Original Story Published by: Byron Spice for Carnegie Mellon University News
Two Robotics Institute research associates at Carnegie Mellon University, Josh Schapiro and Mike Taylor, made good on a promise to villagers in Uganda, when they returned in February to the African nation with solar-powered ventilation systems to exhaust unhealthy cooking smoke from homes.
They delivered 30 of the systems they designed and built, based on an idea that emerged seven years ago as part of Toyota's Ideas for Good marketing campaign. They also trained villagers from Makukuulu parish to install, repair and service the devices.
"I didn't actually install a single one," Schapiro said, noting the three village men quickly grasped the mechanics of how to set up the system. "We'd walk into a kitchen, the three of them would talk to each other a bit and, before you knew it, the youngest would jump on the roof and they'd start installing it."
The ventilation systems are compact, consisting of a solar array the size of a tablet computer, a small fan/light assembly that hangs above the cooking area and some flexible plastic tubing to vent the smoke outside.
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