D.E.W.

Project Type

Speculative

Date

April 2026

Skills

CAD, Research, 3D Printing, Keyshot, Rendering, Sketching

In collaboration with BOLTGROUP, D.E.W.(Dynamic Extraction Weave) is a deployable water vapor collection mesh designed for a future world. A tool for those trying to survive, D.E.W. is meant to be used over sources of steam, such as datacenter cooling towers.

Speculation

For this project, we were asked to build a world projected 10-20 years into the future. Starting with a moodboard, we slowly built up the future that we had imagined. We also researched existing conditions as a basis for the problems of our new world. I researched water accessibility and the electricity and water consumption of datacenters.

For my world, I envisioned a future where AI has boomed and has replaced many jobs. Infrastructure continues to be built at an exponential rate. These new datacenters produce excessive amounts of greenhouse gases, raising temperatures globally as well as making water and agriculture scarce in many regions. In smaller communities, these datacenters consume local water and electricity, raising utilities costs extravagantly and making clean water and power unreliable to the average resident.

In the scale of plausiblity, I projected this world as possible. While AI infrastructure is unlikely to spread and cause this much damage at its current rate, The future will definitely see an increase of infrastructure and its consequences.

Moodboard. Images include wildfires, severe drought, increased temperatures, and dying crops.

Cone of possibilities.

Initial storyboard depicting the daily life of someone living in a small community dominated by a datacenter. As AI has taken most jobs from this small community, the residents depend on bartering goods and services from each other to survive.

Ideation and Prototyping

Due to the reduced timeline of an already short project, we had a sketch sprint for the 2 days after we presented our moodboards, and a week total for ideation and prototyping.

Some of the sketches from the sprint. On the left is a community power cell hub. On the right is the deployable water mesh. Below is a personal sweat reclaimer vest.

Cardboard prototype of the main concept, D.E.W.

Final Prototype

Following review and discussion with BOLTGROUP and my peers, I began constructing the CAD model for the final prototype. While working on the CAD model, I included several features that compensated for user experience issues:

Internal tension rollers and motors, to ensure that the collection mesh remained taut at all lengths.
A folding base with rubber feet, to allow the device to rest vertically on top of a wall.
Grappling hooks driven by pinch rollers that allow the device to move itself over a large gap.
Slots for nylon webbing to attach carrying straps.
The water tank, filter, and battery are all modular and hot-swappable.

Completed CAD Prototype.

Cross-section view that displays the mesh rollers, grappling hook and cable, nylon slots, and the folding base.

Exploded render of the final prototype.

Render of full body.

Render of one half, which displays the hooks and slots.

Render of the device deployed with the mesh.

Render of the UI, including the LCD display and tactile buttons.

The physical prototype is priumarily 3D printed. Printed in sections, it is assembled into one piece and painted.

The completed physical prototype, both fully assembled and with the modular parts removed.

The completed physical prototype extended. The mesh is made out of garden mesh and the cables attached to the hooks utilize retractable ID holders.

Final presentation graphic.

D.E.W. being presented in the lobby of Burchard Hall at Virginia Tech.

Updated storyboard that now contains the use of the intervention in the user's life.