Our Mission: Introduce sustainable solar technologies to the Beacon of Hope school in Uganda in order to reduce their need for wood-burning cooking.
WHO WE ARE
We are a team of Cal Poly students in San Luis Obispo working to learn about various solar technologies and their applications to developing communities. We began this project as a part of our "Appropriate Technologies for a Developing World" course.
Our members' various backgrounds and fields of study help find different perspectives on this project. Marshall Brusca is a second year Environmental Management and Protection major from Sacramento, California. Connor Church, a fifth year Architecture student from Sunnyvale, California. Joanne Phung is a 4th year Mathematics major from Arroyo Grande, California. Jamie Chafe, fifth year Landscape Architecture student from Torrance, California. Sam Korff is a third year Industrial Technology and Packaging Major from Centennial, Colorado.
WHAT WE DO
SOLAR COOKER FOCUS
Although there are various solar cooker designs, our beginning focus was on insulated solar electric cookers. Previous groups have conducted thorough research and testing of this type of cooker and proven that it can be effective and more importantly cheap. If this is something we aim to have widespread, it must have a cheap design to prove viable in poor communities. One drawback of insulated solar electric cookers is that they take a considerable amount of time to heat the food.
However, after research of our community and its needs we decided that the current design of ISEC cookers would probably not be effective in our community, Beacon of Hope. We still however see these style of cookers being very useful in the developing world for household use.