After returning to California, August 16, 2023
Please see my full year trip log Sept. 2022 – Sept. 2023
I’ll spare you the drama of my personal life – and there’s lots, so you’re welcome – I’ll stick to the logistical and technological developments in the year after my return from Africa/Nepal.
MECS finalized approval to provide $40,000 through ASEI starting early 2024.
Some of the group projects in the service-learning “Appropriate Technology” worked with ISEC collaborators. The classes were more meaningful and engaging because I personally worked with almost every collaborator worked with:
The policy and politics class dedicated to studying development was winter quarter: Appropriate Technology for the World’s People, development” UNIV/PSC 391. Some interesting groups:
– #1 supported the boarding school for Maasai girls that our friend Mesha founded in Arusha.
– #3 helped Salma in Togo develop his Demo Farm.
– #4 looked at progress with ISEC building in all the collaborators.
– #7 studied ISEC-building in Nepal
– #8 studied ISEC-Building with Bidjanga in Cameroon
– #9 studied Alexis’s efforts to promote direct drive solar electricity in Puerto Rico.
The “design and build” class was winter quarter: Appropriate Technology for the World’s People, design” UNIV/PSC 392. Some interesting groups:
– #1 Studied thin-walled concrete construction with ASEI in Uganda.
– #2 Designed and built a Solar Dehydrator for Salma’s Demo Farm in Togo.
– #4 Designed and built tuning pegs for guitars with Bruno from Kindle Vocational School in Salima, Malawi.
– #5 Designed a low-cost home solar PV system for installation in the Navajo Nation by local schools, mentored by Cal Poly’s “Skip the Grid” during spring break.
– #6 Building an insulated Mitad for making Injera with Betty in Addis Ababa, Ethopia.
During the summer, 2024, 5 full-time research students (funded by the Frost Program and by Barry Butler, of Butler Sun Solutions), work in two groups:
1) Electronic power control, optimizing power delivered from the solar panel.
2) ISEC construction, in particular with concrete, largely a continuation of what group #1 from 392 did with ASEI.
Notable Accomplishments:
The quality of thin-walled concrete can be improved by using vibrations to remove air pockets in much the same way it is done in bulk concrete pours:
– See this video showing industrial vibrations in bulk concrete pour.
– Using a common muscle massage “gun”, please see two videos on the molding concrete website showing how the concrete mixture liquifies when vibrated, removing air bubbles through the steel mesh in the think concrete pour.
– We are testing a power optimizer that consists of fewer than 15 components with a total cost of less than $2. Details to follow.