Bryan BeilkeChildren will be able to get a hands-on lesson in solar energy and radiation when visiting the San Luis Obispo Children’s Museum once it reopens, thanks to a giant solar-powered sunflower fountain that was the design of a Cal Poly senior project.
The sunflower, which adorns the Nipomo Street side of the museum, features a solar panel in the face of the flower and is connected to a nearby water fountain.
Children can rotate the flower to see how the fluctuating levels of sunlight affect the strength of the water coming out of the fountain, which shoots water anywhere from a few inches to a few feet high.
The solar-powered fountain began as the brainchild of Cal Poly professor Louis Rosenberg and is the product of months of hard work from mechanical engineering alumnus Kyle Hayes, who designed the fountain as a senior project with fellow mechanical engineering alumni Rachel Santee and Steve Teran.
“I pitched the basic idea to the Children’s Museum back in 2006, and they liked it,” said Rosenburg, an associate professor of educational technology with the College of Engineering and the College of Education. “The museum and I then pitched the idea to PG&E, who agreed to fund it. Thus the project was a three-way partnership between Cal Poly, the Children’s Museum and PG&E, who even sent out workmen and trucks to help erect it.”
Hayes, Santee and Teran finished the design in 2007, and Hayes was hired by the museum to keep working on the project and fine-tune the details in both the manufacturing and the construction.
“We got some support from some people in the machine shop at Poly, and we had most of the bigger pieces done by a heavy machinery shop up in Paso Robles,” said Hayes, who is currently finishing his thesis for a graduate degree in biomedical engineering.
“It’s not 100 percent complete yet, and I have some modifications to make, but it’s been nice because I’ve been able to work on it as I’m getting my master’s.”
The sunflower features a closed-loop system with the fountain, and the solar panels incorporate a series of fins that help to make the strength of the sun more apparent.
“The design is directional, very contingent on facing the sun,” Hayes said.
The Children’s Museum, which is tentatively scheduled to open sometime this spring, will feature several other student exhibits overseen by Rosenberg.
“None of them are as big as the sunflower, but all should be great educational experiences for kids,” Rosenberg said. “The great thing about the sunflower exhibit is that it helps kids learn about energy, one of the most important topics of our day.”
“It’s a visible, eye-catching approach to alternative energy,” Hayes agreed. “We live in an interesting time, and kids will need to be able to get creative with what they can get energy out of. It’s important to look at what’s available and practical, which isn’t just solar energy.”
While the solar-powered sunflower fountain is not yet fully complete, it can be seen at the corner of Nipomo and Monterey streets.