Activities
Identified the problem
Researched the requirements for the Internet of Sciences and Engineering portion of the 2017 International Environmental Engineering design Contest and decided on our entry the PURE LiFe generator, a portable solar powered generator with mobile app connectivity.
Topics Researched
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Established Requirements and Specifications
Created a detailed table of specifications for our project including the following six categories:
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Milestones
- Completed individual research plans
- Completed Problem Definition, Research survey, and Requirements and Specifications Client Report
- Completed presentation on Problem, Requirements, and Research
Tools
No tools were used during this stage.
Design Decisions
For our project we will be competing in the Internet of Science and Engineering task of the IEE WERC competition where we are tasked with building a device that monitors and analyzes the environment and communicates this information to an internet site and your mobile phone. Some design considerations for the contest are as follows.
Design Considerations
Design Considerations
- Your design should address water, air, energy, waste or health.
- The design should be self-contained to be deployed anywhere in the world.
- Your design should consider renewable energy or energy harvesting sources.
- Your design should minimize wiring and connection
Since this is a very open ended task we had to come up with a design for our entry that would address the goal and the design considerations posed by this task. We decided that our entry would be the PURE LiFe Generator, a portable solar powered generator with mobile app connectivity.
Design Work
At this stage we identified several major components that would be necessary to build the PURE LiFE Generator but had not specified actual parts needed a list of the components is below.
Major Components Needed
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Testing
No testing was completed during this phase.
Challenges
When completing research on the different battery types it was difficult to find unbiased information. Many websites provided conflicting data about which battery chemistry was preferred for solar photo-voltaic systems. We found reliable information on the NREL, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory website, and through IEEE publications and used this information in our research.