UF’s IPPD celebrates 30 years of solving problems with products
Andrew MacIntosh had a food problem. A big one.
An assistant professor for the University of Florida’s Food Science and Human Nutrition Department (FSHND), he needed a large food evaporator as an in-service teaching tool. But the one in his lab was old, small and not up to the task.
So, he turned to engineering students in the experiential-learning program Integrated Product and Process Design (IPPD) in the Department of Engineering Education (EEd). In two semesters starting in 2022, MacIntosh, team coach Philip Jackson, Ph.D., and those students built, under cost and with advanced features, a pitch-perfect evaporator that remains in service today in his lab.
The following year, MacIntosh needed an advanced food desiccator for preserving moisture-sensitive items in the lab. He again turned to IPPD, where he partnered with engineering students to build the perfect machine, cheaper and more advanced than anything on the market.