Solar-Powered Lifesaver

In February 2023, a cholera outbreak began in Zimbabwe..

 

The severe diarrheal infection is caused by consuming food or water contaminated with the Vibrio cholerae bacteria. Most people experience a mild or moderate illness and can be treated using oral rehydration. But the disease can become lethal within just a matter of hours. By the time the Zimbabwean Government announced that the outbreak was at an end in August 2024, more than 34,000 cases had been reported, resulting in over 700 deaths.

 

Meanwhile, in the summer of 2024 in Shanghai, China, 16 year-old Thomas had just finished his GCSEs. He’d been following the Zimbabwean outbreak with some interest and together with his friend, Oliver decided they could do something to help.

 

“We had some spare time after our GCSE exams,” Thomas (now 17 and an Upper Sixth Former at LWC) explains. “We wanted to design a product that could help people in Zimbabwe.” With cholera linked to poor access to safe water supplies, this seemed like an obvious place to start for the budding engineers.

 

“We decided to make a product that could boil water easily,” Thomas continues. “Firewood is an unsustainable energy resource and because of deforestation, people in Zimbabwe often have to travel long distances to access it. Their electrical supply is unreliable and expensive and so we came up with the idea of designing a parabolic solar cooker.”

 

The initial idea came to the pair relatively quickly, but then they set about the design process.

 

“We manufactured several different prototypes,” Thomas explains, “and we tested different types of materials that could withstand the high temperatures. The product also needed to be very light and cheap to locally manufacture.” The aim of the project (named ‘Sunflower’) was to provide locals in Zimbabwe with the skills to build the cookers themselves, keeping costs as low as possible.

 

“I was very excited to be in Zimbabwe and to see more than one hundred villagers using our product. It was a very inspiring moment. Before this, engineering was theoretical, but this has allowed us to see the wider impact it can have. Engineering relates to real life and can help people. It can heal and provide better living conditions for those who also have big dreams.”

— Thomas, LWC Sixth Former

 

“The cooker looks like an inverted umbrella,” Thomas reveals. “It works by concentrating light through its parabolic mirrored surface onto a single focal point, which can then heat water to boiling point within 15 minutes.

 

“The entire structure is made of pine wood arcs, connected by a wooden ring in the centre and pulled together using ropes. Compared to traditional solar cookers, our model is more portable, lightweight and cheaper to build, costing around £11 to make.”

 

Not bad for two 16-year-olds. Even more remarkable when you consider that neither set out to make a profit from their designs.

 

“We have registered a utility patent for our designs, but we don’t want to make money from it,” Thomas admits. “We went to a district of Zimbabwe called Mutoko in the summer of 2024, where we showcased our designs to villagers. We found resources in the local market and worked with carpenters to assemble the final models. Most of the villagers had never seen a product like this and they were very impressed. We left them with the models we made, along with the blueprint for the designs. Now they can boil water a lot more easily than using more conventional methods.”

   

With LWC’s ambition to inspire its young people to think expansively and set out to make a positive difference in the world, Thomas embodies the very core values of the College. But if you think the story ends there, then think again.

 

Since coming up with their initial cooker, the two friends have created a second model, this time manufactured using an aluminium frame and glass fibre. “This one costs around £30 to set up,” adds Thomas. “But the aim is to manufacture the smaller, second model which is more efficient and boils water in under eight minutes. We can import this to places like Zimbabwe if they are able to buy it and to other places around the world.”

 

This summer, Thomas returned to Zimbabwe to continue raising awareness of the solar cooker and to demonstrate the designs to a greater number of people who could benefit.

 

“We arranged for 100 solar cookers to be transported there,” he continues. “We donated 25 of them to the National Council of Disabled Persons of Zimbabwe (NCDPZ) and 25 to three hospitals and two schools. The remaining 50 will support a ‘business to philanthropy’ framework; where local partners and government officials will work together to retail the cookers locally, using the income to sustain the programme in the longer term. We also trained members of the NCDPZ to become our future retailers, creating job opportunities for them.”

   

And what has Thomas learned from the experience so far?

 

 “To me, this is about engineering and designing a solution to a problem,” he reflects. He talks enthusiastically about bringing one of his models back to the 1200 from China and showing it to his teachers and fellow students at LWC.

 

“The physics teachers provided me with some technical support and gave me some advice about how I could improve my design when we tested it here in a different environment.”

 

But the whole project has made Thomas more determined than ever to study engineering further:

 

“I was very excited to be in Zimbabwe and to see more than one hundred villagers using our product. It was a very inspiring moment. Before this, engineering was theoretical, but this has allowed us to see the wider impact it can have. Engineering relates to real life and can help people. It can heal and provide better living conditions for those who also have big dreams.”

 

Few people can claim to have created a product capable of saving lives at the age of 16.

 

Just imagine what the future holds for Thomas and his friends.

 

To learn more about LWC’s Inspirational Sixth Form, visit us at one of our Open Events.