The Final Ceremony

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On Friday we gathered the students in the Science Block garden to celebrate their accomplishments over the past four weeks and showcase their design projects that they worked so diligently on each afternoon. Let me begin by saying that in three years of running programs in around the world, this is by far our most successful program to date! (More on this in a later post.)

When Clay arrived with the army of students and their projects at 10:00AM, all were eager to see what they had produced. The students were quickly organized into their groups, gathered tables and chairs, and put their work out on display. Although they had a minor scuffle with a confused security staff, the expo was set up in a timely manner.

At first, there was very little interest from passers by in what the students were displaying. People would gaze from their pathway to peek at the projects displayed on the tables, but few ventured across the lawn to get a closer look. We reminded the students that they must engage their audience because if they stopped to look, they must be interested! This tactic worked wonders. In a matter of minutes each of the tables were surrounded by university students, parents, and professors, all engaging with our students about their various projects. I sat perched in the distance overlooking the activity and was inspired by what I heard and saw. As two university students walked away, one looked at the other and said with great excitement, “Wow Ghana has a bright future”. This is exactly the type of reaction that we had hoped to achieve from our expo.

In all, eight projects were displayed. The first project was a model of a water processing plant. Dirty brown water could be poured into the system and would travel through one of four slow sand filters to remove the particular matter. Next the water would flow through a larger tank to allow for particular sediments to settle at the bottom before flowing into a boiler. The steam from the boiler would then be captured and condensed in another chamber, and finally, clear, purified water would drip out of the end of the system. Keep in mind that this was all built out of water bottles, a pot from a student’s kitchen and a couple electric water heaters.

The second group built a bamboo bicycle. Inspired by the Bamboo Bike Project supported by Earth Institute at Columbia University (the same organization that gave funding for our work in Ghana), group 2 constructed a bicycle with a bamboo frame. When people hear bamboo bike they often imagine a bike made entirely of bamboo. In reality most bamboo bikes, like the one constructed by the students are called such because bamboo is used for the frame member bars. To secure the members together, the joints were wrapped tightly with string to keep the shape and provide some durability before a cast was applied over the string to add stiffness to the joints. For the cast, students used an ideal mixture of sawdust, epoxy, and hardener as suggested in the EDC report produced by Professor Culligan’s Spring 2010 class at Columbia.

The third project was a wind turbine model built from soda cans and bamboo that could light an LED when the wind blew. The turbine head was supported by a bamboo stand, and rotated in a bearing. The turbine blades were made of shaped aluminum constructed from soda cans. The turbine shaft was made from sections of shaped bamboo press fit together. A pulley system was created using rubber bands and pieces of bamboo to increase the generator rpm’s and produce more current. Clay and I were a bit skeptical about the turbines ability to actually turn seeing as it was built entirely from recycled local materials for under $5. But to our surprise, it worked masterfully. Group leader Daniel Asare from Nsawam, Ghana has a bright future ahead of him.

The fourth group, termed the Robot Group, built two line-following robots using supplied kits. After a couple weeks of experimenting with electronics components, this group selected a particular schematic and followed an electronics diagram to construct their robots. The robot had a directional LED and a light sensor on its bottom that allowed it to measure the amount of light reflected from the surface below. The robot could detect whether it was driving over a light or dark surface based off of the amount of light was reflected from the LED off the ground and up to the sensor. The robot would drive forward until it could no longer sense the black line, at which point it would turn slightly until it sensed the line again, and then continue on its way. As with any complex project, they went through their fair share of challenges, specifically dealing with the calibration of the light sensor. Ultimately the group was able to display two working autonomous robots.

The fifth project was based on an electronic door lock. The original goal of the project was to build a simple circuit that could lock or unlock a room door for security. Soon into the project the group realized that a mechanical lock would be too difficult to construct, and they shifted their focus towards an electronic locking device for wired gadgets such as computers, TVs, etc. The group built its own numeric keypad and wired it to the input pins of an Arduino micro-controller. The Arduino board is an open-source computing device commonly used for hobby electronics projects. The students programmed a lock/unlock code into the built-in Arduino software and connected the output of their board to a transistor to function as a locking switch for any electronic circuit. We were skeptical of the progress that this small group could make on such a complicated project, but they cleverly simplified the project and produced a programmable electronic lock that worked beautifully.

