Power for Developing Countries
Wind turbines are one way to generate energy locally in some places in Africa.Copyright 2008 Warren Rohner, Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Darling_Wind_Farm.jpg
Working in groups, students look at three different villages in various parts of Africa and design economically viable engineering solutions to answer the energy needs of the off-the-grid small towns, given limited budgets. Each village has different nearby resources, both renewable and nonrenewable. Student teams conduct research, make calculations, consider the options and create plans, which they present to the class. Through their investigations and planning of custom solutions for each locale, they experience the real-world engineering research and analysis steps of the engineering design process.
While engineers face many technical challenges, often the hardest task is figuring out the appropriate approach to a problem. This is especially true for projects in developing countries. Simply "throwing" technology at a situation without researching and understanding the local landscape often causes more harm than good. Background research is an essential part of the engineering design process. While it may seem that this activity does not focus heavily on technical engineering and scientific principles, the most important parts of an engineering project often involve the effort to understand the local context and then appropriately strategize a design approach, as well as communicating and defending a design plan to others. Emphasizing with students that these aspects are integral parts to being an engineer helps them to avoid pitfalls and break stereotypes later in life.
After this activity, students should be able to:
- Explain the complications of real engineering projects while developing an awareness of the cultural, social, economic and political context surrounding such projects.
- Teach themselves about unfamiliar topics via background research, including sifting out sources that are too technical and/or irrelevant for the scope of understanding.
- Describe how electricity is extracted from different sources of energy, such as sun, wind, water, biomass, natural gas, etc.
- Analyze different technology options, and specifically for energy technologies, recognize the limitations of materials, the role of conversion efficiency, and environmental availability and impact.
- Design a tailored strategy to a challenging situation while defending and communicating the approach to others.