More efficient cooking stoves for Sub-Saharan Africa<\/h2>\n![\"students](\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/design-day-2016-pot-skirt.jpg\")
From left to right: YeJin Jeong ’16, Nikki Sroka ’16, Jessica He ’16, and Adam Langenbucher ’16 demonstrate their Design Day project, and adjustable cooking skirt for portable stoves used in Kenya. (University photo \/ J. Adam Fenster)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n![\"cooking](\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/design-day-2016-pot-skirt2.jpg\")
(University photo \/ J. Adam Fenster)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nBiomedical engineering seniors\u00a0Jessica He, YeJin Jeong, Adam Langenbucher, and Nikki Sroka have developed an adjustable \u201cskirt\u201d that will fit around any size pot used atop a\u00a0portable cooking stove.\u00a0The skirts help concentrate the rising heat, increasing fuel efficiency. Greater fuel efficiency means families spend less time or money cutting or buying fuel, which lessens deforestation. It also means less time spent standing over the stove, reducing exposure to emissions.<\/p>\n
The students are working with\u00a0alumnus Boston Nyer \u201908, co-founder of BURN, a company that manufactures the cooking stoves sold to families in Kenya. Right now, the post skirts come in fixed sizes.\u00a0\u201cResearch has shown there is an ideal distance between the skirt and the wall of the pot at which efficiency is highest, and that\u2019s about 10 mm,\u201d Sroka explained. Hence the need for a skirt that could be adjusted to that ideal distance with any of several different sized pots a family might have in it\u2019s possession.<\/p>\n
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Concentrating solar energy<\/h2>\n![\"group](\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/design-day-2016-solar2.jpg\")
From left to right: Jacob Blacksberg’ 16, Fifi Song ’16, Michal Adar ’16, Sean Reid ’16, Daniel Morgen ’16, and Henry Pablo ’16 tighten the mylar on their improved solar concentrator. (University photo \/ J. Adam Fenster)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n![\"student](\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/design-day-2016-solart.jpg\")
Daniel Morgen ’16, optical engineering, left and Jacob Blacksberg ’16, mechanical engineering, carry their solar concentrator onto the roof of the Wilmot Building in preparation for testing. (University photo \/ J. Adam Fenster)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nAn interdepartmental team of optical and mechanical engineering students is perfecting professor Wayne Knox\u2019s solar concentrator \u2013 a concave mirror that focuses sunlight on a small area. It could be used to sterilize drinking water and can serve as a solar oven in developing countries.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe challenge we\u2019re try to solve with our new frame design is how get rid of the wrinkles around the edge that plagued the original design,\u201d said Sean Reid ’16, an optical engineering student who is also minoring in mechanical engineering.\u00a0\u00a0\u201cThe wrinkling warped the parabolic shape and caused the spreading of the spot size. What we\u2019re doing with our frame is to apply a clamping force from the top and bottom around the edge of the mylar surface, rather than stretching it as much. It looks like the spot size is smaller.\u201d Other team members are Michal Adar ’16, Jacob Blacksberg ’16, and Henry Pablo ’16 of mechanical engineering, and Michael Dupuis ’16, Bryan Maas ’16, Daniel Morgen ’16, and Fifi Song of optical engineering.<\/p>\n
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Reading braille when your fingers can’t ‘see’<\/h2>\n
Biomedical engineering seniors\u00a0Jessica He, YeJin Jeong, Adam Langenbucher, and Nikki Sroka have developed an adjustable \u201cskirt\u201d that will fit around any size pot used atop a\u00a0portable cooking stove.\u00a0The skirts help concentrate the rising heat, increasing fuel efficiency. Greater fuel efficiency means families spend less time or money cutting or buying fuel, which lessens deforestation. It also means less time spent standing over the stove, reducing exposure to emissions.<\/p>\n
The students are working with\u00a0alumnus Boston Nyer \u201908, co-founder of BURN, a company that manufactures the cooking stoves sold to families in Kenya. Right now, the post skirts come in fixed sizes.\u00a0\u201cResearch has shown there is an ideal distance between the skirt and the wall of the pot at which efficiency is highest, and that\u2019s about 10 mm,\u201d Sroka explained. Hence the need for a skirt that could be adjusted to that ideal distance with any of several different sized pots a family might have in it\u2019s possession.<\/p>\n
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Concentrating solar energy<\/h2>\nFrom left to right: Jacob Blacksberg’ 16, Fifi Song ’16, Michal Adar ’16, Sean Reid ’16, Daniel Morgen ’16, and Henry Pablo ’16 tighten the mylar on their improved solar concentrator. (University photo \/ J. Adam Fenster)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nDaniel Morgen ’16, optical engineering, left and Jacob Blacksberg ’16, mechanical engineering, carry their solar concentrator onto the roof of the Wilmot Building in preparation for testing. (University photo \/ J. Adam Fenster)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nAn interdepartmental team of optical and mechanical engineering students is perfecting professor Wayne Knox\u2019s solar concentrator \u2013 a concave mirror that focuses sunlight on a small area. It could be used to sterilize drinking water and can serve as a solar oven in developing countries.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe challenge we\u2019re try to solve with our new frame design is how get rid of the wrinkles around the edge that plagued the original design,\u201d said Sean Reid ’16, an optical engineering student who is also minoring in mechanical engineering.\u00a0\u00a0\u201cThe wrinkling warped the parabolic shape and caused the spreading of the spot size. What we\u2019re doing with our frame is to apply a clamping force from the top and bottom around the edge of the mylar surface, rather than stretching it as much. It looks like the spot size is smaller.\u201d Other team members are Michal Adar ’16, Jacob Blacksberg ’16, and Henry Pablo ’16 of mechanical engineering, and Michael Dupuis ’16, Bryan Maas ’16, Daniel Morgen ’16, and Fifi Song of optical engineering.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Reading braille when your fingers can’t ‘see’<\/h2>\n
An interdepartmental team of optical and mechanical engineering students is perfecting professor Wayne Knox\u2019s solar concentrator \u2013 a concave mirror that focuses sunlight on a small area. It could be used to sterilize drinking water and can serve as a solar oven in developing countries.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe challenge we\u2019re try to solve with our new frame design is how get rid of the wrinkles around the edge that plagued the original design,\u201d said Sean Reid ’16, an optical engineering student who is also minoring in mechanical engineering.\u00a0\u00a0\u201cThe wrinkling warped the parabolic shape and caused the spreading of the spot size. What we\u2019re doing with our frame is to apply a clamping force from the top and bottom around the edge of the mylar surface, rather than stretching it as much. It looks like the spot size is smaller.\u201d Other team members are Michal Adar ’16, Jacob Blacksberg ’16, and Henry Pablo ’16 of mechanical engineering, and Michael Dupuis ’16, Bryan Maas ’16, Daniel Morgen ’16, and Fifi Song of optical engineering.<\/p>\n
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