Mini Project 1

First mini project of the semester....

Mini.Project 1: Making solar energy economical  

Description
As a source of energy, nothing matches the sun. It out-powers anything that human technology could
ever produce. Only a small fraction of the sun’s power output strikes the Earth, but even that provides
10,000 times as much as all the commercial energy that humans use on the planet. However, while there
is adequate solar energy available, there are numerous technical and economic hurdles to making it
viable as a reliable and sustainable energy source.

Task

Your task is to identify a technical, economic, social, environmental, or other design problem related to
this grand challenge. This will take substantial research, dialogue, and thinking. Your report needs to
include the following:


• A clear statement of the design problem including the appropriate context, customer group, and
regional consideration.
• A comprehensive set of customer requirements that cover the major customer groups for the
problem.
• A set of engineering specifications that address the customer requirements.
• A House of Quality (HoQ) that relates the customer requirements to the engineering
specifications. The expectations for the HoQ include the left side (the WHATs), importance for
the WHATs, the top side (the HOWs), and the roof (HOW vs. HOW). HoQ templates in xls can
be found here: http://www.qfdonline.com/templates/qfd-and-house-of-quality-templates/.
resources


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I think this is a pretty satisfactory project. Our group met up and we came up with ideas to help focus our direction:

-Solar cells installed in roadways, to power homes and LED lights to replace street lamps

-powering water pumps for villages without water systems

-powering desalination plants

-heating water in PVC pipes

-cement columns with glass exterior that will generate power

-oil rigs/buoys designed to collect energy for port cities

- powering farms in Cuba

- military equipment

I love the ideas but I'm in favor of the solar roadways. It was my idea. We'll see where the next meeting takes us


 I read the information about the house of quality required to complete the  project. Its a new world in my eyes and a new side within engineering that i did not know existed. This is what makes engineering design difficult; the balance of giving customers what they want while making it safe, economical, durable, efficient and ergonomical.  Design is interesting and takes scope of everything weve learned make it applicable to changinging the world around us