Dane’s Master’s Thesis (3.1mb, 100 pages). Check it out. It is interesting research.

When you are at the counter holding what will be your new notebook computer, or one mouse click away from your purchase confirmation, it seems right that you would be excited. It is a good chance that for the last year or two you have been battling your frustrations of your computer’s symptoms of old age: inadequate processing speed, shortage of hard drive space, faulty display screen, short battery charge… So when you get home, or back to the office, all of these ailments will suddenly disappear and you can return to the sweet life of the fast lane of computing. This is at least the consensus from over 100 participants in my Master’s thesis describing their notebook computer experiences and imagining their next purchase.

My research focuses on the battery. I inquire how people interact with the battery through the lens of the notebook computer, then make comparisons with the fuel cell. Naturally my research is theoretical since laptop fuel cells are not currently on the market. However it allowed me to:

• interact with chemists at Arizona State who are developing a hydrogen delivery system for the Protonex Fuel cell,
• interview researchers at Protonex and other fuel cell experts,
• engage with companies who are investing in the business of transporting fuel for fuel cells,
• research battery companies about chemical composition and new developments,
• and practice conducting theoretical research projects.

Batteries and fuel cells are both power devices, yet are very different in how they operate and how they are paired with portable electronics. Both technologies are improving, but not as fast the efficiency in processing. You can see this transformation in the miniaturization and functional distribution of mobile devices. If you are curious, this movement is not driven by the innovation of battery manufacturers.

An interesting fact, energy consumption increases during this conversion in portable electronics.  For example, notebooks in 1991 required half of the energy than today’s models. Why? Functionality. We use them more frequently and for more stuff. We use them for stuff that we don’t actually need to do. To build on that, more than half of computers purchased today are notebooks. This means that we are consuming a lot of batteries, a lot of energy. This leads to the second question in my research:

How do the environmental impacts compare between the battery and fuel cell?

In my thesis, the fuel cell (sodium boryhydride, hydrogen-air PEM) produces fewer environmental impacts than the lithium-ion battery (6-cell,  power adapter, and North American grid electricity) during the life cycle of the notebook computer. It was a narrow margin victory for the fuel cell, but only because of one enormous environmental impact from the lithium power device: recharging the battery. Whether you are recharging your computer battery over night, or while you are working, you are consuming energy. Not a lot per day, but certainly accumulatively.

You are drawing electricity when you are recharging your laptop overnight. You are pulling about 50% more electricity when you are computing with your computer plugged into the wall outlet. And when your battery is charged completely, you are still consuming energy from the grid.

Add this energy consumption finding to the quantity of the ubiquitous mobile computing devices and other mobile electrical products (think cars). This is a huge shift in how humans need energy (and choose which minerals we extract). This leads to one last point I want to mention about my research:

Sodium borohydride (hydrogen storage for the fuel cell) energy density is 10x greater than lithium-ion. In other words, the fuel cell has the potential to produce energy 10 times longer than the battery. There are many clauses in this statement as they are very complicated devices. However, assuming that we can are willing to observe the needs of humans and design products with energy efficiency in mind, the fuel cell could be a strategic and valuable technology to compliment or replace the battery.

Published title of research:
Usability and Environmental Performance of Twenty-Watt Sodium Borohydride Fuel Cells

A few random facts about my research:

• First Life Cycle Impact Assessment done on the small-scale sodium borohydride fuel cell.
• First Life Cycle Impact Assessment comparing TRACI and CML Baseline 2000 characterized methods.
• Combines ethnographic research to supplement Life Cycle Impact Assessment data.

I’ve reached one of those periodic feelings that something must change. Growing up in the Midwest, this was more of an annual event coinciding with Springtime (after a long Winter). But today it is different: like a Summertime daydream of taking a dive in a deep, powdery snowbank.

Today it is about how I describe myself to people in the professional realm. For several years now when people ask me what I do, I say, “I’m an industrial design researcher focusing on environmental impact assessment.”
[The sound of me snapping my fingers!] “WAKE UP!”

“Oh, like sustainability?” they ask, implicitly acknowledging their disengagement. Slightly interested, slightly uninspired they continue,  ”I think that is really great… like, it is good to be stewards of the earth… and stuff.”

Two of the many problems with my response:

1. Way too many words.
2. Ambiguous terms: industrial design, design researcher, environmental…

To the right people, any of these words can work. But to a stranger it is a crapshoot. Only recently have I decided that I need a much less risky way of explaining myself.

Furthermore, what does this design focus mean?
How does designing for the environment benefit the bottom line of a business (especially in the case of the superfluous widget)?

I had a great conversation with a colleague yesterday. To the “what do you do” question, he responded, “I’m a problem solver. I research human factors and communicate the results to make better products.” Simple as that.

I like it. Though I must say that I like how a friend in Arizona describes my work. He said, “Dane, you take peoples ideas and make them real. You make dreams come true.” Putting aside the imagery that came to mind of fairy dust in the air, how could I have done anything than shrug my shoulders, smile, and nod in agreement.

So, getting back to redefining my niche, this is my new mantra:
I am a problem solver (Thanks Matt). I synthesize creative ideas from people like you to help companies make better decisions.

I realize this description is vague, but I hope that keeping it simple and cutting out the jargon will at least prompt questions to which I can share a few examples. As I am writing to the nebulous, virtual unknown of the blogsphere, I will assume that you are asking me to do just that.

Welcome to my journal (blog): Adventures of a Synthesist.

• Adventure: as in allowing any moment or interaction lead to discovering something amazing.
• Synthesist: as in someone who collages a variety of information together to form a new vision.

This is an endless and entangled discussion about product design, the advancement of technology, and the great outdoors. Forthcoming posts will be about insight that I gain from journal articles, case studies, news reports, conversations… I’ll start out with familiar topics to me, such as industrial design, user experience research, process life cycle impact assessment, small-scale fuel cells, and lithium ion batteries, then venture on from there.

Stay tuned. Please chime in if you wish to share your thoughts.