Ghana Outreach Solar Reflector
Nov 23rd, 2013 by huntek3
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute • Professor Ron Eglash • Fall 2013
Product Design and Innovation Studio V • Kuniko Hunter, Xiaohan Li and Keegan Mik
Overview
The Ghana Outreach Solar Reflector project is a non-profit project done by a group of students from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute under the direction of Professor Ron Eglash, Ph.D in fall 2013. The project aims to benefit residents of Kumasi, Ghana by creating a method to produce indigenous Adinkra ink using sustainable solar power to in lieu of conventional finite resources in the heating process. The group consisted of RPI students Kuniko Hunter (BMED/DIS, ’15), Xiaohan Li (MECL/DIS, ’15) and Keegan Mik (MECL/DIS, ’14).
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Cultural Background
Northern Ghana, as well as much of northern Africa, is undergoing major and rapid deforestation. This is resulting in major losses of biodiversity, which if continued will damage their ecosystem and forcibly change the way people live in north Africa.
Adinkra ink is culturally significant to the people of Ghana. To learn more about what it is used for and how it is produced, please visit our cultural background page.
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Partnership with KNUST
The RPI solar reflector outreach project has been working with students and faculty from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumase, Ghana for several years. To learn more about our partnership with KNUST, please visit our KNUST page.
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Prototyping
Prototyping took place in multiple steps, as defined below. To learn more about a particular subsystem, click on the heading.
Initial Mock-up • Plywood Model • Reaction Chamber
Stainless Steel Ribs • Lamination Methods
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Testing
To learn more about our testing and see our data, please visit our testing page.
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Future Iterations
To learn more about our plans for the future, please visit our future iterations page.
This page has the following sub pages.