Cross Listed: UNIV-391 / HNRS-391 / PSC-391 / UNIV-491 / PSC-491

TR, 9:10 - 11:00

Location: 14-251, Click to see on map
Pete Schwartz, Cal Poly Physics:, Pete's Webpage, pschwart@calpoly.edu.

Office hours in 180-608

Monday: 11:10 AM - noon, and 1:10 PM - 2:00 PM

Wednesday: 1:10 PM - 2:00 PM

Thursday: 12:10 PM - 1:00 PM

Friday: 11:10 AM - noon

Past classes: 391 from Fall 2021, as well as the "Design and Build" other class, 392 of Spring 2022. General Appropriate Technology Website for all Past Classes

Course Timeline

Self Interventions: Explained in syllabus
2nd week: Transition from Victimhood to Empowerment by focusing on your actions
4th week: Don't throw anything away
6th week: Empathy Intervention Website... Empathy. Imagine you are that person.
8th week: Nonviolent Communication
10th week: Two interventions of your choice: one intervention benefits you, one for society/planet.

Feedback:

Final (exam) Presentations: Thursday, March 21, 10:00 AM

Website Link	Description of the topic	Members Contact
#1 Advocacy for Maasai Girls	Maasai Girls: Mesha is a true Maasai warrior, having received recognition in combatting Female Genital Mutilation and Childhood Matrimonial Slavery. She presently works with Bob in Arusha with the Maasai Stoves and Solar Project (ICSEE) and has initiated a boarding school for Maasai girls. Pete met with Mesha during January of 2023. We established this website for the Maasai Girls' School.	Julia F. Gwen R. Abigail R. Trista W.
#2 Chocolate from Ivory Coast	Chocolate, Cooking, and Water in West Africa: Cal Poly Professor Emeritus Tom Neuhaus has started Project Hope and FairnessLinks to an external site. to bring chocolate making capability to the African countries where the cocoa is farmed. He can use some help to build a business model and sell the chocolate. Here is the website they built to sell chocolate. Dec, 2023, I met with Tom again, and he is enthusiastic about building a cooking and water center in Ghana or Ivory Coast, akin to a water center we built in Ghana in 2019, as depicted in this video. Here is Tom's initial proposal	James C. Caiden H. Vaila H. Navyaa V
#3 Togo Demo Farm and ISECooking	Togo Cookstoves: Salma has an electronics business in Togo and is presently developing production of ISECooking, an alternative cooking technology we've been developing at Cal Poly since 2015. See our research website. Additionally, he is developing a Demonstration Farm, to grow food with community members. Growing Moringa at Salma's Demo Farm: Moringa is a super food tree. The leaves are high in vitamins and nutrients and grows quickly. Additionally, the seeds can be pressed producing an oil that is valued by the cosmetics industry. An MIT project, True Moringa has been profitable. Past groups have worked with Salma: Fall 2021, Spring 2021, I spent most of Nov, 2022 with Salma, as documented in my blog.	Anabel F. Isa M.
#4 ISECooker Insulation	Uganda, Cookstoves: For the past 5 years, we've been developing Insulated Solar Electric Cooking (ISECooking, research website). We've received a grant from UKAid to support construction in local communities globally. You will work with Andrew of African STEM Education Initiative (ASEI) and Peter Keller and Christine Kariuki of Aid Africa. See ISEC/Uganda efforts in past 392 and 391 classes. Mentors include Martin from Ghana. Insulation: 2022-2023, I spent the year in Africa and Nepal trying to create construction capacity for our alternative cooking technology ISECooking, please see blog. One problem is that we can't get good insulation in Africa: either fiberglass or thin stainless steel sheets. It seems fiberglass is easy to manufacture, so why is there no company producing it in Africa? Or is it produced and we just can find it or get it to the places that need it? You can work with people who need fiberglass including Andrew of African STEM Education Initiative (ASEI ), Salma in Togo, and Martin from Ghana (but lives in USA).	Nick A. Molly M. Stephanie N. Hannah S.
#5 SLO Unhoused	SLO Unhoused: There is a considerable amount of inexpensive land just outside of SLO. Elsewhere, homeless groups have found ways to build a community that they can live in, for instance Dignity Village in Portland. Could we find a way to make that work in the Central Coast? I propose we plan a way to allow people to build their own homes. You may work with Transitions Mental Health Association. contacting Jill and Mark. See most recent projects: Helping Hands (Fall 2021) and Village to house the unhoused (Spring 2022).	Samantha A. Aiden K. Audrey S.
#6 Solar Farm in Benin	Solar Farm in Benin: Fatou is an Entrepreneur from Côte d’Ivoire. She co-founded Afrik’Energy Connect Inc., a pan-African startup aiming to increase energy access [and its productive uses] in rural and peri-urban areas of West Africa by providing affordable climate smart technologies to households and communities not connected to the grid. Her project in Djidja, Benin is to develop a plot of land to grow crops and to build a solar-powered house permanent workers of the land to live.	Abby C. Cami L.
#7 Nepal Cookstoves	Nepal Cookstoves: In my 2022 - 2023 sabbatical trip (see blog), the most successful efforts to to create construction capacity for our alternative cooking technology ISECooking, was in Nepal. However, the factory is not producing cookers for dissemination, although there are several entities that actively work on this project: Kathmandu University, an NGO, a government organization, and the National Innovation Center representative, contact Mahip RERL representative, Maryam Khatoon	Camille B. Leo G. William L. Ryan P.
#8 ISECooking in Cameroon	Cooking in Cameroon: For the past 5 years, we've been developing Insulated Solar Electric Cooking (ISEC, research website.). We will work with Bidjanga Biloa of GERPAD. (Green Energy Research Program for Africa’s Development) in Cameroon. Bidjanga works at a university, and has recently begun partnering with a local manufacturer with collaborators in China and is bench testing a prototype from China.	Dan L. Roxana R. Lauren S.
#9 Direct Drive Solar in Puerto Rico	Alexis Zeigler of Living Energy Farm promotes Direct Drive Solar in Puerto Rico. What needs to be done to build small DC electrical capacity in low income communities? Read more here	John C. Nicole M. Dylan S. Marley G

Ideas for Course Improvement