Element A: PRESENTATION AND JUSTIFICATION OF THE PROBLEM

Problem Statement

Across America, roughly 45 million gym members and over 8 million athletes are pushing themselves towards their fitness and athletic goals. Data-tracking devices, phones, and other advancing technologies are useful to help improve their performance, but often have inefficient batteries and short life cycles that use an excess of unclean energy. All the while, the energy expenditures of hard-working athletes are a clean power source that could be harnessed with little to no impact on the environment.

Problem Background/statistics

Across America there are:

• 8 million high school athletes

• 495,000 college athletes

• 16,700 professional athletes

That could all benefit from such a product

Additionally, over 50% of the entire adult US population of over 200 million meet the CDC guidelines for aerobic physical activity and could make use of such a device.

Among our target population...

Gym Members: 40 million total who workout an average of 5 hours/week -- 1,000,000 estimated users

Actual Gym Goers: 7.2 million total who workout an average of 10 hours/week --180,000 estimated users

HS Athletes: 8 million total who workout an average of 10 hours/week -- 200,000 estimated users

Considering 1 out of every 40 needs the product

*Average kid gets an iPhone between ages 12 and 13

* 36% charge their phones only overnight - all others do multiple times per day or only in the day time

There are many different devices that athletes often use to track workout progress, and many are in need or charging after long workout hours in inaccessible locations.

Apple Watch: 33.9 million sold annually with an estimated need for power of 21,760,000 people

Garmin Devices: 6.1 million sold annually with an estimated need for power of 3,904,000 people

Fitbits: 10.6 million sold annually with an estimated need for power of 6,784,000 people

Validation

The rapid advancement of technology has brought us to a world where electronic devices reign supreme and are utilized by nearly every individual for hours out of each day. People use these devices in every aspect of their life, including during workouts, and need to ensure proper charging of their devices so that it doesn't suddenly die out on them and leave them stranded. Additionally, athletes specifically use numerous other devices for monitoring health, tracking statistics, or even just listening to music that all require power/electricity to function. Unfortunately, there is no convenient way for athletes to charge or keep devices powered while out in in the midst of their workout. Individuals across the world who workout are forced to rely on the longevity of their battery and hope it stays powered for the duration of their workout. By solving this problem we can make electronic devices that are used outside of the home significantly more efficient and reliable to be used by the consumer. Additionally, when individuals charge their devices at home, they pull electricity and energy from the various power plants in their local area that supply them and contribute to massive demands for energy. To meet these extreme needs, energy companies are forced to resort to environmentally dangerous sources of energy like fossil fuels and crude oil. The extra energy being used by non-renewable sources and energy inefficiency in devices is a contributor to many major environmental issues including global warming and pollution.

Chart 1: How often does your phone die in inconvenient situations (ex. Outside, At the Gym, While Playing Sports)?

Chart 2: Do you use other devices while exercising (AirPods, Garmin/Apple Watch, Headlight, etc)?

Chart 3: Would you be interested in a lightweight device that can harness clean body heat and charge your devices while working out?

Scholarly Articles

"Capitalizing on the kinetic energy spent on sports and recreation is a creative and smart means of collecting energy... it is a non-intrusive means of collecting power to accomplish important, simple, day-to-day tasks in countries where current energy sources pose serious health hazards." (Hernandez, 2010)

A research article done by a harvard student demonstrates the applicability of using energy from sports and athletics to be converted into electricity and power through various means.

"Often batteries will only be able to withstand 500 - 1000 charge discharge cycles before their capacity falls. With the development of li-ion technology, this figure is increasing, but after a while batteries may need replacing and this can be an issue if they are embedded in the equipment." (ElectronicsNotes)

Research done on the advantages and disadvantages of lithium ion batteries shows that they can become very inefficient after some time and lose their capabilities entirely, which can be an issue when embedded in a device.

"Fossil fuels—petroleum, natural gas, and coal—accounted for about 79% of total U.S. primary energy production in 2020." (US energy information administration)

Statistics on the energy production of the United States demonstrates the massively high percentage of production coming from nonrenewable sources that can significantly damage the environment permanently.