» research

Powerplant Did Not Make the Cut

Krystal Persaud — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 16:47:08 +0000

Well, unfortunately my Powerplant design did not make the cut to the final round of the Inventure Prize. Although I am pretty disappointed, I learned a lot from the experience. While working on the Powerplant, I did a lot of collaborative research– consulting with electrical engineering and geochemistry friends. Inventure made me realize how relevant these types of collaborations are.

How many brilliant researchers are out there.. making discoveries, advancing science.. but do not have the skills to make their impact accessible? Maybe that is my role in industrial design. I’d like to bridge the gap between researches/engineers/scientists and industrial designers. Maybe…

“Closed Loop” is growing!

Krystal Persaud — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 17:13:29 +0000

The Amerlux ball STILL isn’t rolling. I was going to crackdown on my boss today about it, but there is a big meeting with Gensler about a project involving the Shanghai Tower. Definitely check out the Shanghai Tower, when it is built, it is going to be the 2nd tallest building in the world. It is breaking a lot of ground in mixed-use, urban, sustainable building. Anyways, everyone was already really tense about this meeting, so I will postpone my confrontation until tomorrow.

Consulting Amerlux about more sustainable habits got me thinking… what could the Closed Loop become? I used to work for a student-run non-profit organization called F.O.O.T.S.T.E.P.S.. It was a great experience, stressful at times, but great. It made me feel like “wow, this is what I could do…for life”. Really rewarding, volunteer for a non-profit if you have free time or are just interested. Worth it. Anyways, this project with Amerlux makes me want to do more projects. I talked to Rohit Malholtra, the President of F.O.O.T.S.T.E.P.S. and a friend of mine, for some advice. He works in D.C. for the ONE campaign. Yes, that is the one with U2′s Bono. Baller.

So, if Closed Loop expanded…

A) What could Closed Loop do? Helping companies, individuals, schools maybe, adopt more sustainable practices/designs/habits. Right now the economy is really tight and many people do not budget for such changes. And we all know people won’t change for free (unless they REALLY care).

B) How would I afford this? Well, I people have asked me about donating to my cause. But, Closed Loop was just a student project then. Closed Loop it is definitely not a charity. But, it is not a corporation because I am not interested in making a profit. It is not quite a non-profit though. It can be a non-profit consulting company. This means that with the donations I earn, I can allocate them to projects (like cleaning up Amerlux) as I see necessary. I could use the money to up-keep the website, donate to schools, etc.

C) And how exactly do you plan on doing this by yourself? The great thing about being a non-profit consultant is that you CAN do it by yourself. I am thinking on a very local scale right now. So I will approach a future client as an individual consultant or a client can approach me as an individual. Once I have some funds, following through on these projects is feasible– for me to execute and for a client to accept.

What do you guys think? Could it happen?

Focus Group 1: Consumer Perspectives

Krystal Persaud — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 14:04:27 +0000

Here is the video of the focus group for public viewing. Great thanks to the participants Benjamin Jakimow, Daniel Mancera, Nayeli Gutierrez, Mirre Van Tilburg, and Erik W. Bjoennes! I know it was kind of ghetto in my apartment, but I think it went really well. Thank you for volunteering and also allowing me to post the video on the website- it was very interesting and I am sure the readers appreciate it.

Erik said something interesting after the focus group was over. He said convenience is really key when encouraging people to be more environmentally friendly. He has to travel 15 minutes to recycle glass in his hometown. So if he only has one or two bottles and he does not feel like traveling 15 minutes, he will just throw them in the trash. He admits that he is not as environmental as he could be. Sometimes it really just comes down to getting over laziness. Thanks for the insight Erik.

There will be a formal analysis of the focus group to follow this week.

View My Research Presentation

Krystal Persaud — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 17:24:32 +0000

This is a link to the research presentation I showed to my class. It explains more in depth methodology, insight, and intentions for this project.

“Closed Loop” Experiment Presentation

The “Closed Loop” Experiment

Krystal Persaud — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 10:37:41 +0000

I am an industrial design student currently studying in Lund, Sweden. I decided to conduct this 5-month long experiment about sustainability to supplement my studio project. This experiment is designed to make myself step out of my comfort zone in the place I usually feel most comfortable… my home.

This is my logic:

In an ideal world, every house is essentially a “closed loop”. I use the phrase “closed loop” meaning that the input = the output. (Ex- a closed electrical circuit cannot produce more than the battery power that supplies it. In a closed ecological system, any waste produced is consumed by another species).

Each house is part of a neighborhood/surrounding area that is its own closed loop. Each neighborhood area is in a state which should be another larger loop. Each state in a country, each country in a continent… until eventually the world is a closed loop. Except, right now, the world is a closed loop..and that isn’t changing. Unless we wanna go the WALL-E route and start living in space.

But if every house is an open loop for example, its output is greater than a closed system can handle, so it needs an outlet of some kind (garbage). So if houses in neighborhoods in states in countries in continents on the planet are producing a greater output in one giant open system… where is it going? After all, the earth is a closed system.

So I decided to bring this idea home, literally, to really understand it.

Rules of the experiment:

Rule 1: Waste = food
+ Everything brought into my apartment stays in my apartment except things that biodegrade and can directly return to the earth (ex-food, compost)

Rule 2: Take in the trash
+ Never take out the trash.

Rule 3: Recycle
+ Things that can be recycled locally like paper, plastics, and aluminum can be taken out of the apartment once a month.

Rule 4: Repurpose
+ Only recycle things that cannot be used again! Always try to re-use anything before throwing it in the trash or recycling bin.