Proposal

Research and Inspiration of Design Concept
VolCharge intends to investigate the problem with laptops overheating and to provide an environmentally-safe solution. Businessmen, college students, and techie aficionados rely on laptops for everyday use; whether its for researching purposes, educational means or even for downtime leisure. It is a common occurrence for a laptop to overheat during usage depending on how much work is being put in by its user and how much required energy is needed to run memory intensive applications (ie. Microsoft Word, Quicktime player). A solution to prevent laptops from overheating may prevent not only future technological drawbacks of laptops crashing, but would also help to wipe out health related risks related to 'laptop overheating' from occurring. VolCharge Ltd. intends on designing a special padding mechanism that is placed under the laptop while running. This padding will allow the heat from the laptop to recycle its way back to the laptop, decreasing energy consumption by ten fold.

A key issue that lead to the idea of VolCharge is the fact that energy cannot be created or destroyed; it is simply transferred from one state to another. What currently happens with laptops is that they produce heat as a form of waste. The laptop pad we have in mind would need to have some sort of heat sensitive layer within it (possibly a gel). The particles of this pad would need to react at a certain temperature threshold where the thermal energy would be transferred into another form of energy. The heat could be stored as chemical energy for use later on, or it could be changed into kinetic energy for immediate use. The end result is a cooler laptop that not only uses less energy (doesn’t use the cooling fan as much) but also uses clean energy.

Research shows that overheating results in health problems, especially for men. The heat emitted by laptops significantly increases the sperm temperature which can lead to fertility problems later on in the future when trying to have a family. The name 'laptop' is particularly dangerous for it gives consumers the false idea that placing these laptops on one's lap are actually 'acceptable' when really they pose a much harmful threat. Due to the "heating effect of the computer and the sitting position necessary to balance the computer" (Melville), sperm count is lower, weaker, and the radiation is known to cause scrotal hypothermia. What's more is it only takes 15 minutes for these effects to be triggered (Melville).

Sustainable Design and Development
In the case of sustainability, our project aims to improve sustainable design and development by approaching the limit curve and achieving maximum efficiency and effectiveness.

VolCharge will be creating a portable/removable laptop padding mechanism to be placed under the laptop while it is in use. This pad will serve to collect the heat energy released from the laptop, and this energy can in turn be used to recharge the laptop itself and will simultaneously protect the user from harmful radiations. This significant alteration to laptop chargers not only minimizes harmful risks, it also impacts our environment through saving energy and electricity. Students (being our primary influence of the development of this design) significantly depend on their laptops for school use and getting through everyday tasks. By eliminating the use of wired electric adapters and introducing portable wireless chargers, VolCharge cooling pads are able to save the environment enormous amounts of energy and electricity on a daily basis - truly a win win scenario for both sides.

**Executive Summary**
Like mentioned above, the Volcharge pad hopes to revolutionize the industry by being able to store heat energy emitted from laptops, and to reuse that energy to prolong its battery life. It's a sleek, environmentally friendly pad that contains a special cooling gel that either stores chemical energy, or converts it into kinetic energy for immediate use. The pad is by no means a replacement for electric chargers, but more so a healthy substitution for users that are mindful and conscious of the environment and prefer to reuse energy than taking up the earth's resources. Not only that but the VolCharge pad helps act as a tool that protects users from harmful effects brought on by a laptop's radiation - specifically for men, the pad helps to act as a safe barrier between the laptop and their fertility. The pad itself aims to be a total revolution from cooling fans and other related products of the sort for VolCharge is much more portable, much more lighter and uses organic products as opposed to technological gadgets (ie. fans) to do its bidding. It is evident that a redesign in this field is long overdue and the VolCharge pad is a breakthrough product that attempts to address all the underlying issues (related to laptop overheating) from before, and remove them for good.