Technician: What is your plan that won the Think Outside the Brick competition?
Eliza Jones: “The idea of it is that we have a gazebo on campus which is outdoors and makes it a little bit more comfortable for people doing studying or meeting with groups to be outdoors instead of inside in the library. You get a little better feel out there. The solar panels will power a couple of plugs, sockets. So that students can sit in the gazebo and charge their laptops, their cell phones, any electronic device while in the comfort of the outdoors. It’s a nice alternative to being cooped up in the library.”
Technician: How did your group come up with this idea?
Sonum Nerurkar: “I don’t remember [how we came up with the idea.] I know we were brainstorming at a WESA meeting and we were brainstorming ideas for Think Outside the Brick that people could take those ideas and run with it. I think it was a combination of everyone’s idea, Zack especially.”
Eliza: “We were going a different way with it, kind of looking at doing a solar greenhouse with it. Our friend Zack, who’s in the group with us, thought that it would be kind of a cool idea to maybe do something that the students would see more. And that the students could actually use more versus something like a greenhouse that wouldn’t really even be seen, because it would have been part of the WESA garden that won the Think Outside the Brick last year. We agreed with him. We thought it would be much more beneficial to the students because it would be something that they could use daily.”
Sonum: “A lot of the things that we emphasized, or at least when we were campaigning for this project, was that we really wanted for students to be able to see something that represented alternative energy, not just a little sign that says ‘this is run by solar power.’ You can actually see the solar panels. That was actually like the main idea, to be able to enjoy something with learning about alternative energy, because I’m sure there are people that don’t know that much about it. It would be open to mainly N.C. State students, but even people from other schools visiting could see it and be really impressed with our innovations and also the public and the local area and the community.”
Technician: How is the planning for the gazebo going so far?
Sonum: “We’re really pushing for the gazebo, however, because of landscape and the politics of everything, we might just be adding the solar panels to an existing structure. We’re still trying to work out the kinks with that, so we don’t know exactly where it will be, but we’re going to try to put the solar panels somewhere so that students can use it and hopefully have that in the next year, and maybe implement the gazebo and the solar panels, in the next few years, like in a longer plan, but we don’t have anything set for sure, we’re still trying to work with the administration and figure things out.”
Eliza: “We haven’t really gotten too deep into it. We’ve been meeting to with the Sustainability office. They’ve been really helpful to us in answering our questions.”
Technician: How hard is it to talk to the people you need to talk to about this?
Sonum: “Sometimes it’s hard to get in touch with people that are higher up, just because they’re so busy. It’s nice having a middleman, sort of like the Sustainability Commission and David Dean and stuff, just because they go to those meetings. They can go to those meetings and talk to them. Brian, a guy in our group, has talked to the landscape architect because he worked on the SOUL garden, and talked about that. I definitely think N.C. State is great about really incorporating students’ ideas. It hasn’t been too difficult, but we’re still in the beginning stages.”
Technician: Do you have any ideas of where to put the gazebo?
Eliza: “We have some ideas [of where to put the gazebo.] Obviously, you’re going to need a spot that gets maximum amount of sunlight, because if you don’t the panels aren’t going to properly run. So, our initial thought was outside of D.H. Hill, where the WolfEars are. We like that spot.”
Sonum: “We also thought about the grassy spot by Fox Labs and David Clark. But there’s so many politics going along with it, because of who’s donated and like what the land has been set for, what they specifically want the land to be used for. So, it’s really hard because this is such a historic University.”
Eliza: “There’s been talk about putting it on Centennial Campus, which is a great spot for it. We wanted it to be on main campus, in a high traffic area so that people would see it and want to use it. And see solar panels on campus really would be pretty key in raising awareness in solar energy if it’s a spot where students are actually going to see it and use it. Versus Centennial which has a lot of people over there, but I guess most people don’t make it over that way, or most students.”
Technician: What are your thoughts of the Think Outside the Brick Competition?
Sonum: “We’re both in WESA, but it’s so rare sometimes to find the people that would really be motivated to make the changes on campus, and not even the people necessarily, but the means to do it. This competition was so great to be able to give money to students like us for just an idea and help us implement it. Last year’s idea, the SOUL garden, was also done by WESA members. I think that’s the reason I wanted to do it, because I saw how successful that was and that things can really get done and it’s such a positive example of how you can get things done on campus how you want, and it’s a great. I think it’s a really great competition.”
Eliza:”All these things [the competition is about] would make N.C. State’s campus more efficient, and greener and better for everyone, ourselves and the environment.”
Technician: Any other thoughts you’d like to share with students?
Eliza: “We hope this is going to open a whole new dimension of the potential of solar energy on campus, because there’s a lot of things we could change by using solar panels and the technology behind it.”
Sonum: “We want people to know this project involves everyone. We’re excited to have other people help us. If people are interested, they should definitely contact us.”
