Bonus: Cooling vests

0:00Hey guys, welcome to another episode of Generation Global. I am Yushan. Today I'm sitting down here with two distinguished researchers from Beijing Institute of Technology, Professor Ziventier and Dr. Fu Ying. Please just briefly tell us who you are. Hello everyone, my name is Ziventier from School of Mechanical Engineering, Beijing Institute of Technology. I'm Fu Ying from School of Mechanical Engineering, Beijing Institute of Technology. Nice, well I've had the honor of going to the Beijing Institute of Technology before. It's such a beautiful campus who have over the years cultivated a lot of great researchers and scientists like you two who are sitting right in front of me. So today we have a very unique project that comes from you girls that we'd like to introduce to more people. So before I spill the tea and tell everybody what it is, can you start with telling us just a brief introduction on what you've been working on recently?

1:05Okay, sure. Broadly speaking, our research size in the field of personal summer management, or we call it PTM for short. And the big picture is ice global temperature rising. We are seeing the news that more frequent and more intense heat waves. A traditional way to solve this kind of problem is use air conditioning to cool down the entire room. But it's incredibly energy intensive and if you go outside it cannot work. So you know that the total energy consumption of air conditioning is about 20 to 30% of the building energy consumption in the world. And in some tropical kilometer, the proportion is more than 50%. And the primary goal actually of air conditioning is to cool down the human body and to make people feel comfortable. So our idea behind PTM is to flip that model.

2:10We inside of cooling down the environment around the person, we're just directly cooling down the person itself. So it is much more efficiency and your targeting the heat stress where it really matters on the human body. Because we think it could help us with more energy of air conditioning because our primary purpose actually to make people feel comfortable. Nice, so smart. And our team has been working on developing a lot of solutions to keep individuals feel comfortable and safe in a hot environment, whether they are indoors or outdoors. And cooling-wise was proposed which is a portable and practical way to help people bring some active and passive coolings to the person about the itself. Cooling vest. Yes, and actually on one hand, we are trying to find some personalized my cert, as I said before, to help people to help to reduce the energy use of air conditioning.

3:21And on the other hand, we are also trying to enhance the body ability to adapt to the climate change and the heat exporters. Yeah, that's a new idea or new perspective to look at climate change. Because when we talk about climate change, it's more often how the bigger ecosystem is going to put an impact on us instead of how human body can better adapt to the very much fast-changing climate nowadays. So, yeah, that's a new way of perceiving this topic. So we build cooling garment that can balance both passive and active cooling. We set up the active cooling modules in a triangle on the back of the garment. At the top point, it's a semi-electric cooler. We call it TC for short. When powered on, it moves the heat from the coast side to the coast side. So can I understand it as a very smart device who has a physical contact with our body at the back, I would assume, and it sucks up the heat from your body and used the fan to blow it out from the surface of your body.

4:36Is that how it works? Yes, yes. At the bottom corners, we put two fans. They create air flow to make it feel cool. And the all layer is the radiative cooling material. It emits your heat into the sky and it also reflects the sunlight efficiently. So it can cool you down without any power. Yeah, it sounds like it's powering itself in some way and it saves energy by just kind of complete the whole heat transformation on the surface of your body, on its own, instead of wearing a battery or something. So what inspired you to arrive at this conclusion of just designing such a device? Well, actually the inspiration actually came from different places. I still remember during the COVID-19 pandemic. I've seen the reports that some medical staff, the God-hate exhaustion, about wearing the protective suit.

5:38Actually, I could say that they were totally drenched in a humid and hot environment for a long time that really struck me. These medical staff, they have no choice. They just need to work in that condition. And the suit, which was supposed to protect them, also putting them at risk. So from that time, I recognized that if we can develop something, some system or device, which can help people regulate their temperature, it was of great importance. So, actually, many workers in World Rios occupations, they will fail the same problem about the over heating, such as delivery drivers, construction workers or street cleaners. They just need to work in working in a hot environment, no matter how hot it is. The second point is that we already have latest news about the deadly headwaves in Europe recently.

