The following solar panel proposal was submitted to and approved by the director of NIT, Trichy. Currently, Amanda, Pramod, and I are in Alampoondi gathering information about the sun’s path and discussing with Mr. S. Kumar about installation locations for the panels.
Enjoy reading,
George Vallone
Clay and I just got back from Goa, and it was a great time. We saw some amazing things and met a lot of very interesting people. It was one of the coolest places I have ever been to.
As for the project, we have a lot going on this week. We begin our site visits in Chennai tomorrow then we are off to Hyderabad on Sunday for the week to visit some sites there. We also are awaiting cost data and information from the contracts department at L and T. The reason it is taking so long is because they are estimating the costs for each site, so hopefully that information will be very helpful in our developing of the case study.
The director of NIT Trichy has approved the Solar Panel project that the solar panel team, which includes George, Pramod, Arun, Prasanna, Ramesh, and G. Saravana, submitted this week.
The solar panel team plans to install a solar powered generator in rural Alampoondi and develop a case study about their work. They plan on gathering information and creating plans through the rest of June and into the first of July. Their work will be tested at NIT Trichy before they install it at the end of July. The solar panel team will then train the GRRC staff on the maintenance and operating procedures for the panel.
Several team goals will be met through this project. First and foremost, the team wishes to educate and train rural village workers in renewable energy sources and how to use them. They also hope to inspire greener energy use by helping villagers avoid commercial energy sources. Finally, they want to use their engineering skills to design and develop less expensive, more efficient technologies for the villagers to use. All the plans and work towards these goals will be used to develop a case study that will expose undergraduate students to real-world problem solving situations.
Updates on the Solar Panel project are coming soon!
Clay and I got back from Trichy late Wednesday night, and it was a very interesting trip. The ride was very rough, and I now see how important infrastructure is to a country. I will never complain about seeing orange barrels and construction in the U.S. again. The roads from Chennai to Trichy had numerous potholes and were very swervy. I know China has made a very large investment to their infrastructure over the next 15 years or so, and I now see that India must do this soon as well if they plan to keep growing at the rate they have been.
On a positive note, we also visited the village where Amanda will be doing her project, and that place was very nice to see after being in the city for a few weeks. It was a very nice change of pace, and I hope her project goes well at the Ghandi Rehab Center.
While in Trichy it was cool to see another campus, especially the one where Dr. Sankar used to attend and was recognized as a distinguished alumni–congrats. We met a lot of people on campus and also at BHEL and had a good time touring the factory. The last night we were there we climbed up the famous temple in the direct center of Trichy and it was awesome. It was a great view and a great time.
As for back in Chennai, things are really starting to get going. Clay, Rajasekhar, and I are nailing down exactly how we want to do things. This week we are going to be analyzing and comparing the five different building materials to find the negatives and positives of each. The next step will be to head to the specific sites and test the thermal comfort with and without A/C.
Good luck with everyone’s projects, and stay in touch.
As you are aware, I have been working with NIT faculty and the director to obtain a possible project for Pramod & George. George’s wife Amanda is going to conduct a project at Alampoondi, a village in Villupuram District, at GRRC.
A project that we discussed yesterday was the use of solar panels to produce lighting or hot water or run threading units or cooking appliances at Alampoondi. The Director of NIT was willing to fund the project. We are working with the local faculty members to come up with a proposal and expect to meet with the director during the coming week to pursue it further. The major challenge will be: can the rural people maintain the facilities after they are installed? It is possible for the students to go there, install the unit, return to Trichy/Chennai, and then go after a period of time to check on the project. A case study based on this project will add value to NIT and to AU (and to IIT Madras if they can participate). I am hoping Krishnan will also be able to contribute to the project given that he is an alumni of NIT Trichy. This will also mean that you all have to make a trip to Alampoondi to see the project. I just called the director of GRRC and he agreed to the project.
Krishnan mentioned that he is arranging to get another apartment at the IIT campus. That will be very helpful when Pramod/ George/ Amanda visit Chennai and also will be helpful when PK & Howard Clayton visit during July.
