Principal's Prize
Congratulations to SISER PhD student Dorothy Hardy who was awarded the "Principal's Prize for Public Engagement" in the PhD student category at Heriot-Watt University.
Dorothy has taken on a broad range of public engagement activities during her PhD studies. These include organising and contributing to the LightBright Electric Exhibition (see past events below for details) and taking to the stage to perform stand-up comedy about her research as part of Bright Club Edinburgh.
We asked Dorothy to tell us more about her research and the benefits of her public engagement.
"I investigate ways of making solar cells look good as part of architecture. I use fluorescent dyes to change the colours of solar cells and their surroundings. This technology has minimal effect on the electricity output from the cells, unlike many other methods of altering the appearance of solar cells."
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Dorothy working with fluorescent dyes |
Testing the electricity output from a model made at the 'LightBrightElectric' workshop, February 2013 | "Public engagement is a vital part of this research. I want to know what would most help building designers: what research I should do so that solar cells will look great as part of buildings; so that this technology can make a big contribution to generation of renewable energy. Showing the variety of solar cells that are available helps with this, but the most exciting work is in getting people working hands-on with materials. | |
Making models with fluorescent plastics and thin solar ‘strip’ cells gives a lot of room for experiment, and a result that shows how this technology (known as luminescent solar concentrators) can generate electricity."
"Winning this category of the principal’s prize for public engagement will enable me to make an installation that features solar cells and fluorescent dyes; to draw people in and show them that solar cells can look exciting, as well as generating electricity. I will develop the designs that I have been working on at Peters glass studio, in Paderborn, Germany: the world leaders in artistic use of solar cells in architectural glass."
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Prototype artistic solar cell design, made at Peters glass studios
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Dorothy's prize-winning presentation can be viewed by clicking on the image on the left. | ||