Team Members: Daniela Grassi, Matthew Messina, Cat Noya, Hannah Petersen, Sydney Zhan
Instructor: Ming Huang, PhD

Project Overview:

A church in the Los Alacranes community in Tijuana, Mexico currently provides shelter and services, including food and showers, to hundreds of refugees. The community expressed a desire for hot water in their current shower system. In Summer 2021, a team of four University of San Diego (USD) Engineering Exchange for Social Justice (ExSJ) Summer Scholars explored prototypes for a model that would facilitate a low-cost and low-maintenance solar thermal powered water heater for the shower system built out of waste (i.e. plastic bottles) and locally sourced materials. The team built and tested five prototypes for effectiveness in heating water and for temperature stability, comparing different parameters such as materials (i.e. using different colored bottles) and the design of the solar array (i.e. the path of water flow through the system, and proportions of the heater). The team conducted preliminary tests of the five prototypes, and made recommendations about what design may be most effective based on their preliminary findings. The Capstone Design team for 2021/2022 will:

Expand the prototypes created to capture more possible variations in a final design.
Conduct a Design of Experiments using the prototypes to make an evidence-based recommendation for the final design.
In partnership with the community, build and implement the final solar water heater in the Los Alacranes community, retrofitted to their current shower system.