The sixth project was a design for a solar charger to power a cell phone through a USB connection. This group was one of two advised by Jerome Jackson. The project goal was to build a circuit connecting three solar panels to the power input of a cell phone, with the appropriate circuitry to regulate the current and voltage. The group did an excellent analysis of current and voltage produced by a single solar panel. Next they calculated the necessary panel arrangements to produce a current and voltage that the cell phone expects. Although the group was not able to build a permanent system they were able to “design” a stand-alone system that would charge a cell phone safely and effectively.

The seventh project, also advised by Jerome, was conducted by the programming group. This group began the design process by learning basic programming with two software kits: the Eclipse Java developer, and Processing, a simple visual-oriented program based on Java and C++. Starting from scratch, the group made rapid progress and began working towards their final design project after the second week. The group designed and coded a user login and security system with Java that can store usernames and passwords and then grant access to authorized users. The system worked without a flaw during the design expo. The group took this goal to the next level by adding a lock-out system that blocks a specific username if a wrong password is entered too many times. This ambitious program astounded all of us at the design expo, especially those with programming experience. We are impressed with the progress these students made in such a short amount of time, and we can only hope that they will be available to help us as we develop our website.

The eighth project was a student website about the program. The website included student quotes about how the program has furthered their interest in science and engineering, along with pages for pictures and videos from the program. Some of the quotes include:

Daniel O. Asare: I have really been motivated not by the lessons taught but by our teachers. They have really done a great sacrifice to help not only the students, but the nation as a whole.

Rebecca Entwiri-Acquah: This program has motivated me to learn and experience things I’ve never come into contact with especially through the experiment that we had. I would like to thank the organizers of this program for such a wonderful project.

Mensah Rapheal : The program is very nice because it has exposed us to certain fields that we were not aware of. Its practical nature aids students to better understand the lessons taught.

Forgive Klu: It has really helped me a lot and in fact I don’t know what to say, but to say, I learnt how to arrange simple circuits, how to create a web site and above all how to arrange water alarm circuit on my own! LONG LIVE ELITE! LONG LIVE U.P.S.H.S! ELITE! AYEKOO.

The ninth project was a short film documentary of the four-week program recorded from a student’s perspective. Students spent the first part of the program filming and interviewing their classmates. The final two weeks were spent on the computer digesting the hours of footage into a few minutes and arranging the clips into a movie stream. The final product was a student favorite and included the most popular songs of summer 2011 in Ghana. The movie has been placed on Youtube and can be viewed here: [link to be inserted].

Each of the groups went above and beyond our expectations. However, a few students were recognized for their exemplary work throughout the program and design project. The awards are as follows:

Attendance Award: Awarded to the student or students, who through diligence and dedication, was present and on time for each day of the program. (Roberta Badwewa-Obed)

Excellence in Core Classes: Awarded to the student or students who consistently performed well in classroom lab exercises and on homework assignments.  (Stanley Hayford, Miriam Sasu, Evans Essoun, Philipa Darko, Daniel Asare, and Daniella Arnan-Nkansah)

Design Honors: Awarded to the group of students who best demonstrated the concept of design. (Solar Charger Group: Justice Awudi-Kwame, Dadzie Akrasi, and Ernest Degraft-Johnson)

Excellence in Software Engineering: Awarded to the student or students who demonstrated an advanced understanding of concepts and applications in the field of software engineering. (Prince Austin, Foster Adorkor, and Evans Essoun)

Leadership Award: Awarded to the student or students, who through example, best exemplified the mission of the organization. (Samuel Agbeyebiawo, Ibrahim Inusa, and Akrasi Dadzie)

T.O.D.D. Kwao-Vovo Award for Excellence in Media Promotion: Awarded in the name of one of our founding members, the T.O.D.D. award is presented to the student or students who best promote the organization through media arts. (Prince Affrang and Emanuel Kemevor)

-Chelsey (& Clay)

Approaching the Finish Line

Today is Sunday, and the ELiTE Ghana 2011 SITE has come to a close. Chelsey and I are now in a hotel in Koforidua after a long day of travel. However, we will get into details of more recent events in another post. Instead, I will briefly describe the fourth week of the program to keep all of our readers up to date. As I reflect on the past seven days I am astonished to consider how much has happened. Final classes, finished design projects, overdue exploration and a scramble to get everything wrapped up before Friday filled our week to the brim.

