Plastics in Oceans

Engineering 102

Project One – Plastics in Oceans

Plastic materials in the ocean pose problems for wildlife among other environmental issues. The amount of plastic in the ocean is increasing, and measures are being implemented in various communities in an effort to reduce the input. These are sometimes questioned as to efficacy and whether they will make any difference. This project will study this problem, particularly where plastics come from, using data from a comprehensive study published in Science Magazine in 2015.

You will be assigned teams of 3 or 4. Each team member will be responsible for analyzing some data, with comprehensive analysis by the whole group. Team members who do not contribute substantially in their groups can be replaced, and team members who are in poorly performing groups may move to other groups.

Important programming information: You must use the techniques taught up to this point in the course to solve this project. No loops or conditionals statements may be used for this project. (No credit will be given for code using them) Perform the following analysis in a single MATLAB script file(one per team member) named “Project_1_Firstname_Lastname.m “. Each member must write his or her own code, and team member’s codes may not be identical. The team must work together to divide the work and to complete the final analysis. In all cases except where noted Matlab must do the computations and analysis – Values may not be hard coded into the code. The exception to this is the names of the countries, which may be written into the code after the code determines the country by number. Use comment statements to separate parts of the code, and suppress all output to the command window except the required output.

Individual portion:

1 – Determine among the team members which member will analyze which of the four economic income statuses. The analysis is the same for each, but the code may not be identical. Each team member must write his/her own code.

2 - Import plastic waste data into MATLAB. Use this xlsread command with NO changes to anything to the right of the assignment operator (= sign). I will read the data in from your program using the same Excel file, and your program must be able to read the data in the same way. All data extraction from the Excel file must be done in the program, not by multiple xlsread statements.

Variable_Name=xlsread('Plastic Waste Inputs Data.xlsx','C2:P193');

3 – Using logical indexing, extract the income status that you are to analyze, creating vectors for each.

4 – For each of the four economic status, determine the following: Use 2010 values. Each done by one team member, for teams of 3 you can select three of the four. Where it says HIC/UMI/LMI/LI, report the status of YOUR project only, so it should have only one of the four economic statuses. (Note units of ‘Tonnes’ means metric tons).

5 – Report using fprintf:

“The most populous nation in the HIC/UMI/LMI/LI is nation ###, which is XXXXXXXXX.”

“The least populous nation in the HIC/UMI/LMI/LI is nation ###, which is XXXXXXXXX.”

For example, your output might read:

“The most populous nation in the LMI is nation 1, which is Albania.”

6 – Project what could happen if input of plastics increases, decreases, or stays the same. With a user defined growth rate (have the user input the percent of increase and decrease in two separate input statements), use the total mismanaged plastic per year for your individual economic income statuses (found in part 4) to predict the total mismanaged plastic per year for 2011-2050. Plot the three lines in a single plot if the annual rate were to:

1. Increase
2. Decrease

• Remain Constant

Your plot must be properly labeled. Use the following formulas

Group portion: (Just create the table for the report. Code not collected)

7 - Make a combined table for the final technical report using all team member’s data:

PROJECT DELIVERABLES

a) MATLAB Code (40%): Deadline: Sunday, 28 Feb 11:59 pm individually submitted code that performs required calculations per above. This portion of the project must be done Upload to eCampus.

b) Technical Report (35%): Deadline: Sunday, 7 Mar 11:59 pm. Team members will be announced during class and in ecampus. You can communicate with other team members through ecampus. One submission per group. Electronic copy uploaded to eCampus.

Team memberships may be changed if needed.

Note about Background: Your background section of the technical report should include background research in areas of waste generation, municipal solid waste, trash in oceans, effects of plastics on oceanic wildlife, advantages and disadvantages of plastics, changes of use of plastics over time, and other topics related to this project. These are guidelines of topics, students are encouraged to expand upon this selection of topics. If you are unsure if a topic is relevant, contact your instructor. The group should determine which topics will be covered by which team member using the guidelines above. Each team member will select and write about a different topic. Each section should be about a page of double spaced text (12 pt font), with at least THREE referenced with proper in text citations.

Note about Discussion and Conclusions: The discussion and conclusion portions of the technical report should at the very least address the following questions.

1. After comparing the four economic statuses, which appears to contributes the most to plastic in the oceans, which is the least, and by how much?
2. What geographic part of the world is represented in the least and largest contributors?
3. Explain what those living in the countries which contribute the most and least can do to make a real difference to the amount of plastic being put into the oceans. Explain your reasoning.
4. Explain what affect bans on plastic products would have on inputs to oceans and any other consequences associated with such bans (such as impacts on public health and safety, culture, society, environment, and economy)

c) Video Presentation (15%): Deadline: Wednesday Mar 10. 11:59 pm. Upload to eCampus

d) Peer Reviews (10%) Deadline: Sunday, Mar 14 at 11:59 pm. Individual Assignment, link in eCampus

PROJECT MANAGEMENT and ASSIGNMENT DELIVERABLES

Gantt Chart and Team Charter are required components and will be included in the Assignment portion of the course grade. Due dates for these items will be set by your instructor: