Thesis

We wanted to show how renewable energy impacts the environment and the surrounding people. The final project is a museum that educates and discusses how GFP or Green Fluorescent Protein can improve solar panels.

Design Process Flowchart

Sim City

Sim City was an inspiration because in the game you could make a city and see its effects. This inspired the original idea to have different forms of energy and have them interact with the environment.

Jellyfish

Jellyfish have what is known as GFP or Green Fluorescent protein. This can be used as a way to make solar panels much more efficient and effective.

Inspiration

Osamu Shimomura

Osamu Shimomura was the first person to isolate GFP and to find out which part of GFP was responsible for its fluorescence. This jellyfish produces green bioluminescence from small photoorgans located on its umbrella (see figures below). When the rings of twenty to thirty jellyfish are squeezed through a rayon gauze, a faintly luminescent liquid called squeezate is obtained.

 The key lies in a jellyfish’s green fluorescent protein (GFP), which is what gives some jellyfish their eerie glow. This substance reacts to UV light and excites electrons. Consider this in the context of solar panels. Right now, people are investing in solar panels as a way to turn greener, but in truth, it can take around eight years for solar panels to bring a return on investment.

Research

Jellyfish’s (GFP)

First Concept Sketches

The original concept was to have it be more like Sim City. You would place the energy sources and see how they would impact the land and city.

The newer and more refined idea was to turn it into a museum that talked about and explored the idea of GFP and how it is used to help improve solar panels

What Worked?

What Didn't?

1. The concept worked well in that it was a good way to show how energy impacted the environment and the people

1. It was too complicated and was too difficult to make
2. The focus was too broad and had to make it more narrow

First Prototype

The original idea was to have players power a city and manage its resources. the resources would vary in each game and so would the environment

Final Photo

Change #1: Focusing on one form of energy

Change: #3 museum

Originally we wanted to look at all forms of energy but then decided that it would be better if we focused on just one. So we switched to focus on GFP and Bioenergy

In the end we decided to turn the city into a museum to better show how bio energy worked

Change #2: New energy

We then worked to change the surroundings and researched the impacts of GFP but found that it's relatively new. So we changed how the environment was set up.

Prototypes

Final Diagram

Reflecting & Looking Forward...

1. Spend more time elaborating on the museum building.
2. Made a life-size version of Jelly City

Final Result

Final Image

Questions?

Precedents

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Project Statement

the goal of the project is to teach and show how renewable energy works and affects the ecosystem that it's in. Using VR will allow those interacting see how the forms of energy interact with the ecosystem.

Prototype 1

Prototype 2

Prototype 3 (if applicable)