Date: May 6, 2019

To: Apple Inc.

From: Gabriella Pieniadz, Civil Engineering Undergraduate

Anedale Dimalanta, Mechanical Engineering Undergraduate

Vince John Plasencia, Civil Engineering Undergraduate

Adam Almodovar, Electrical Engineering Undergraduate

Omer Amray, Civil Engineering Undergraduate

Subject: Proposal for Installing Outlet Indicators onto Electrical Outlets in the NAC Cohen Library

Purpose

The purpose of our proposal is to suggest the installment of outlet indicators onto the electrical outlets in the NAC library in order to facilitate in timely responses to electrical outlets in need of repair, thus providing a long-term solution to the persisting issue of faulty outlets.

Summary

The NAC Cohen library is used by most students and is in use for the majority of the day. People usually require an outlet to either charge their phone, laptop, or any other use they might have. However, although there is a large necessity for outlets to work in the library, a good percentage of these do not work. This means that many students will have an issue finding one that does work and might not even find one at all. Our team proposes the idea of attaching outlet indicators to each outlet to show whether the outlet is working or not. This will bring about an ease in students as they will be able to find a working outlet much easier and overall increase the quality of City College’s NAC library. Our plan is simple. First, obtain a basic understanding of the electrical situation of the library, then determine and purchase whichever outlet indicator would prove best, install them, and finally repair the faulty outlets. To save cost and time, engineering students of City College could be assigned to help with the last step as an engineering project for school.

Introduction

Several weeks ago, English 21007 B instructor Sabina Pringle tasked us with identifying a technical issue affecting The City College of New York community. After several suggestions, we decided upon the faulty power outlets in the North Academic Center (NAC), proposed by our project manager, Gabriella Pieniadz. The problem was brought to the team’s attention after Ms. Pieniadz relayed her experiences with struggling to find a functioning power outlet in the NAC Cohen Library, often in times of emergencies. The team decided to gather empirical data regarding this problem by dividing the five floors of the library between each member and testing the functionality of the power outlets on each floor. Table 1 below lists the results of surveying the available outlets per floor for functionality. These do not include the outlets that are being used to power the computers for public-use in the first and second floors of the library.

Table 1. Number of non-functioning outlets per floor of the NAC library.

Floor	# Outlets Tested	# Faulty Outlets
1	20	0
2	20	0
3	20	2
4	20	7
5	20	15

As seen in the data, the number of non-functioning outlets slowly increase as you go to higher floors in the library. Although the first two floors of the library show no signs of having faulty outlets, the numbers slowly go up between the third and fourth floors, leaping to a staggering 15 faulty outlets in the fifth floor. Cumulatively, this data shows that approximately 24% of the power outlets in the library do not work, with most of them being located on the fifth floor. This is a concerning percentage, considering how many individuals this problem inconveniences. According to an interview with a representative of the Offices of Facilities Management, electrical inspections are not conducted on a regular basis, but instead only in dire circumstances. As such, problems such as faulty outlets do not receive the attention that they require. Our proposal intends to take this issue to the forefront and promote a cost-effective, long-term solution as opposed to replacing all power outlets in the library indiscriminately.

In the following sections, we will be discussing our proposed tasks to deal with this issue, the budget, our schedule, as well as our qualifications relevant to this proposal.

Proposed Tasks

With approval from the Buildings and Grounds, we would perform the following four tasks to determine the best course of action to improve the inefficiency of the power outlets on the City College Campus.

Task 1. Acquire a basic understanding of the current electrical current situation in the Cohen Library and prepare for the budget.

We decided to see how efficient the power outlets are on 5 floors of the Cohen Library. Through our observations we came to the conclusion that a good portion of these outlets lacked efficiency. The Facilities Department of City College explains there are other complications and many proposals to attend to, so they are not able to provide money for this proposal. However, in recognition of Apple’s generosity to students, we believe only you can help with the budget needed for this project. Enabling engineering students to assist technicians will not only save you a good portion of money, but also benefit the undergraduate and graduate students of a hands-on engineering opportunity right on campus.

Task 2. Purchasing outlet indicators for future installation.

Based on our overall budget of $1,100, we will determine what type of outlet indicators we will use and how many of them we will need to purchase. There are plenty of outlets in the Cohen Library and the goal would be to purchase an outlet indicator that would clearly display an ineffective outlet with a blinking red light. We would start out with purchasing 20 outlet indicators per floor in the first phase of this task. An initial model that met our standards was the Leviton Self-Test GFCI Guide Tamper Receptacle. This GFCI (Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter) outlet indicator has a 4-star rating and could be easily installed in any electrical box. The cost ranges between $15 and $25 dollars which would just go over our budget. A cheaper alternative that would also fit our needs would be the Paladin 20 Amp and 120V LED indicator. This outlet indicator fits right within our budget and functions similarly to the Leviton GFCI outlet indicator.

Task 3. Installing outlet indicators on the floors of the Cohen Library.

The installment of the GFCI (ground-fault circuit interrupter) outlet would be very simple. You would take off the outlet and use the same exact wires and plug them in the new GFCI outlet. Essentially, the new outlet should be a mirror image of the old outlet. The only difference is there is a reset button on the outlet. Since the outlets do lose power overtime, the reset button allows the charge to be put back to its default charge. This is much more cost and time effective as ultimately you are unplugging and plugging back in the outlet with a reset button. There are no extra wires or connections that need to be done so it would prove to be the best option.

