During the third edition of the innovation and entrepreneurship contest, the Zeus an Electromechanical Piezoelectric Energy Harvester projects won the first places in each category.
The third edition of the student innovation and entrepreneurship competition Mushuna was organized exclusively by students. This time, the competition was divided into two main categories: Social Transformation and Innovation and High Impact Research. The winning team in the first category includes: David Altamirano and Jimmy Guazumba, who presented Zeus. The winners of the second category were students ica Garzón, Cristina Vaca, María Paula Ayala and Alexandra Puruncaja, who presented a research project on an electromechanical piezoelectric energy harvester. The prizes the students won include economic incentives, an internship, a trip, and a trophy.
Zeus is a thermoelectric generator that collects energy from temperature variations. David, a 7th-semester Physics student, and Jimmy, a 4th semester Chemical Technology student from IST 17 de Julio, plan to give the device different applications, depending on the sector they target. For the industrial sector, their generator can allow the use of waste of energy. In the community, it can provide electric energy to homes through the use of solar energy, while preserving caloric energy. Under this same method, they seek to apply this technology for road lighting at night.
The electromechanical piezoelectric energy harvester, created by Domenica, Cristina, María Paula and Alexandra’s, all 5th semester Physics students, had previously won a prize for the best project of that generation in the field of Oscillations, Electricity and Magnetism. The project is currently in a prototyping and research phase. This electric generator works from oscillations, gravitational force and piezoelectric. According to the theory, it could be efficient by 80%, which is greater than the current generators, for example wind ones. In the future, students expect to apply their project on a large scale and make a scientific publication.
