{"id":69882,"date":"2019-06-24T11:08:45","date_gmt":"2019-06-24T15:08:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/?p=69882"},"modified":"2019-08-19T10:47:07","modified_gmt":"2019-08-19T14:47:07","slug":"light-touch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/2019\/06\/24\/light-touch\/","title":{"rendered":"Light touch"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

As part of an internship, Joseph Carroll, a mechanical engineering major at Wright State, experimented with a high-intensity light to kill weeds. (Photos by Erin Pence)<\/p><\/div>\n

Helping to perfect a way to kill weeds without saturating the soil with harmful chemicals has become a big part of the working life of Wright State University engineering student Joseph Carroll.<\/p>\n

Carroll can often be found at the offices of Global Neighbor, Inc., experimenting with high-intensity light \u2014 a death ray for weeds and their seeds.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are actually using directed energy, which is primarily different wavelengths of light, to kill weeds and make weed seeds unviable without regrowth,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Carroll\u2019s work has resulted in his selection as the 2018-19 Intern of the Year of the College of Engineering and Computer Science<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In his letter nominating Carroll, Global Neighbor founder Jon Jackson said he has worked with more than 50 interns over the years and that Carroll \u201cdefinitely stands out.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said Carroll thoroughly researched floral attributes, wavelength emissions and worked with his professors and outside labs to gain a strong technical foundation. And he crafted experiments to show that a directed-energy technique could make weed seeds inviable, an extension to the technique.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe great thing about Joe is we challenged him with a lot of stuff that no one\u2019s done before,\u201d said Jackson. \u201cMost interns need to be baby-stepped through the work. Joe was much more independent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carroll grew up in Kettering. His father is operations manager at a Dayton machine shop and also races stock cars. Carroll remembers hanging out with his father at the Shady Bowl Speedway as a young boy, playing with toy cars in the dirt.<\/p>\n

\u201cI grew up around race cars,\u201d he said. \u201cHow things work has always intrigued me since a young age.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carroll recently bought his own stock car and has begun racing competitively. In his first race, last fall, he finished ninth in a field of 64.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was pretty crazy,\u201d he said. \u201cI had never done anything like that before. It\u2019s definitely an adrenalin rush. It\u2019s like being on a roller coaster without the security of being strapped in.\u201d<\/p>\n

After graduating from Fairmont High School in 2015, Carroll enrolled at Wright State, drawn by the university\u2019s reputation. He majors in mechanical engineering<\/a> and is scheduled to graduate at the end of the fall semester.<\/p>\n

In the summer of 2017, Carroll began his internship at Global Neighbor, a Centerville company that makes NatureZap, a tool sold for residential use that kills weeds without the use of harmful herbicides.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Joseph Carroll is interested in getting involved in green technology as a career after he graduates from Wright State.<\/p><\/div>\n

Jackson founded Global Neighbor in 2002, but the energy efforts started in earnest in 2014. The company outcompeted more than 100 other organizations to win a contract from the Defense Department to develop technology to kill weeds without the use of chemicals. Global Neighbor is currently working on modifying its technology for agricultural use.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe use of chemicals is a very big issue in agriculture,\u201d said Carroll. \u201cWe\u2019re so dependent on chemicals that there is almost no way around it unless something like we\u2019re doing takes the forefront.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carroll has helped prove the high-intensity light technology for agricultural use and develop multiple proofs of concepts that are patent pending. He said the next step is to commercialize it as an agricultural product that is energy efficient and effective.<\/p>\n

\u201cFarmers will be able to douse their fields with high-intensity light that will be absorbed by the weeds and the soil; if you can imagine a long sled with high-intensity lights that would move between each row of crop and hit the weeds for two to three seconds,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Carroll is interested in getting involved in green technology as a career after he graduates. That doesn\u2019t surprise Jackson.<\/p>\n

\u201cJoe rose to the challenge to help a small technology company create a ground-breaking solution to help reduce herbicide-related issues,\u201d Jackson wrote. \u201cHe represents the best of WSU.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As part of his internship, Joseph Carroll, a mechanical engineering major at Wright State, experimented with high-intensity light to kill weeds. Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":69898,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[722,743,4269,715,18,4298],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-69882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academics","category-engineering-computer-science","category-mechanical-and-materials-engineering","category-news","category-research","category-student-profile"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69882"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69882\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":69918,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69882\/revisions\/69918"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}