AeroVue: Design a $200 Desktop Flow Visualizer That Rivals $20K Wind Tunnels

Context

Every aerospace engineering student learns about boundary layers and flow separation from textbooks, but the moment they actually see turbulent transition happen over a wing, everything clicks. The problem? Benchtop wind tunnels with decent flow visualization cost $15,000–$50,000. Smoke generators are messy, schlieren setups require optical expertise, and CFD doesn't build physical intuition.

A startup called FlowLab wants to democratize aerodynamic education and rapid prototyping. They've secured seed funding to develop a desktop flow visualizer that hobbyists can afford ($150–$250 retail) but that produces results accurate enough for university labs and small engineering consultancies to trust. Your challenge: design the core visualization system.

Your Goal

Design a novel flow visualization system for a desktop-scale (test section ≤ 200mm × 200mm) air flow device. Your solution must make flow patterns clearly visible to the naked eye or a standard smartphone camera, work reliably without consumables that cost more than $0.50/hour to operate, and achieve flow velocity uniformity within ±8% across the test section core (central 60%).

The winning design will be one that FlowLab's engineering team could hand to a contract manufacturer next quarter.