Task 4. Implementing a routine of annual electrical inspections.

This is not a project that you do once and it will work forever, someone needs to keep up with the outlets. This is why we also propose an annual electrical inspection (CCNY does not offer one as of now). The inspection would consist of students who are engineering majors documenting which outlets work and which need to be reset so that there is no inconvenience when it is time to use the outlets. The job is simple but tedious as every outlet would need to be checked. However, the addition of GFCI outlets would make this process very simple as all the inspector would need to do is check the outlet and if it is not functioning as it should, they would press the reset button . Having an annual inspection would help engineering undergraduates comprehend electrical currents and how GFCI outlets work.

Task 5. Introducing an electrical engineering project.

City College has a lot of expenses to cover such as our libraries, the electricity, computers, and etc. In order to help cover the cost and save time, we can include senior engineering students on assisting the electricians and technicians installing the upgraded outlets. Some students are unable to do internships because they may not have enough time or they just do not get accepted. If we were to implement this project throughout the school, we not only provide hands-on experience for engineering students, but we may even induce other students to join the Grove School of Engineering by allowing other students to watch. We save money by allowing students to help with problems around the school and may even gain more money by implementing a project that can popularize the engineering major.

Scheduling

April 9th	May 7th	June 3rd	June 5th	June 17th	December 2nd
Team checks outlets for faulty and working ones	Proposal is sent out to school board and Apple. Problem is read and taken into consideration	Leviton GFCI outlet indicators are bought	Leviton GFCI outlet indicators are installed	If it is decided that students will not complete fixing of outlets as final project, engineers/technicians are brought in to fix faulty outlets at this time	If it is decided that students will complete fixing of outlets as final project, they will fix it for their grade at this time.

Budget

Floor	Number of Outlets	Cost
1	20	$168
2	20	$168
3	20	$168
4	20	$168
5	20	$168
Total: $840

The cheapest but most efficient outlet indicator found online was a Paladin 20 Amp and 120V LED indicator. It is UL (Underwriter Laboratories) certified in which these outlets have been tested and proven safe. Amazon offers a 10 pack for $84. We need 100 of these outlets, so in total, it would be $840. There is no tax nor shipping fees for this amount on Amazon, so it is exactly $840.

Floor	Number of Outlets	Cost w/ Professional Installation
1	20	$217.78
2	20	$217.78
3	20	$217.78
4	20	$217.78
5	20	$217.78
Total: $1,088.90

The installation of the outlets would be free if City College’s laboratory technicians are to install them. They do not obtain any extra money for installing the outlets since it is an accepted upgrade within school grounds. If City College were to prefer professional installation, it would cost $24.89 extra per 10 pack. In total, that would be $1,088.90. This extra service is also provided by Amazon so there is no tax nor shipping fee added to the total.

Experience

All members of the team are aspiring engineers belonging to The Grove School of Engineering at The City College of New York.

• Gabriella Pieniadz is a first-year Civil Engineering undergraduate student. Throughout high school and her first year of college she has been a group leader for several class projects and engineering programs. She has participated in the Cooper Union STEM Saturday’s program where she learned to build an electric motor from scratch and determined its efficiency through its voltage, circuit and continuity. This hands on electrical engineering project gave her prior experience within the field and allowed her to study more about the physics behind the electrical current. As project manager of this proposal she relied on her teammates and past experiences to suggest a long-term solution to the persisting issue of faulty outlets in the NAC Library.
• Anedale Dimalanta is a first-year undergraduate pursuing mechanical engineering. She bought the same Paladin outlet indicator for her old room consisting of four outlets. Her mother, a former electrical engineering student, installed the outlets with the assistance of Anedale. Before purchasing the outlets, they checked the ratings of the outlets from both Amazon and the company Paladin itself. On Amazon, there was a 4-star rating out of 5. On the Paladin, they were rated 2.6 out of 5 stars. Additionally, Anedale, along with her mother, goes shopping almost every weekend, so they know how to find the best deals to save as much money as they can.
• Vince John Plasencia is currently a first-year civil engineering undergraduate. Throughout his high school experience and current college experience, he has engaged in countless collaborative work that have all ended successfully. He has also written several research papers that has given him the research skills that is necessary for this proposal. Although electrical work is not his focus, he has experience working with them through his part-time work as an assistant handyman.
• Adam Almodovar is currently in his first year studying electrical engineering. He has previously had success working collaboratively.Adam has had some experience with electrical work as he has assisted and shadowed an operating engineer while he was renovating a home. Also, he has taken classes in highschool and college that revolve around batteries and electrical currents. These skills enabled Adam to play his role in this proposal and provide insight on how the indicators would work.
• Omer Amray is currently a first-year civil engineering student. He has worked under a resident engineer on a decently sized  project as a form of summer internship and has learned through watching and helping the resident engineer with work. This helped him gain an insight to the engineering world. Along with that, he has written fairly good research papers, worked in groups, and worked with electricity in the past so he has decent experience when it comes to finding problems, explaining them to others, working towards fixing them, and eventually completing the job.