Engineering Nerd Work

Sitting in a cubicle in front of a computer screen for long periods of time has never appealed to me.  Unfortunately sometimes it is necessary.  Despite this, in my work this summer at HCJB I have done my best to get outside and work with my hands, two of my favorite activities.  I thought I would tell a little about what I've been up to the past few weeks here in Elkhart, Indiana.

My cube, where I spend as little time as possible.

The Tech Center has quite an interesting group of people.  If I ever get stuck on something I have some smart missionaries to ask for help: a rocket scientist from NASA, engineers from Hewlett-Packard, guys who have built antenna towers in countries I've never heard of, and then there's Herb - he's been a missionary with HCJB for 62 years and still going strong!


Shogo (a fellow intern), Harold (my very knowledgeable supervisor), and I have been working on developing a source of alternative energy for health and radio ministries of HCJB.  The technology we are looking at involves power generation by a solar thermal tower, or solar chimney.  The objective is to determine if it's a feasible option for use in rural areas of the developing world where no electric grid exists.  This could supplement power for a small radio transmitter or a health clinic in a nice and sunny place like Africa.  Some advantages include the use of local materials, simple construction, and relatively low cost.

Bud, Harold, and Shogo in the machine shop.

As it turns out there is not a ton of information on the topic.  Seeing as only one large scale solar chimney has been successfully built and used in the world, we decided to start by building some of our own.  How hard could it be?  We started with a little guy.

Now we're going a little bigger for Prototype 2.  It's been a very educational experience, plenty of mistakes to learn from.  Shogo has been handling most of the electrical work (don't know what I'd do without him) while I've handled a lot of the construction and mechanical aspects.


The concept has been demonstrated, now we just have to make adjustments and improvements for the actual size.  We're still working on testing different designs and getting a few bugs out of our electronic measuring devices.


Some might wonder why a civil engineer is doing this kind of work.  Well, I don't know but I'm learning a good amount as I go.  The great people here at HCJB have done a lot to make sure I feel welcome here.  They found me a civil engineer to act as my mentor.  So thanks to Tom, the county engineer, I've been able to learn about what civil engineers are supposed to do.  He has kindly let me visit some of his project sites around town, and even let me get my hands dirty.  So now I can say I helped build a bridge.

I've managed to keep myself pretty busy.  My time here so far has been full of great experiences.  It's such a great work environment to be surrounded by believers who are radically devoted to the Lord, and who work for God's kingdom behind the scenes, without worrying about getting any recognition.  More important than any of the work I accomplish here are the relationships I'm building with the staff and interns, and growing stronger in my faith.