ECE.13R – Solis Pak

• Hawea Elmi
• Q Quiroz
• Seiveirotte Suon
• Nathan Vela

About 74% of Americans commute to work or school every day and 97% of people own some type of cell phone. Of those people only 11% reported carrying a charger with them. Our project is focused on creating a commuter backpack that will allow users to charge their devices on the go using solar energy. There are many competitors on the market; however, they’re not cost effective. Our solution stands out because it includes spacers attached to the backpack to angle the solar panel at different angles to increase solar energy intake at different times of the day. We created a backpack that is cost effective, highly ventilated, and is able to charge a phone battery. Our backpack is expected to fully charge our battery pack in about an hour and a half to two hours and is expected to be able to charge a phone battery at least twice during the day. We optimized the power electronics to charge the battery pack with 1-2 hours of direct sunlight while also ventilating the backpack to reduce overheating. We have also designed and created a PCB from scratch which is being utilized to regulate the voltage intake from the solar panel to the battery pack.