When we posted our last entry, we were unwinding from a long and rainy weekend in Cape Coast. I neglected to mention our activities of the weekend: we were rained in for much of the weekend, and we spent a large chunk of Friday and Sunday watching movies indoors. On Saturday morning we managed to bring in a fair share of the students to UPSHS to catch up on design project construction. Once again, their motivation astounds me. Later in the day we snuck off to a football (soccer…) game in nearby Kwapro that was highlighted by some hilarious, yet painful, minor injuries across the board. Chelsey nearly completed a back-flip, I slide-tackled the opposing teams goalie in the muddy pitch and Mohammed pulled a Three Stooges maneuver by getting hit in the head by both a boot and a ball during the game. Nothing serious though, and we all laughed it off at the end of the game.

On Sunday we decided to try to find a fish market to cook the fresh catch in the afternoon. We had heard from a fisherman in Cape Coast that the best seafood could be found in Elmina. This same fisherman was selling giant twenty pound sea snails on his head, but that’s another matter. We took a route taxi to the nearby town and stepped out of the cab into a full-blown Maritime rain storm. Unfortunately, by noon we were too late to find any of the day’s catch. Feeling a bit defeated, we spent a couple hours eating lunch at a hotel over-looking both the Elmina Castle and the main entry canal for the deep water fishing vessels. It was an interesting afternoon despite the rain, though the chilly weather (even by North American standards!) left me feeling pretty exhausted for the rest of the day.

On Monday we cancelled regular classes to spend time working on the design projects. By the end of the afternoon we were finally seeing the projects come together into visible form. Tuesday and Wednesday capped off our final curriculum classes, and took us another step closer to the design expo. The water class spent some time working on a complex back-of-the-envelope calculation I assigned for homework reminiscent of the case problems familiar to anyone who has applied for a consulting job. A couple of the prompts will be posted later on the facebook page. Chelsey worked on an Excel-based problem from his green building class in school that combined the business/computer class with the energy class for both days. The students tackled a problem that was used as a Masters-level engineering class midterm, and we were pleasantly surprised by the students’ poise with the problem. Though no students made it all the way through, a few came very close to the final answer after the two working class days. Jerome spent his remaining class catching up with the students to the R-C flasher circuit that he introduced in Week 3. By the end of the day, all of the students had completed the fundamental circuits of the class and most were experimenting with different resistor and capacitor values, and circuit arrangements. Jerome also continued his after-class programming lectures at a nearby internet café.

Thursday was again spent working on the design projects. The students’ goals were so ambitious that we wanted to make sure that they would be satisfied with their work by the Friday ceremony. Oh, and it wouldn’t be hurting our cause if they managed to make their projects a bit easier on the eyes (and camera lenses) as well… The students made great progress on Thursday that shone through the final ceremony on Friday. We also took a few video interviews of the students to gauge their reaction to the program. Hopefully we can post a few of these in the next few weeks.

Besides class and design project, the ELiTE staff held a meeting with the newly-founded ELiTE University of Cape Coast student chapter to hold brief elections and establish our working relationship. The showing was slim but dedicated, and we expect good things from Michael (the group’s elected president) and the rest of the team. We spent the remainder of our time scrambling to assemble support and materials for the final event on Friday. I won’t get into details about the last three days now, so keep your eyes out for the next posting about the final ceremony and other happenings. Oh, and we’ll put up a few more pictures soon as well. Until then, thanks for reading and stay in touch!

Best,

Clay (+ Chelsey)

Over the hump (Week 3)

The third week of the Ghana SITE 2011 has come and gone, and we are now approaching our final week. This past week was long and eventful and provided a good focus for our work in Ghana this summer. Each day was busy from dawn to dusk with a tight class schedule, design project work, a series of meetings and a few other notable events. Yet our hard work paid off, and today’s post will highlight some of the greatest successes of the trip.

The week was packed with a full set of classes. The Electronics classes finished some impressive transistor-based circuits that generated a variable flashing signal, and the students finished the water meters they started in Week 2. The Business/Math class developed students’ Excel skills with a class on graphing and another class on data analysis and regression. The students also spent two water classes purifying water, with an assortment of experiments spanning distillation, chlorination, sand filtration and heat treatment. In the Energy class, Chelsey worked through the principles of mechanical advantage, with one class on the function of gear trains and another class about pulley systems. As you can see below, this class was quite thrilling!

