Jeff Piotrowski

While in Costa Rica myself and biology students became interested in the way leaves shed water from their surfaces and conducted several experiments to gain insight into how different leaf structures moved water.

We found that dicots, or leaves with veins in all directions (left), are slower at moving water off of their surfaces when compared to monocots, leaves with veins in only one direction (right).  However, dicots were the faster of the two at moving water to the edge of the leaf's surface.

Concepts used a simulated vein structure to move water away from crucial areas like, the face, hands, zippers, and finally off the jacket away from the users pants.  The veins on the shoulders and head were based on dicots, so they could move water to the edges of the jacket faster.  These then funneled into vien structures lower on the jacket more like monocots, to push water off the jacket and away from the user.

Final concept took the function of monocots and applied to the whole of the jackets, with many smaller veins to catch rain, funneling into larger veins that push the water off and away.