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Implementing Senior Design Projects In The Developing World
| Content Provider | Semantic Scholar |
|---|---|
| Author | Jordan, William R. |
| Copyright Year | 2010 |
| Abstract | The author teaches in a moderately sized engineering program at Baylor University. We have three engineering majors. Historically we have had all of the senior students in one senior design class, working on one project. This worked fine when the graduating class was less than 20 students. Students were forced to work in interdisciplinary teams. Now, however, our graduating class has grown to more than 50. The old model would no longer work very well. We have changed our model to have multiple senior design projects, mentored by several different faculty members. We have had a long term involvement with engineering service projects in developing countries. This past year we combined these in several of our projects. In spring 2009 we had eight different projects; three of them were projects that were aimed at developing countries. This paper will describe the projects that were for applications in developing countries. Two of the projects involved creating a refrigeration system that could keep medicine cold in a tropical climate without requiring grid electricity. Hopefully this could replace a diesel powered refrigerator that the author observed at a hospital in northern Rwanda. The third project was the design of a photo-voltaic solar powered system for use in a boarding school for orphans. The first refrigeration design was based on what is called the “icy-ball” concept. This design had difficulties, including the need to use ammonia under pressure. It was deemed too dangerous and too difficult to control in a developing country. The second concept involved the use of solar power. It worked well, but was not implemented at this time. The third project, solar power for a school’s computer lab was successful. A separate implementation team installed the system at the Sonrise School in Musanze, Rwanda, in late May 2009. The paper will discuss lessons learned from these projects, including how they compared to the more traditional design projects that were completed at the same time. International Projects Background Engineering service projects are becoming an increasingly common way to teach engineering. The growth of the EPICS (Engineering Projects in Community Service) program is an example of this 1 . EPICS was founded at Purdue University in 1995 and has now grown to involve 18 universities and some high schools. Other schools, like our own, are not formally members of EPICS but are doing many of the activities that the EPICS program promotes. Our university has been doing engineering service projects in developing countries for the past five years. We have done projects in Kenya, Armenia, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Honduras, and Rwanda. We have previously reported on them at ASEE conferences and other conferences 2 ,3, 4, 5 . P ge 15686.2 Many engineering service learning courses have involved service projects within poor communities near the college campus. However, international service learning is increasing as well. One of our professors 6 has written about service projects in East Africa. One of the authors has reported on a project in rural Western Kenya 7 . The group Engineers without Borders has grown dramatically in the last few years. Professors from Rice University 8 have written about their projects with Engineers without Borders. Part of the motive behind international service learning projects is to help our students develop a global perspective. Pines and Gallant have written about their work in this area at the University of Hartford 9 . There are many reasons why faculty and students might wish to do engineering service projects. From the students’ perspective the opportunity to do a hands-on project where the results can be seen immediately is probably much more enjoyable than a traditional project might be. Many faculty are also drawn to these for the same reasons. Many people have a desire to be of service to others. This can be done from a religious motive or a secular one. Our own university defines service to others as part of its basic mission. Our students have given up significant amounts of time, effort, and money to serve poor people in other parts of the world. This application of appropriate technology in a developing country is very consistent with Baylor University’s mission, part of which is: “to educate men and women for worldwide leadership and service.” At our university most of our service learning to date has been with international projects. These projects are an outgrowth of a student-created service organization. It is loosely patterned after Engineers Without Borders from whom we have learned a great deal. Many approaches to poverty issues are from a top-down perspective, using governmental policies and spending to try to make changes. In contrast, engineering service learning can be part of a bottom-up approach, using technology and social entrepreneurship as tools to make a difference in poor communities. With a focus on service, technology can be an instrument of peace, community development, restoration of human dignity, and the alleviation of hunger and suffering. This happens as these endeavors and their practitioners orient their craft toward an end that has meaning as well as economic profit. Engineers are not the only people who are trying this bottom-up approach. Non-engineering examples of such an approach to poverty are described in the excellent book 10 by Shannon Daley-Harris and Jeffrey Keenan. We have tried several different approaches to involving students on these projects. Among them have been: 1. Students do the project as a volunteer. Implementation trips are generally done during the summer. This is the most common approach we have used. 2. Students do the project as their Master’s engineering project. This method works well with some students who are highly motivated and for whom this is more than just a project. 3. Students do the project as part of an independent study project. Page 15686.3 4. Students are paid employees as part of a sponsored research project. On one of our long term projects in Honduras, we have hired a native Spanish speaking student to act as our interpreter. However, except for students who do this as a graduate research project, involving mostly volunteer students limits the scope and complexity of the projects that we can do. This paper describes a new approach, where the international projects are the result of senior design projects. Since students get academic credit for this project they have the time and motivation to do a more complex project. Senior Design Background Our engineering program is less than thirty years old. Until the last few years the numbers of our graduates per year were 25 or less. We therefore developed a model where all of the senior engineering students were in the same senior design class and worked on one project as a team. We have three majors, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering, and a general Engineering major. About 90% of our students are in the two discipline specific majors. Like many universities we have more Mechanical Engineering majors than we do Electrical Engineering majors. By doing this approach, the senior design projects were inherently interdisciplinary. This approach worked very well as long as our numbers were relatively small. In spring 2007 we had about 40 seniors and broke the class into two separate sections that each did one project. We did the same thing in spring 2008. However, we were faced with about 57 students for spring 2009 and we realized a need to make a change in our approach to senior design. Changes to Senior Design Class For the spring 2009 projects we solicited projects from the faculty. In the end we decided to have eight separate projects. They varied in complexity and size of group. Two groups had only four students each, and the largest group had 13 students. For the first time this allowed us to have appropriate technology related projects in our senior design class. The author had suggested such projects in earlier years, but the other faculty had made the good point that appropriate technology is not an appropriate topic to mandate for all the senior designers. However, it is an appropriate topic for some students. Three of the eight projects were appropriate technology related and aimed at needs in the developing world. Projects Spring 2009 The author served as the mentor to three different appropriate technology projects in spring 2009. These projects were: 1. An off-grid refrigeration system that can be used to store drugs and food in the developing world. This used solar panels as the source of electrical power. P ge 15686.4 2. An off grid refrigeration system that can be used to store drugs and food in the developing world. This used what is called the icyball approach to lower the temperature. 3. An off grid electrical system to support the computer laboratories in the Sonrise School in Musanze, Rwanda. Off grid solar powered refrigeration The motive for this project was something the author saw on his exploratory trip to Rwanda in January 2008. A hospital on Shyira Mountain needed a refrigerator to store drugs. Since they were off the grid a traditional refrigerator was connected to a diesel generator to power it. The goal of this project was to develop a solar powered system that could power a small refrigerator. It was also required to have a small weight so that it would be reasonably portable. The formal design requirements were: 1) Minimum net storage capacity of 1.5 cubic feet (minimum depth and width of 1 foot) 2) Portable by wheels and maximum weight of 150 pounds (excluding solar panels) 3) Maintain a temperature between 35 and 48 F 4) Solar panels shall be umbilical (up to 15 feet from the refrigerator) 5) Include an operations and maintenance manual A schematic of their final design approach is shown below in Figure 1. Figure 1—Schematic of solar powered refrigeration system Page 15686.5 A ph |
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| Alternate Webpage(s) | https://peer.asee.org/implementing-senior-design-projects-in-the-developing-world.pdf |
| Language | English |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |
