Magnetic Animal Repellent

Sidney Boakye, Michelle Miller, Joaquin Valda

Acknowledgements
❖ George Mason University
➢ For allowing the Governor’s School to generously fund student-led projects
and presenting more STEM research opportunities to high school students
❖ The Governor's School Program
➢ For funding student-led projects and allowing them to further and
independently explore in the realm of STEM
❖ Dr. Ales Psaker
➢ For representing us as our adult supervisor for our project and also sharing
insight into the workings systems in our project
Introduction/ Abstract
❖ We have decided to develop a device that will generate a magnetic field to keep
deter animals away from man-made structures (i.e. buildings, roads, power lines)
❖ This device will consist of a microwave transformer
Background

❖ New and neat topic

❖ Similar device exist but not for use in multiple environments
❖ Electrical Engineering
Why We Chose This Project

We want to protect both ourselves and animals. Our device would be able to do this
with uses like preventing deer from crossing onto roads or birds negatively impacting
the durability of power lines.
Questions

❖ Some questions that we have are, how can we make a magnetic field with a large

radius with a strength of 5mT or greater?

❖ Would the stronger magnetic field actually repel animals, or could it instead

attract them.

❖ Can our method fully optimize our magnetic field based on the materials we have
Hypothesis

By developing and constructing a device that generates a magnetic field we will be able

to manipulate the behavior of animals and steer then away from a location which will

bring them into harm.

Materials and Methods

We used a thin soft iron rod and a length of 24-gauge wire with two AA batteries for
our first attempt on making an electromagnet. The wire was wrapped two times so it
has 230 turns and the batteries were attached end to end.

Our second electromagnet is made with 14- gauge wire and a steel spike with a lantern
battery. The wire was wrapped two times so it has 140 turns.
Analytical Tools

❖ We will use a Vernier Magnetic Field sensor to collect the magnetic field of our
magnet.
❖ We will use a the Vernier Software to analyze the data.
❖ We then will take our device into an area with a large amount of bird activity and
set up a camera to see how they are affected by the device.
Data and Results

❖ So far we have tested two prototypes for an electromagnet

References

Staff, L. S. (2012, November 15). How Do Birds Navigate? Retrieved October 12, 2017, from

https://www.livescience.com/32276-how-do-birds-navigate.html

A. M. (2008, August 25). Cattle, Deer Graze Along Earth's Magnetic Field. Retrieved October

16, 2017, from

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/08/080825-magnetic-cows_2.html

Staff, L. S. (2012, November 15). How Do Birds Navigate? Retrieved October 12, 2017, from

https://www.livescience.com/32276-how-do-birds-navigate.htm
Website

Go to: https://magneticanimalrepellent.weebly.com/