Our Sorghum Thresher at EurekaFest - June 24-27 2009

After racing through a build season of only a scant few weeks, we arrived at MIT's EurekaFest with a fully-functioning, highly successful sorghum thresher on June 24th, 2009. We were chosen to present our project in front of an audience of three or four hundred people, and received ample press coverage, such as from Discovery and Whole Grains Council. (Click to read the articles.)

Our design consists of a threshing drum – an inner and outer cylinder with spikes, with an annular space between – and a winnowing fan, which fluidized the bed of grain after it is threshed off of the stems and branches, or panicle. Both of these components are powered by pedaling a bicycle wheel.


More photos to come, including videos of our presentation/demonstration and from the event itself.