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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

IMG_0048 IMG_0007 IMG_0464 IMG_0106 IMG_0616 IMG_0652

 

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Testing

To learn more about our testing and see our data, please visit our testing page.

IMG_0120 IMG_0117

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Future Iterations

To learn more about our plans for the future, please visit our  future iterations page.