Aside from the morning classes, our students and mentors were hard at work constructing the program design projects. Despite the typical challenges of an engineering project (cost overruns, design modifications, tool failures), all of the projects are really starting to shape up. A few projects stood out, both for their great achievements and nagging design problems. The electronics projects have nearly finished their basic designs. The group building a water purification system startled the ELiTE staff with their ambitious designs, but they have managed to build an efficient system that may even capture some attention beyond our program. Meanwhile, the bamboo bicycle team has had an extraordinary amount of difficulty assembling their bike frame. The process alone requires some careful patience and craftmanship, and the group has been hard pressed to find some essential materials. However, in the last two days they have made significant progress and we can expect them to deliver an impressive product by the end of next week.

The team’s most dramatic success have occurred outside of the classroom. Jerome, one of ELiTE’s most talented instructors to date, set-up an extra-curricular programming class to extend the computer skills that our students have touched on in class. His evening classes (after we officially dismiss students for the day) have pulled in at least a dozen students from the program, and he has some promising ideas that may lead to a year-round online curriculum. We are still working on these plans, so stay tuned for new developments in the next few weeks. At the same time, Chelsey and Clay have been working with Kester Quist, one of our local organizing partners from the University of Cape Coast, to set up a local student chapter of ELiTE at the school. On Tuesday we received a generous welcome from more than a dozen student leaders in the science and engineering departments on campus. The support we have received so far is a strong indication of the gains we hope to achieve locally over the coming academic year. We will follow up with more information after our second meeting on Wednesday. In further news, we have reached out to Cape Coast Polytechnic, a nearby certificate-granting institution specializing in applied science and technology. A dedicated group of Poly students attended the program last week to learn about ELiTE, and we look forward to the new relationship.

The week ended on a strong note with a successful field trip to the Aboadze Thermal Power Plant. In typical Ghanaian fashion we packed our 50 students and instructors into a government bus built for 30 for the one-hour trip to Takoradi. Thanks to the help of Roger and Bismark, two helpful teachers from UPSS high school, we managed to arrive at the plant on time and in one piece. We received an excellent tour from a mechanical engineer named Geoffrey Barnes. Aboadze is one of three principle power stations supplying Ghana’s electricity grid, and Geoffrey provided a wealth of information for the students. The students were brimming with questions, and the instructors managed to get in a few of their own before we left for the plant driving tour. The tour itself was quick but awe-inspiring. We saw first-hand what a tanker-load of oil looked like when we drove around the reservoir tanks. We also passed the cooling stations and water processing facilities that feed the steam lines and cooling water streams. Although we weren’t authorized to walk into any of the turbine rooms, the students and instructors had an incredible time. After the plant tour, we drove to the Takoradi national stadium to visit the sporting landmark. After a quick photo stop we packed up the bus and returned home.

The third week was exhausting for the three ELiTE faciliators, but also inspiring. We made it over the hump of our trip, and now have only the final week and follow-up travel ahead of us. We have reached the section of a trip when nerves start to fray and tired travelers start dreaming of their return. Personally, I have started to look forward to some familiar comforts back home. We faced a downpour this weekend (to anyone on the East Coast: feel free to commiserate!) that left us craving sweatshirts and hot water. Yet today the sun has come out and our laundry is finally drying off. By another stroke of luck our in-house water lines even started to flow! The rest of the day promises to be relaxing and productive, and we may manage to sneak in a Star or two over dinner. In sum, we made it through the bulk of our program and it’s only downhill from here. Once again, thank you all for your dedication to our blog and our work, and stay tuned for more news.

Best Regards,

Clay (+ Chelsey)

NSBE… Power

In August 2010 ELiTE formed a partnership with NSBE Ghana to provide local support for program participants in Nsawam. In September, the Nsawam NSBE PCI Chapter was established by Chelsey Roebuck and adopted by Columbia University NSBE to provide programming and resources for Nsawam students throughout the academic year. The majority of the ELiTE SITE: 2011 participants from Nsawam are also members of this PCI Chapter.

