Design for Change supports a wide range of student projects, both in and out of the classroom. Some of these projects are student initiated, while others are derived from a list of design challenges that the club maintains. The club commits significant efforts in providing an array of design challenges to fit the unique skills of a wide range of students, from engineering to management. These projects can be used to satisfy student thesis projects, in-class research and design projects, or UROP work. DfC's support for a project is tailored to best fit the requirements of each student involved. The club can provide support in all phases of projects from initial idea conception and brainstorming to final implementation and distribution efforts. For more information contact the Director of Student Projects.

Current Projects:

• UV Water Purification Project : The idea of this project is to use UV lamps to purify water coming from a central water system. The power to run the UV lamps will come from the potential energy of the water, which is stored in an elevated tower. A simple calculation shows that this is at least possible, although many details still have to be worked out.
  
  In order to kill or disable the majority of bacteria in the water (99.9%) a minimum UV energy intensity is required. This minimum intensity varies between microorganisms, and between research studies. A value of 400 J/m2 is used here, which is the minimum intensity recommended by the National Sanitation Foundation (NSF) for drinking water.
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• Pedal Powered Bandsaw Project : [To be updated shortly.]

Other Design Challenges:

Design for Change has built its body of design challenges from direct collaboration with local communities. Below you will find a small sampling of some of these design challenges, along with links to sites which provide comprehensive design requirements for these and other projects.

• Water scarcity
• Road conditions
• (Explore these and more projects @ ENGhana - http://www.enghana.org)

• Assessing suitability of well sites
• Organic printer ink
• (Explore these and more projects @ engINdia - http://home.btconnect.com/engindia/)

• Developing an entrepreneurial training program
• Microhydro "island" generator
• (Explore these and more projects @ MIT-ATS - http://web.mit.edu/ats/index.html)