Hartford Students Make a Power Play to Help Victims in Nepal

Press Release
May 13, 2015
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Students at a Hartford high school are putting their heads together to lend a helping hand to victims of the earthquake in Nepal. The students from the Hartford Public High School’s Academy of Engineering and Green Technology are building a renewable power system, similar to a generator, to send to a pair of Himalayan villages. They call the project “Nepal 2.0.” The energy system is a generator powered by solar and wind, and it is being built by 22 juniors and seniors. “We are building what is called an  off-grid hybrid that they can use to charge their laptops, they can use it for their birthing center to power up their ultra sound machines — the things that normally wouldn’t have power,” said Dave Magnus, the engineering teacher at the school and the mentor for the program. Solar panels line the classroom as the students work, and towering behind them is a wind turbine. Shayesha Washington, a student on the project, was working on the wind turbine when she said, “It makes me feel good to be helping people who don’t have what I have.” Sorangelee Trinidad, a junior who is also working on the project, said, “It feels like a privilege, in all honestly, to help someone so far away from me.” The project is being funded in part by UTC, and so far sponsors have pitched in $85,000. The National Academy Foundation is also participating in the project. The generators are scheduled to be completed next month and  will be sent to Nepal in July. “The kids take it personally,” Mangus added. “They want to help the children, especially the earthquake victims.”

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