#global ties

Raquel Rose (CNPS), Kathy Trang (Global Ties), Amrita Ramakrishnan (CNPS) and Keisha April (RISE Lab) were among those selected as the 2021 SCCAP Leadership Education to Advance Diversity (LEAD) Fellows!  

Congratulations to our AP Community Members!

Help End World Hunger – Global Ties

Global Ties vision is simple – a world without hunger.

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This is a guest post from Steven Ng.

Imagine change through e-commerce.

That is the simple but powerful concept at the core of UCLA student Steven Ng’s Global Ties, a new non-profit campaign joining in the fight against world hunger.

When Ng, a San Francisco native and a junior at UCLA, participated in a volunteer trip to Kenya, Africa, he never thought that his experience would inspire him to launch a worldwide campaign against hunger. As a result of his life-altering trip, Ng created the non-profit organization, Global Ties. While on his trip to the African country, he captured footage to create a campaign portraying the Global Ties mission, goals, ideas and spotlighting sobering global hunger statistics.

The Global Ties’ campaign offers visitors to his website an opportunity to purchase three types of bracelets, which Ng himself created:  Black Rope Silver Bracelet, Brown Leather Rose Gold and Black Leather Gold. The goal of these bracelet sales is to help feed the hungry worldwide. These bracelets represent the Global Ties theme as they can be wrapped around the wrist with a “G” as the charm to hold the “ties” together.

Ng has experienced  the success of a prospering startup through not only his parents’ businesses when growing up in San Francisco, but his own company, Dash Wallets, which he recently launched through kickstarter to help fund his education. He hopes  to not only see Global Ties aid with the world’s hunger problems but to eventually expand to take on  other global issues including HIV/AIDS, clean water and cancer

Global Ties’ crowd funding campaign can be found on indiegogo.com with current bracelet styles. Every bracelet/necklace is manufactured in environmentally friendly facilities.

Black Rope Silver: Feed 12 individuals. Cost: $9.00

Brown Leather Rose Gold: Feed 24 individuals. Cost: $15.00

Black Leather Gold: Feed 48 individuals. Cost: $25.00

For additional information: http://www.global-ties.org/

Estimated power consumption for lights (assuming 26W CFL): 11.8kW-hr/day

Estimated total power consumption (to allow for electronic devices): 20kW-hr/day

Solar Panels:

We decided on the Suntech 175W. 12 of these panels with 10 hours of sunlight a day will yield 21 kW-hr/day.

Spec sheet: http://www.wholesalesolar.com/pdf.folder/module%20pdf%20folder/suntech.160-175.pdf

Cost: $350

Required Panels: 12

Total Cost: $4200

Batteries:

Deka 8A4D gelled deep cycled battery

Cost: $450

Quantity: 21

Total Cost: $9,450

Charge Controller:

It costs $10/Amp and the system we designed is rated at 100A.

Total cost: $1000

Inverter:

It costs $0.2/W and our system is rated at 2000W.

Total cost: $400-500

Disconnect:

Total cost: $210

Circuit Breaker Box:

Circuit breaker boxes are $100 each and one is required for each building.

Roof Mounts:

Pros:

Cheap

Easy to install

Cons:

Cannot change orientation of panels

Cost: upwards of $1600

Pole Mounts:

Pros:

Easy to install

Adjustable

Tracker

Can prevent people/animals from tampering with the panels

Cons:

Expensive (about double the cost of roof mounts)

Cost Analysis:

Total cost: $17,000

Currently the rehabilitation center is run off of diesel generators.  After meeting with Sean Poole of Invisible Children, we learned that diesel is very unreliable.  Not only is the price of diesel high, but sellers also water down the diesel.

We received the blueprints for the rehabilitation center weeks ago and have been hard at work making calculations to determine what they will need to purchase in order to implement a off grid solar system. The rehabilitation center is much larger than we thought; it also includes classrooms and dorms in addition to the main office building. 

The main issue right now is calculating how much power the rehabilitation center needs.  We don't know what appliances they are using or how much they are using.  We have decided that we are just going to give a proposal for the amount of solar panels needed to offset the power required for lighting.

For now, we still need to research the different components needed for a solar power system so we were all assigned individual parts to research.

Stephanie is researching the total power the rehabilitation center needs.

Alex is looking into solar panels.  He will be comparing solar suppliers and look into the best panels to buy.  He will also be calculating how much panels will be needed for the system.

Josh is researching information about batteries such as the different types, the amount needed, and how to wire them together.

Gary is researching the other hardware needed besides batteries.  This includes inverters, charge controllers, diodes, and junction boxes.  He will be calculating how much of each component the set-up will need and the approximate price.

Ana will be creating a diagram detailing how each component connects to the other.

Vincent and Tony will be researching the different ways to mount solar panels.  They will be calculating the optimal angle, and the price of the materials.  They will also detail how to mount them.

Vincent will be researching how to mount panels on the roof. While Tony will be researching how to mount them on poles.  They will discuss the pros and cons of each method and recommend what they think will be the best method to mount the solar panels for the rehabilitation center.

One problem is that the engineers on the ground working on the rehabilitation center in the DR Congo have not provided the current blueprints to the center nor have they answered our questions.  The only contact we have had with them was a Skype session about 2 weeks ago.  We have not had contact with them since then.  This makes it very difficult to find out what they specifically want, and what ideas they are open to.  Without updated and detailed plans, it is very difficult to see what can be implemented into the rehabilitation center. 

On Thursday, some of our team members talked with our TA, Zach to get some feedback on our current progress.  He told us that he expects Invisible Children to respond to us next week.  However, it is also possible that they may not contact us at all. 

Initially, we planned on implementing small sized solar panels in the rehabilitation center.  The reasoning was that they were light enough to carry and that would cut down on the costs to transport to the rehabilitation center.  Because they are small, they will also be much easier to transport.  Also, in case a solar panel malfunctions, it would be much easier and cheaper to replace a small panel than a large one.

After talking to Zach, he brought up that small solar panels are not desirable because they cost more $/watt than large solar panels.  Furthermore, small solar panels will require more work and materials to mount on the roof.  With this information, we plan to research the different types of solar panels available and analyze the pros and cons of each to determine the most effective solar panels to use.