Cutting the aluminum cans is a challenge, we initially started with the belt sander which worked well but produced a noise so obnoxious that the shop techs said we could not use it. It also was a bit much for the cans, they would get hot, start smoking, and smell like burned beer.  We then went on to use the Dremel to try to cut off just the thick bottom cap, but this was too time-intensive. We ended off cutting just above the thick lip so we could cut through easily and efficiently.    

Decision matrices are a great way to find solutions that align with projects values, we ventured out and well exceeded our heat traps expected temperature. This was at the cost of time, 

Everything you will try to do in the lab will take much longer than you expect it to.  It was really hard to gauge the progress we were making on the project when you don't have much time, and that in turn makes it harder to focus on small steps of 'good enough' rather than achieving large steps of 'excellence.'  It is hard to break down and compartmentalize what part of a system you should work on when you feel like building the whole thing is possible too.  Gauging what is possible for the project is nearly impossible with this timeframe, and by the time we got to a state where we could really test our prototype the quarter was finishing up.  This has thus far left us with a lot of iterative  learning experience, which is definitely valuable, but it is harder to translate this type of knowledge to the next group so they can know what we learned, and it is a lot easier to feel like the project failed as a whole.

Balancing original and new ideas  during the design process is hard.  On the one hand, it is very easy to stick with your original ideas and see them through, which has some benefit because the process is more streamlined and you are more likely to yield reliable results in the time that you have.  However, when you have continual new ideas throughout the design build process, you are continually bettering your design and therefore the potential outcome.  If we had unlimited time, I think this would be the most beneficial if we could quickly create many prototypes, continually to test them, and use them to move forward with the design in the most beneficial way.  Our group could have been more successful if we created smaller prototypes, tested them, and continued designing with certain aspects in mind with a similar design process to IDEO desiging shopping carts and children's toothbrushes.  We could have emphasized continual goodness rather than excellence at the end of the process.

However, I would argue that an incomplete project is not a failure and that this project was still a successful experience.  I think the ultimate goal of the class is to gain a sense of how many factors go in to development, and that success relies on many more factors than you would think.  Through this project, we gained firsthand experience in developing appropriate technology for a real life person with real life problems.  We muddled our way through a variety of possibilities, working well together as a team, and learned by doing.

We hope this project can be carried on. Some ways we hope to see it progress will be through modular design, potential scalability, designed for produce v. meat, differentiating between needs of solar drying or solar dehydrating, finding an alternative to plexiglass, and figuring out how to replicate solar dryers in communities that need them with local materials.  Given the passive nature of the project, we think it would be great if eventually a users manual was developed that included a list of all necessary materials, build directions, simple and adequate construction drawings, and ranges of possible interior temperatures / quantitative drying abilities in different regions of the world.  This would require a design that is very easy to put together and fix, as well as reliable quantitative data that could sell the product to potential buyers.  Both a finalized, simple, followable design and quantitative data for different types of produce in different climates with different access to the sun would take quarters and many solar dryer groups to develop.

Salma hoped to have solar be integrated to control the drying temperature, to best do this we feel it is necessary to add a solar panel to power a fan and a heating element because you cannot control the temperature of the sun or access to it, so a mechanical element that could be controlled would enable Salma to gain more control over how the dryer behaves.  However, given that pretty much the only control the user has of the passive solar dryer is the amount of time that the produce/goods are drying, we could develop resources that illustrate the times necessary to dry certain goods to specific degrees.

We believe that the solar dryer has immense potential to increase income and therefore help alleviate poverty.  First and foremost, the solar dryer is applicable all around the world, and in most all of the communities we work with in class/Pete knows, because almost all of these people are involve in agriculture in some way.  Many of them live in more humid climates that increase the susceptibilty of harvested produce to natural elements and decrease their potential usage and profit.  Solar dryers enable food to be consummable for a longer period of time, and that can have numerous positive effects on numerous scales – on the personal/family scale, the solar dryer enables a family to keep their food consummable for just a bit longer.  This means that there is less risk associated with crops they grow, more food to eat, more financial security, and opportunity to diversify the types of produce they grow.  On a small/family business scale, the solar dryer could create new/more means of income, enables food to last longer so it can be sold outside of where it is grown, and help alleviate generational poverty by making it possible/easier for children to attend school.  Passive systems are also inherently passive, meaning that little extra work is required of the owner – they just have to put in, check on, and take out their produce when it is dried to their liking.

Making the design more easily expandable/modular

Increasing total size to increase yields  

Research into better heat trap methods, shapes, and materials 

Find methods of insulation to minimize convection losses