IEEE Canada Humanitarian Design Competition

Organizational MeetingDepartment of Electrical and Computer Engineering

University of Waterloo

Some slides taken from presentation on WE CARE solar suitcase by Hal Aronson & Laura Stachel

Objective of Competition

• Provide venue for students to gain practical experience in improving or innovating on an existing design under some of the constraints and conditions they will face in industry.

• Competition involves improving a “solar suitcase” for use in medical clinics in developing countries

Maternal Mortality and Electrification

Municipal Hospital

Operating Room

Maternity Ward

WE CARE Solar Suitcase• A portable solar electric system that fits in a suitcase• Powers overhead LED lighting, charges walkie-talkies

and cell phones, and includes LED headlamps that come with their own rechargeable batteries.

Energy Estimate: 40 watt PV Panel

PV Watts x Sun Hours x 0.5 = Energy

40 watts x 5 hours x 0.5 = 100 watt-hrs

Example Use of 100 watt-hrs

• Two 3-watt LEDs x 5 hours = 30 watt-hrs• Two cell phone charges = 10 watt-hrs• Eight AAA batteries = 10 watt-hrs• Laptop for 2 hours = 50 watt-hrs

Maternity Ward Before

….After

O.R. Before

O.R. after PV: 17 watts

STUDENT DESIGN COMPETITION

Overview

• WE CARE will make the details of their “solar suitcase” platform available as Open Source Hardware

• Participants will be asked to study this system and to propose ideas that will improve it, extend it or innovate it.

• It is mandatory to limit designs to parts of this platform

• All designs will be “Open Source”, and will become part of the open platform

Potential Ideas• Simplification of the installation• Creation of a collection of direct current (12VDC) medical

devices• Enabling the use of Li-Ion batteries• Enabling the use of electric handheld tool batteries • Optimizing the charge controller• Improving the system’s serviceability and cost • Improving the system’s enclosure• Innovating the connectors and cabling • Improving the effectiveness of recycling and sustainability

Logistics and Timeline

• Teams submit project proposal (100-200 words) by Jan 14th describing what aspect of the platform they will be improving

• Progress report due Feb 18th describing work done so far, timeline, design specs, etc.

• Final report due April 1st, will be judged based on innovation, quality, completeness, practicality and complexity

Teams• Open to undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in a

Canadian college or university.

• Each team must be led by an IEEE student member– Other team members are not obligated to be members of the IEEE.

• Teams are required to have a mentor (a professor from the institution where team is enrolled, or from industry)

• Teams will have a minimum of 2 and a maximum of 4 members

• No limit on the number of teams from a given institution

• No entry fees

Prizes• Abstract of the winners’ work will be published in the IEEE

Canadian Review magazine

• First prize, CND $1000; second prize, CND $700; third prize, CND $300.

• Top three teams will receive travel grants and complementary conference registration for the [2]Canadian Conference on Electrical and Computer Engineering (CCECE); at this conference, they will be asked to show their designs on the solar suitcase during a tutorial session.

• Students will be rewarded at a ceremony that will take place during the CCECE in early May 2011 in Niagara Falls, Ontario.

Design Goals: Round Two

• Maintain functionality• Reduce cost• Simplify installation• Provide suite of 12VDC appliances

Find the “best” PV Module

• Manufacture• Friendship prices Or…..• Buy leftovers and

used….

Battery

Optimize charge controller

• Size: reduce Amperage (10A)• Type: PWM or MPPT?• Features: Displays• Price: trade degree of reliability if repair

infrastructure in place?

Concentrate deployment

• Better Data• Training• Maintenance/recycling infrastructure• Local assembly? Haiti; S Africa• Shipping

Contacts

• Shreyas Sundaram, ssundara@uwaterloo.ca• Siddharth Garg, s6garg@ecemail.uwaterloo.ca• Hiren Patel, hdpatel@uwaterloo.ca

Please send an email to one of the three contacts listed above by Tuesday Jan 11th if you are interested. If you have already created a team, please include a list of team members.