u/UnderstandingStock40

Hey everyone! I am an FTC competitor here from the Santa Clara area. I'm looking to start a community-based underwater robotics team and wanted to see if any high schoolers nearby would be interested. The plan is to compete in the MATE ROV Competition, building underwater ROVs for environmental missions. It'd be fully independent, open to any high schooler in the area, regardless of school.

Looking for people with any background in:

- Robotics (FTC/FLL/FRC experience a plus)

- Electronics/Arduino/Raspberry Pi

- Programming

- Environmental science

Drop a comment if you're a high schooler in the Bay Area and interested. Just gauging interest for now!

Hey everyone! I am an FTC competitor here from the Santa Clara area. I'm looking to start a community-based underwater robotics team and wanted to see if any high schoolers nearby would be interested. The plan is to compete in the MATE ROV Competition, building underwater ROVs for environmental missions. It'd be fully independent, open to any high schooler in the area, regardless of school.

Looking for people with any background in:

- Robotics (FTC/FLL/FRC experience a plus)

- Electronics/Arduino/Raspberry Pi

- Programming

- Environmental science

Drop a comment if you're a high schooler in the Bay Area and interested. Just gauging interest for now!

Hey everyone! I am an FTC competitor here from the Santa Clara area. I'm looking to start a community-based underwater robotics team and wanted to see if any high schoolers nearby would be interested. The plan is to compete in the MATE ROV Competition, building underwater ROVs for environmental missions. It'd be fully independent, open to any high schooler in the area, regardless of school.

Looking for people with any background in:

- Robotics (FTC/FLL/FRC experience a plus)

- Electronics/Arduino/Raspberry Pi

- Programming

- Environmental science

Drop a comment if you're a high schooler in the Bay Area and interested. Just gauging interest for now!

I’m working on a student project and could really use some advice from people with more experience in sensing / EE.

Goal: detect microplastic particles (using PVC powder as a stand-in) with an interdigitated electrode + FDC1004 capacitance sensor.

Setup:

• Arduino + FDC1004
• Interdigitated electrode PCB
• Measuring capacitance changes (fF/pF range)

What I’m seeing:

• When I touch the electrode with my finger → clear capacitance change
• When I put PVC powder on it → basically no change

What I think is happening:

• PVC has low permittivity (~2–3), close to air
• It’s an insulator and doesn’t hold stable charge
• So dielectric change is too small for the sensor to pick up

Where I’m stuck:

• I originally thought electrostatic charge might help detection, but now realizing the sensor is really measuring dielectric effects, not charge
• Even when I try to tribocharge the powder, I still don’t see a meaningful signal

Questions:

1. Is this fundamentally the wrong sensing approach for dry microplastics?
2. Are there ways to increase sensitivity of an interdigitated capacitive sensor for low-ε materials?
3. Would changing electrode geometry (spacing, area, frequency, shielding) realistically help enough?
4. Should I pivot to a different detection method (optical, impedance in fluid, etc.) while keeping electrostatic capture?

I’m trying to figure out if this is worth iterating on or if I’m hitting a physics limit here.

Any insight or suggestions would be super helpful.