So on August 19^th, 2011, while the majority of the ELiTE students were back at University Practice SHS enjoying an afternoon of basketball and soccer, 5 student leaders had the opportunity to travel to Takoradi for the 4^th annual National Society of Back Engineers (NSBE), Ghana National Leadership Conference as executives for their school PCI chapters.

The 2-day conference was a great opportunity for Ghanaian students and professionals to come together and network around their shared interests in engineering and science. The conference was jam packed with artistic performances and presentations by Ghanaian leaders in engineering and applied science. Administrators and department chairs representing all of the major universities in Ghana gave speeches. Also, representatives from corporations such as Cummins Engines and Tullow Oil spoke about opportunities within their organizations. The event was highlighted with a discussion lead by Professor S.Y. Mensah, once recognized as the greatest scientist in all of Ghana, and an inspiring appearance by Calvin Young, former NSBE Region 1 Chairperson (the NSBE region which Ghana is a part of).

The conference provided a great opportunity for our students to build relationships with current university students, professors, and alumni.  This experience has certainly inspired and empowered each students to reach towards our collective goal of developing the next generation of Ghanaian leaders in science and engineering.

Daily Routine

One of my high school instructors used to have a saying, “Early is on time, on time is late, and late is left”. It is a saying that I bought into many years ago, and something that I do my best to follow. In Ghana, we hold our students to that same standard. Despite daily pleas for us to recognize GMT (Ghana Man Time) students are marked late if they arrive after 8:30 AM.

By 8:45 each morning students are presented with a daily challenge problem that they may solve before their 9am class, or wait for the solution to be presented to the group before the 1:00 PM design project.

Most of the challenge problems from the past two weeks are listed below. We will do our best to post the new problems and solutions to our blog and facebook pages moving forward. Enjoy!

1)

A person has two strings, each of which burns for one hour. Assuming that the strings burn at non-constant rates, how does one measure 45 minutes?

2)

A person has two water jugs. The first jug has a volume of 500 ml. The second jug has a volume of 300 ml. Using the two jugs and an endless supply of water, how can they measure exactly 400 g? You may neglect the weight of the jugs.

Hint: Assume 1g = 1ml = 1cm(^3).

3)

What is the sum of all the numbers, one to one million?

4)

There are three bags of gold. One of the bags contains fake gold. All the bags and all the coins look exactly alike. There is the same number of coins in each bag. The real coins weigh only one ounce each, the fake coins weigh 1.1 oz. apiece. You have a one-pan penny scale and one penny, which means you can weigh something just once. (You load the scale, put the penny in, an the scale spits out a piece of paper with the weight.) How can you tell which bag has the fake gold?

5)

Have a friend select a number 1 through 100 and write it down. What is the minimum number of yes or no questions required to guarantee that you have guessed the correct number?

6)

What is the probability that the last day of a leap year is a Sunday?

A recap of week two…

The second week of class brought our program into high gear. It would be terribly dull to spend this whole blog talking about class, so we’ll keep the curriculum details short. For the water class, we had a lively discussion about data analysis in light of our work from Week 1, and we followed this class with a hands-on experiment to test water drainage rates through different soils. In Jerome’s electronics class, students started to build functional circuitry by experimenting with hardwired water conductivity probes. My fingers are crossed that the students will finish these sensors by next class, so we can use them during our desalination activity! The energy class introduced heat transfer to the students with a fun experiment, and lead the students through a discovery of the electromagnetic principles behind dynamos and electric motors. Meanwhile, in the business technology class, students created personal budget projections on Excel and created poster presentations using Microsoft Word and Powerpoint.

We finally reached our steady-state volume (forgive the ChemE lingo) of students of roughly 45 in attendance each day. This has been a great help to all of the instructors, as we are finally learning a bit more about our students. I think I’ve matched about 60% of students to their correct names at this point, which is frankly an outstanding personal achievement (I’m terrible with names). Our afternoon activities have been helpful as well. We challenged the nearby Kwapro football (soccer…) team to a match on Wednesday, and some of the students really showed off their extracurricular talents. Although the match ended prematurely in a tie, after another scheduled match kicked us off, we played hard and everyone had a great time. We also held a picnic on Friday where students played basketball and soccer at the school and enjoyed a relaxing, soda-fueled break from the busy program.

