NU - SmartTree

During Winter quarter, SmartTree continued to construct the base of our structure, including mounting our poles and solar panels, as well as finishing staining and sealing all our wood pieces. We also took another look at our plan for the electrical system and made some modifications.

One of our main milestones of the quarter was finishing all the staining and sealing. Now all of our wood pieces for the base structure are ready to be assembled once we figure out the alignment for our flanges to hold the poles.

To complete the rest of the bottom structure, we needed to align our flanges so that the poles would be straight, fitting through the hole in each lid piece. To do this, we assembled one of the three modules that would hold the poles. We then placed the pole through the hole we made in the lid piece and marked where the flange needed to be located on our plastic base piece. Once we had these markings, we drilled and tapped holes through the thick and thin plastic that the flange sits on top of, securing it to the base of our structure. After assembling the module with the flange secured, we had officially completed one module. Knowing that our assembly method was sufficient, we ordered the other two poles and flanges to repeat the process for the other two modules in the Spring.

We also decided to look at our electrical system again since there were only ever preliminary calculations done. To help out with this, we had a PhD student with experience in photovoltaics help us run through some more complicated calculations. By the end of the discussion, we realized that for our goals of operation, we may need more solar panels or more batteries. However, we plan to talk with some professors and consult other resources in the Spring to have a more concrete plan moving forward with the electrical system.

Looking ahead, we plan to finish the entire SmartTree base structure in the Spring, along with solidifying the electrical system. We may also start working on the benches/chairs/stools as a side project, leaving us with an almost complete SmartTree by the end of the school year!

SmartTree is headed by PMs Thomas Hoang (thomashoang2025@u.northwestern.edu), and Fiona Ireland (fionaireland2026@u.northwestern.edu). You can find more information about SmartTree on the ESW Project Database, where we post detailed quarterly blogs and an updated project summary. Please don’t hesitate to reach out with questions or interest!