NIT Trichy offers a M.Tech. in welding engineering and NDT. The department heads of these units were wanting Pramod to showcase his “Induction Welding” case study there. It might be worthwhile for Dr. Raju to showcase this project when he and Howard visit NIT Trichy during July. I will inform the faculty members about it if you are willing to do it.
Dr. Sankar
Hey everyone!
The last week in Trichy has been full of many meetings and information. The last few days everyone has pretty much nailed down their research, and I think everyone is pretty excited!
There were a few things here different from what I expected, but after one day you get used to it. Pictures or words cannot describe the experience you have actually living here. Everyone is very nice, and I look forward to hearing about everyone’s experiences since we are all in different places.
Dear Veena:
PK & I were discussing the GRRC project and thought that both Amanda and George can be at Alampoondi to conduct the project. I will talk to them on Monday once they arrive in Chennai. In this context, I saw an ad by CSIR asking for nominations for recognizing science & technology innovations for rural development. The deadline is June 30th. It will be worth sending an entry for GRRC and it will give a definite work for both Amanda and George. It will also highlight the collaboration of GRRC, LITEE, and Auburn University (consisting of departments of Consumer Affairs, Mechanical Engineering, and Management) providing us visibility at AU.
I feel Kumar will be positive about the entry if we do most of the work in preparing the submission.
Regards,
Chetan
–
Chetan S. Sankar
Thomas Walter Professor
415 W. Magnolia, Suite 401
Auburn University, AL 36849
(334) 844-6504
litee.auburn.edu
Dear Amanda,
Hope you and George had a good cruise in Europe. Dr. Sankar and I visited the Gandhi Rural Rehabilitation Center (GRRC) on May 26th to set up and plan your project after discussion with Mr. Kumar, the Director of GRRC. We were very happy with the welcome that we received at the center and their eagerness to have you conduct a project with them. Based on our discussion, I believe that this project will allow you the opportunity to make a ’small’ difference in rural India, working with dedicated social workers at the grassroots level. It will also give you the wonderful opportunity to use handloom fabrics produced at GRRC in a line of apparel designed by you and sampled at GRRC — an opportunity that we do not often get as designers. Dr. Sankar and I wanted to give you a little intro to the project that you will be conducting before your visit to GRRC. You will be learning of the details from Mr. Kumar himself, when you visit the Center in June 2nd.
GRRC is a Non-Government Organization (NGO) where physically and mentally challenged individuals from neighboring villages in Alampoodi (Villipuram district) in Tamil Nadu come together in an effort to alleviate poverty in their families and communities. One of the avenues of income generation at GRRC is through weaving, tailoring, and embroidery resulting in the production of cotton handloom textiles and value added cultural apparel products for the domestic and export market in Italy and France. Internationally, the products of GRRC are marketed by Fair Trade Organizations (FTOs), also called Alternative Trading Organizations (ATOs) that typically operate on a non-profit model with the goal of implementing economic and social welfare among the low income producers. It is in this realm that your expertise as an apparel designer and U.S. market consultant comes into play.
The last 2 days we visited Larsen and Tubro and met with a lot of people to narrow down our case study. The first day we met with a few VP’s for a few hours and made a lot of progress. I found it very interesting talking to them and hearing their views on how India and the world are changing. It is one thing to read about globalization in the newspaper, but it is something completely different to actually see it happening which is what it felt like.
We also met with an architect who agreed to help us out by continuing the thermal comfort study from last year which will be our main focus for our case study. We are travelling with Amanda, George, and Pramod early next week and will get started at L&T next Wednesday or Thursday.
Last night Clay and I ate at a hotel by the IDR bridge and had some seafood which was delicious. I met a travel agent who was recommending some places to take some short trips. We will have to see if we can find the time to travel to any of them depending on how busy we are at L&T.
We visited L&T on Wednesday and Thursday of this week. The company has a nice facility, with very original concrete office buildings. We had several brainstorming sessions over the course of the two-day visit and settled upon continuing on the thermal comfort analysis track.
Dr. Ramachandriah, Dr. Sankar, Rajasekhar, Mac, and I also agreed that we will go forward with the Student Activity Center renovation study as well. We will have plenty of work to do in the coming weeks, and we’re anxious to make progress.
There were monkeys sitting on kitchen windowsill when we got up this morning, and we enjoyed watching them watch us.
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