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A Partnership with Cape Abilities to Build Silver Silver-Chloride Electrodes
Collaborators:
http://www.capeabilities.org
As part of an MRI2 proposal to NSF, we have set up a partnership with Cape Abilities, a Cape Cod non-profit, which finds work experience for people with disabilities. The purpose of the partnership is to have Cape Abilities manufacture silver silver-chloride electrodes for our new fleet of seafloor magnetotelluric instruments. To make this work, we hired a project manager, Trevor Harrison, in the fall of 2010. Trevor worked in our lab, learning the existing manufacturing protocol. We worked to redesign the electrodes, not only to streamline the manufacturing process so that it could be tackled piecewise by different workgroups, but also to make some improvements in materials used and to cut production costs. Trevor built a small batch of prototype electrodes which seem to be an improvement on the existing design. Workgroups from Cape Abilities have undergone WHOI safety training and are coming into the lab, assisted by Trevor and Buzz Friend, a Cape Abilities "Job Coach", and have started the manufacturing process. We will do a full ocean deployment of electrodes this fall, at which point we can start to advertise electrodes to other groups around the world who use them. We would encourage other groups within WHOI who manufacture or process large quantities of items that could be put into a similar workflow to contact us and Trevor will work with you to see how that production might be carried out by Cape Abiliites crews. This partnership makes a powerful broader impact for NSF proposals. A video describing how the project came about can be seen at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUX8r_H3ka8
More details on the partnership can be found at:
http://www.whoi.edu/sites/capeabilities |
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