MFADT Major Studio Computation Spring 2010

I saw Sheila Kennedy and Frano Violich give a presentation at the Kalil awards last week. Amazing work in interactive architecture. Be sure to check out their "Portable Light Project" (under Projects/Intelligent Infrastructure). Renewable power and light source that can be sewn into traditional garments.

These panels seem to be able to capture up to 90% of the photons and are actually cheaper than the regular ones...

Not related to this project, but interesting

Interesting read. "In Senegal, the high levels of insolation afford the ideal prerequisite for the installation of photovoltaic systems to provide direct access to electricity or maintain a reliable energy supply as decentralized stand-alone solutions."

Great reference from Joel Murphy of circuits and diagrams for solar engines.

water level reader

Addressing the issue of providing mobile in off-the-grid areas.

the XO laptops also create their own mesh networks. I haven't found a good write up about it, but here's the wiki: http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Mesh_Network_Details

This is a copy of Eric, Haeyoung, and my research and notes on measuring well water levels and volume.

And here is a link to a copy of the presentation we gave today: http://ryanraffa.com/parsons/2010_spring/computation/03/Well_Measuring_Devices.pdf Initial sketch of the floating magnet sensor is on page 7.

I think the cultural component of this is esp interesting. Weather vanes would be similar in this regard.