The design project was a real challenge this week. Students rushed to put together detailed plans and material orders for the weekend shopping trip conducted by yours truly on Saturday. The plans are so ambitious this year that it is a real struggle to keep up with the project schedule. It looks like most of the groups can build some truly impressive creations by the end of the program, but we certainly have a busy two weeks ahead of us. There are no bulk hardware or building material stores in Cape Coast so it can be nearly impossible to find parts for these projects. I walked at least five miles through downtown Cape Coast looking for epoxy resin and nuts and bolts, and on my way back I rode in a route taxi while holding a 10 foot PVC pipe out of the window. In a lot of ways Ghana is a paradise for the handyman/hacker, but it can be tough trying to find the right parts here.

Overall we are very pleased with the project at its halfway point. It has exceeded our expectations in many ways. Aside from the program at University Practice Senior High, we have been very busy networking with local contacts to expand our operation in Ghana. We have a number of meetings scheduled for this week to discuss potential growth in Ghana. The future looks very bright and we are excited about the next few weeks. Keep reading and we will try our best to provide more frequent updates and we approach the home stretch.

-Clay & Chelsey

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(P.S. we will post more pictures as soon as we get a stable internet connection.)

Week 1: Students Radiate their Potential in the Excel-lent first classes

As the title suggests, the authors of this blog are engineers, not poets. Nonetheless, we were thrilled with the performance of our students and teachers during the first week of the program. The first week took us through two classes in each subject (we use a two-day block schedule to lengthen class time). After a great kick-off on Monday, the students were eager to see more – and our instructors delivered! In the water class, taught by Clay, David and Bismark, the students conducted careful experiments to study the flow of water through different sized holes, the rate of evaporation in the hot African sun, and the capillary rise of colorful stained water up an absorbent paper. We engaged in an intense scientific debate about the relationship between pressure, flow and the area of a conduit, where students vehemently criticized and defended each other’s results. It was classic science at it’s finest.

The electronics class, taught by Jerome and Theo, started with a refresher course on simple circuitry, but the students quickly outshone the simple LED-battery-resistor circuits. Jerome has since had the students designing electronic sensors to detect water. As a computer engineer from MIT, Jerome must be one of the most enthusiastic teachers I have ever seen, and the students are certainly enjoying it.

The energy class co-taught by Chelsey, Thabo, and Kofi started with a discussion of kinetic and potential energy. Students constructed roller coasters using bearings and rubber hoses to prove Newton’s Laws of Physics. In class two the students engaged in discussions of thermal energy. The main topic of discussion was modes of heat transfer. Students were introduced to conduction, convection, and radiation, before working with equations to calculate equilibrium temperatures from conductive heat transfer between solids.

The business technology class was co-taught by Chelsey, Thabo, and Allan. In class students were introduced to Microsoft Excel. This class was particularly challenging this week because the school was without power for hours each day. This meant that excel functions had to be introduced on a dry erase board. Unfortunately, this meant that some students did not have the opportunity to fully realize the functionality of the tools without the practical experience.

The design projects are quickly shaping up to be the greatest achievements of the ELiTE program thus far. In the past two years, we have seen the students design and build a comprehensive small-scale farm and tabletop hydroponics systems. However, with the broad support and enthusiastic students of this years program, we expect not one, but eight independent and fully constructed projects from our student body. The projects are split into a wide variety of categories. Two groups are working on computer software, one is producing a video of the program on final cut pro while another group is designing a new student networking and learning forum for the elite-education.org website. Another branch of students is designing electronics projects, including an electronic keypad door lock, an autonomous robot, and a solar cell phone charger. Meanwhile, a small group of students is busy learning Java to build a fully coded program by the end of the program. On the other side of the spectrum, there is a group designing a bamboo bicycle frame (in the spirit of Marty Odlin in NYC for those of you who are in the know), an electricity generating wind turbine and a passive water purification system. Reading over this paragraph, I can hardly believe that the students are doing all of this, but after speaking with each group over the past week I have full confidence that this year’s design expo will be a huge success.

At long last, we have reached the weekend. This past week was exciting, but also exhausting. The students are so eager to learn, about science, technology, college or our lives in America, that it is hard to stay awake when the sun goes down. Yet these past few nights, even in our cramped rooms on thin foam mats, I have slept soundly.

Thank you for reading, and stay posted for more!

Sincerely,

Clay (+ Chelsey and Thabo)