HeatSource Textile Project wins $7,500 IDEAS Award

09 Jun '09

1 min read

HeatSource Textiles' HeatSource Project was awarded $7,500 IDEAS Award sponsored by Lemelson – MIT, which sponsors an annual IDEAS prize for an outstanding project that focuses on international technology. Celeste Chudyk, Scot Frank, Allen Lin, Mary Masterman, Catlin Powers, Amy Qian, Saad Shaikh, Bao Truong, and Sloan Kulper developed an innovation for the rural Himalayan populations that rely heavily on dung and wood to heat their homes.

HeatSource is a system of modular thermal energy-storing textile units composed of local textiles and paraffin, a locally available phase change material.

These textiles deliver heat directly to the user, are fully reusable, and rely on solar energy to charge. HeatSource textiles also provide a means of income generation for local craftspeople.

In 2009 the IDEAS Competition received 36 outstanding proposals from a range of graduate and undergraduate teams. At least 6 awards are made each year to teams that demonstrate innovative solutions to problems in local, national, and international communities. Each winning team has demonstrated to the judges that their project was innovative, sustainable, and feasible.

IDEAS Competition

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