Engineering projects showcased in new documentary

By Kristina Chiapella

Santa Clara engineers traveled to the heart of El Salvador to create a human-powered vehicle and to design house windows that automatically control the light entering a room -- all while being videotaped.

Two senior engineering design teams took on these projects during the 2004-2005 academic year. And while every mechanical engineer must participate in a year-long project during their senior year, these teams were unique in that their designs focused on addressing specific environmental and social challenges in a foreign country.

The projects were followed every step of the way by videographer Russell Nickerson. The resulting documentary, "A New Tomorrow," will premiere tonight at 7:00 p.m. in the Recital Hall of the Music and Dance Facility.

One of the teams consisted of six seniors who worked on designing a Human Powered Utility Vehicle (HPUV), while the other team of seven seniors focused on a project called Smart Windows.

While the projects were completely different, both teams were required to create designs, fine-tune their projects and use them to address sustainability and energy efficiency.

The Human Powered Utility Vehicle group focused on creating a vehicle that would help citizens of third world countries accomplish everyday tasks in their lives.

An HPUV, says team advisor Timothy Hight, "is meant to be an all-purpose vehicle. It's similar to a bike, with a big compartment where you can load produce, people -- anything you want. Such vehicles are used all throughout the rural areas of South America."

This team's members traveled to El Salvador, where they set to work on figuring out just what type of aid would be useful to the country's rural inhabitants, as well as what supplies would be available to build the HPUVs.

During the spring of 2005, the students returned to El Salvador in order to put their knowledge to use and used local materials to build the vehicle they had imagined.

The second team was busy with the concept of Smart Windows. The goal was to build a system that has more control over how much light the window lets inside.

Using a number of different coatings, the windows allow variations of heat and light to pass through, Hight explained.

"Instead of turning a switch for more lights, the window would decide if artificial light was needed, or if real sunlight would be more energy efficient," he said.

This design brought the team to Washington, D.C., where they took part in the United States Department of Energy "P3" fair. The three P's stand for "people, prosperity, and the planet."

Santa Clara was one of the schools that fell under this theme and received a $10,000 grant, along with about 60 other schools.

In May 2005 at the National Mall, the Santa Clara team gathered with other students from across the country to showcase the time and effort they had devoted to the creation of people and nature-friendly designs.

The film's executive producer is Hight, chair of the mechanical engineering department. After Nickerson produced a short movie focusing on the results of senior projects from a couple of years before, Hight thought it would be interesting for him to follow a couple design teams over the course of an entire year.

The documentary "A New Tomorrow" will follow the two teams' progress over their senior year, from the initial ideas to the final result.

"The projects are interesting, and exemplify a lot of things we aim for here at Santa Clara," said Hight. "They're good examples of what Santa Clara students can do and are doing, and for mechanical engineers, the film is a good preview of what being part of a senior design project would be like."

The film is about 40 minutes long and admission is free.

Contact Kristina Chiapella at (408) 551-1918 or kchiapella@scu.edu.