Follow the story of Kuelii through our blog.
Part 1. Hello World!
After a long journey of hard work and long nights, we’re finally ready to say hello in our first blog post!
First of all, allow me to introduce myself and the team at Kuelii Smart Design. I’m Jay, a design student at the School of Interactive Arts and Technology department of Simon Fraser University and a founder of Kuelii Smart Design. With past experience in project management, media production, and UI/UX design, I’m the CEO and experience designer on the team.
Ok that’s enough about me, let’s talk about the team.
Our team is made up of talented students from Simon Fraser University (SFU) and University of British Columbia (UBC) with a variety of backgrounds, nationalities, and experiences. On our technical development team, we have Dolapo who handles software, Johnson who works our electrical systems, and Cindy who designs our hardware models. To the business end, we have Kevin for business development and Adeline on graphic and interface design.
The idea was born.
During the heat wave of summer 2015 I observed, living in a single detached home and visiting my friends at their condos, that buildings in Vancouver are built to contain and retain heat during the winter. Houses suck at shedding heat from the hot sun. For those of us without the money to buy and own an air conditioner, we open windows and use tower fans to ease the summer suffering. Of course, in true infomercial fashion, I thought to myself, “there’s got to be a better way.”
In the fall semester, I was given the opportunity to take a shot at solving the problem. I took IAT 267 under the expert instruction of instructor Helmine Serban and TA Maryam Mobini. In the class when we formed our core team and created a proof of concept that demonstrated the ideas behind our product. We were able to, by freezing our butts in the middle of winter, demonstrate our product’s effectiveness in solving the problem. In mid- December, we sat down with the project team and decided to take the Kuelii project beyond the classroom, with the hopes to make life better with smart technologies and enable environmentally friendly solutions.
Of course, not all our classmates stayed beyond the class. We’re extremely grateful of the contributions of Jasmeen Virk and especially Sittidej Somprakit who was with us until April.
Okay, you’ve said so much so…. what is this thing!?
Hold your horses. This is only the first part! Over the next few blog post we’ll tell you all about it!
Part 2. The Beginnings of a Journey
Twas the middle of winter and in our hands was the first 3D printed and assembled model of our proof of concept. I unlatched and shoved the heavy window separating us from the cold world outside. As we gathered around, I took our model and slid it into the gap before closing the window tightly around the model. Then Cindy plugged it in. It came to life.
At least that’s the way it played out in my head.
Soon after the end of IAT 267, Dolapo, TA for IAT 381: Android Development, joined us and we took our proof of concept on a road trip down to University of Washington Startup Weekend. There we joined up with Andrew and Adam of Sodo Makerspace, Tuan from UW, and Rob to bring an MVP to life over the weekend. We came in 2nd overall! Through the process, we picked up important skills such as evaluation and validation as well as pitching and presentation.
Over the last few months, we participated in a few other competitions such as the SFU Entrepreneur of the Year and Alphagear Lab’s Hardware Cup, both of which we got to semi-finals. Throughout that process, we were able to learn a great deal about ourselves and the industry we’re entering. It also greatly helped us refining our business plan, hearing critique from those with experience in the industry.
Coming in the next part two weeks from now: a deeper dive into our product development.
Part 3: What we’re doing.
I used to fans into my window to achieve the cooling effect with the cold air outside. It was a stopgap solution for only the hottest nights being so disruptively loud, inefficient, and had a tenancy to over cool. I then looked around on the market for a solution that not only worked but looked unobtrusive while doing so. Around now, you’re probably thinking, “Well, Jay what you’re making sounds a lot like a product already on the market, the window fan.” If that’s what you’re thinking, you’re largely correct!
Innovating an age old solution.
We’re making an Internet of Things solution that innovates on the age old window fan, bringing it into the 21st century. (No, it’s not super exciting like a shiny new fruity device, but we think you’ll love it just as much.) Our solution uses two high power computer fans that are optimized to move air. We thought, that since computer fans are excellent at quiet moving air through crowded spaces and messy, why not use it to cool a room!
Not only does our fan need to work, it needs to also look great. We’re working hard on making an enclosure that is unlike the loud plastic solutions currently out there.
Hardware wise, we have an array of sensors hooked up to the internet allowing our Smart Fan to gain an understanding of its environment, both inside and outside. It would, armed with that information and our cooling algorithm, determine when to turn on to, and which way to move the air to achieve the most effective cooling using the least amount of power.
Our Progress
Over the last few months we’ve been working very hard to not only make a make a prototype but make a prototype that works fully to our spec. We’ve been working on the core device, the fan, building and prototyping the parts, connecting it to the internet, and building out the back end. We’re really really close to getting that done. Right now, we’re still having trouble sourcing bi-directional fan motors but we’ve been able to complete almost all the other features. (If you happen to know a source, please reach out to us!!)
We’re nearly at the end! In the final post of this series, we’ll tell you why we think you will LOVE the Kuelii Smart Fan.
Part 4: The Kuelii Smart Fan
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