Low Cost Induction Cooking in Nepal

Our partners at the Nepal Innovation Center connected us with a Cal Poly professor with deep experience in solar cooker technology. The partner organization was interested in the possibility of us further developing and specializing one of the professor’s functional solar cooker prototypes (designed for use in rural areas globally). After conducting a series of user interviews, though, we soon realized that the existing designs would likely be extremely limited in potential for adoption, so we shifted to ideating on novel concepts for the solar cooker. Through interviews and research, we arrived at the idea of constructing a solar-powered induction stove using eddy currents. We constructed several prototypes and are in the process of working on a more finalized version to use for more thorough testing and validation. Ultimately, we hope to prove that our design concept is feasible and that it could present an avenue for people in rural Nepal to replicate their current cooking practices as closely as possible without risking their health to indoor air pollution.