  Dr. Chiarot on a computer screen
 
The Windsor students presented preliminary research to the BU team about the design of the device, the temperature needed to dry footballs and the power needed to achieve that temperature. They also have the limiting factors of not wanting the heat to either destroy the leather and/or misshape the ball. Having this web conference with Dr. Chiarot helped the students focus their research.
 
“We knew if we didn’t have our stuff together, that would be embarrassing,” said Horton. 
 
The Windsor students will check in periodically with the BU team during the school year before presenting their final project to Dr. Chiarot and his graduate students on the BU campus in June.
 
Dr. Chiarot had two questions for the Windsor students to address: have they thought about using a super-absorbent material as part of the design, and have they determined just how much water a football absorbs? As the four Windsor students left class, they felt ready to move on to the next step.
 
“Let’s go build something, boys,” said Horton. 

← BACK
Print This Article
View text-based website