In keeping with the purpose of this blog, to only share the educational moments in my life, I have decided to share one that also continually excites me despite the fact that it hasn't happened yet. What could this event be you ask? Well I'll let the widget on the right tell you...
If you can read what the widget has to say then you already know, on April 27, 2013 at approximately 7:00am (MT) I will be on a flight with 15 of my classmates to Lima, Peru! I can see you asking yourself, "Why would Erin leave the US on the first day after teenage-hood for a country that values beans as a food staple?" Let me answer that for you now. It all starts with a little know BYU club called Global Engineering Outreach (GEO).
I found this club freshman year (a tale for another time) and have since helped lead the club to great opportunities (such as semester trips to the Navajo Nation, also for another time). The best part about this club is the connection it has to a class I am currently taking, officially called "Global Projects", and affectionately called "the GEO class". In this class 20 engineering students have gathered to collaborate on four projects, that will eventually help people in Peru. (Or at least that is what we tell ourselves as we struggle to see results in our testing.) And there you have it! I am travelling to Peru for two weeks this spring to share my engineering knowledge with the people of Peru to help improve their lives. If you want to hear/read more about my team's specific project keep reading, otherwise feel free to stop and go back being productive in your own life.
My team is working on improving Peruvian cookstoves! Super exciting right? That's right! (And not just because testing occasionally involves hot dogs and s'mores.) Last year a GEO team worked with Peruvian cookstoves and thermal-electric generators (TEGs) to produce electricity to help Peruvians in remote locations do cool things like charge their cell phones. (The photo at left is a credit to them, and from their blog found here.) This year our team has set out to improve the mobile testing cart (MTC <- this is a joke that makes all of us Mormon kids at BYU smile.), and test a couple of new stove designs.
So far we have completed construction of the MTC :) and are working to finish gathering the instruments we will be using to test our stove designs. Specifically we will work to establish a baseline of how awful (in terms of CO and particulate matter released) current Peruvian cookstoves are, how raising the stoves off the ground helps facilitate complete combustion (similar to a rocket stove), and how a forced influx of natural gas and air mixture facilitates complete combustion.
Well there you go at the heart of all this excitement is Peruvian cookstoves. Didn't guess that did you?
P.S. The date in question is also pretty exciting because it is the same day my best friend trades in what is probably the coolest last name for her fiance's.
If you can read what the widget has to say then you already know, on April 27, 2013 at approximately 7:00am (MT) I will be on a flight with 15 of my classmates to Lima, Peru! I can see you asking yourself, "Why would Erin leave the US on the first day after teenage-hood for a country that values beans as a food staple?" Let me answer that for you now. It all starts with a little know BYU club called Global Engineering Outreach (GEO).
 |
| GEO logo, Credits to the GEO leadership. |
 |
| Image of Peruvian cookstove. Credit to GEO. |
So far we have completed construction of the MTC :) and are working to finish gathering the instruments we will be using to test our stove designs. Specifically we will work to establish a baseline of how awful (in terms of CO and particulate matter released) current Peruvian cookstoves are, how raising the stoves off the ground helps facilitate complete combustion (similar to a rocket stove), and how a forced influx of natural gas and air mixture facilitates complete combustion.
Well there you go at the heart of all this excitement is Peruvian cookstoves. Didn't guess that did you?
P.S. The date in question is also pretty exciting because it is the same day my best friend trades in what is probably the coolest last name for her fiance's.
No comments:
Post a Comment