Project Presentation Day (6/30/2021)

We finally wrapped up our projects, and today was presentation day. For especially the past two and a half weeks (after language school finished), we have worked hard on research, experiments, and prototyping for our projects. We came in with high expectations for what we would be able to accomplish. Some were met, others not quite. But we trust that our work was honoring to the Lord and will help Java Bite / SunREI continue to help the people of Indonesia. The picture below is of all the presenting interns, both the American students and the Indonesian University students. All of us Americans are wearing what look like skirts (but they're not!); they're called sarongs, and they're a traditional piece of Indonesian clothing. Our Indonesian friends were so gracious to give them to us. 

The microwave vacuum dehydration project was very successful. We were able to implement a 4 bar linkage design that provided ~130° of back-and-forth rotational motion. The video below shows the 4 bar linkage in action. Unfortunately, we weren't able to dehydrate any fruit under vacuum due to lack of time. If we had more time, we would have set up the vacuum chamber inside the microwave with a flexible hose coming out of the top; we then would have tested our design with actual fruit. Instead, we simply laid slices of cheese on the microwave turntable plate so that we could determine if they heated evenly. The cheese heated with circular symmetry, which is the same as any continuous rotation microwave. Therefore, our design was a successful proof of concept and will be helpful moving forward. 

The cold storage system project was somewhat successful, but it had many challenges. The project was going well until the flash freezer broke. After attempting diagnosis and repair ourselves, we decided to contact a local refrigerator repair man. He was incredibly knowledgeable and helpful, and he was able to successfully diagnose the problem (a blown contactor due to an unstable voltage supply), but we were not able to order a replacement part in time. Therefore, we did everything we could to revise the standard operating procedures (SOP) without actually being able to use the flash freezer. In addition to the revised SOP, we reported on storage of raw materials, artificial methods of mango ripening, equipment maintenance and operation, and voltage stabilizer research. This cold storage project had great breadth but little depth. However, it was still a successful project and the work we did will be helpful moving forward.