Maria Trejo, Civil and Environmental Engineering
(Faculty Mentor: Dr. Tara Kulkarni)

A living machine, or an eco-machine, is a technology consisting of ecosystems connected in a way that treats a waste stream. The objective of this project was to build a lab-scale eco-machine model to test the reduction of phosphorus levels in treated effluent from wastewater treatment plants. This project aimed to determine if living machines can serve as a polishing step in waste water treatment plants and help in lowering the phosphorus contamination related to algal eutrophication in Lake Champlain, located near Burlington, VT.