6:44Now, many of the buildings in Europe, they don't have any air conditioning installed. And the local policy has some restriction of install new ones. And another point is that we also read the reports about in our southern part of our country. There are some news about the power rationing at the peak time of air conditioning in summer. So from all these sparks, we have got this problem that we have lots of limitations, maybe, such as space constraints, electricity constraints. Because of the energy use of air conditioning. And we also have the urgent demand of the workers who are working in hot environment. So that's why it really clicked for us. We need a personal, portable solutions that could help people to feel more comfortable in this kind of environment.

7:46I think that's what got us start. Exactly. Heat waves have already hit those people hard. They may feel awful and sometimes they can be dangerous in life threatening. So our initial idea was to focus on people who really needed and build a cooling government just save lives. But then, at the heat gets worse, we start feeling too in our own daily lives. We gradually realize that extreme heat is a big problem for casual users too. So we start thinking about the general public. And we also get inspired by backsharing. We want this product to become something like public chemists. You don't have to buy it. You can just rent it whenever you want or wherever you need. Wow, the idea of learning from how it's operated in the bike sharing industry is really niche and smart idea.

8:49But I do wonder, why a vest? Why not a t-shirt or a coat or anything? Like, what does the shape of a vest bring advantage to your design? Well, I think first of all, it is lightweight and no restrictive. You don't want to burden someone who is already working in a hot environment with some heavy things. And the worst form factors keeps the arms and legs completely free. So it doesn't interfere with movement. And next, I think, the most importantly, aside from the perspective of some physiological, our core and back are the main parts of human body to dissipate the heat. So if you can cool down this critical part of the body, you may get larger comfort benefit. And actually, because our modular design of this waist, the cooling unit, are detachable with velcro.

9:56So the concept actually isn't limited to waist. You can easily integrate it with long-slip garment. Oh, yes. So I think it will be useful for the people in Middle East or in a desert where the solar radiation is intense. So actually, but for most use cases, the waist is the sweet sport between effectiveness and practicality. Speaking of cooling vest, I think I've heard about it or perhaps have seen it on maybe Amazon or like international e-commerce platforms that there are other prototypes existing already. Some with, I think, they use water as a way of cooling things, as a cooling medium. And then others that I've seen that's already been on trial projects here in China is the vest with fans on it. Like, I think it's in Nanzing in Eastern China where some of the public cleaning workers, they're already wearing those vests with fans on.

11:07And when it works, it looks kind of funny because it puffs the person up a little bit. Because the aim is to get the inner air out to the external side of the vest so that you feel a little bit cooler with a little bit of air ventilation inside your clothes. So that is one thing. And the water cooling vest is another thing. Now that with this very unique detachable device you mentioned on your design, what's so unique about your design? What kind of a new idea did you put into your design? We have so very quite a few cooling garments on the market. For example, there's a water coat one on Amazon that weighs about 6 pounds. Wow, that's a lot to carry around. And it needs holdings and pumps. So the whole thing gets pretty complicated. And you have to change the water when it warms up. That's a pin. The air coat one is lighter but it doesn't have a real cooling source.

12:10It just blows the air around to make you feel a little bit cooler. Just wearing a few fans on you instead of facing a fan like how we do in our living rooms. It blows the air blows the garment up like a balloon. So it gets in the way and doesn't look great either. Our cooling garments have the GEC at the cooling source with fans to blow air on you to make you feel cool and take the heat away faster. What's more, we add a relatively cooling material. It directly reduces the baseline heat load. So that means the battery doesn't work so hard. So it's lost longer and the whole thing lasts longer too. That's really impressive. And I also heard from you too just now that you mentioned like people like delivery riders, like street cleaners who cannot avoid working under the heat.

13:11They're kind of like the prime groups of people who can potentially be the audience of your product once it enters the market. But are they the intended users of this product or are there more other groups of people who can also benefit from it? Our expectation for this cooling garment is three forward. We want everyone to be able to put it down, coat down red away and not get a stroke or anything like that. For outdoor use, it can protect workers like delivered drivers, construction workers, three cleaners, power line technicians and traffic police. And also outdoor sports fans like hikers, climbers, golfers and marathon runners, among others. In the future, if it really becomes public communities, everyone all in the heat can grab it and put it down and time.

14:15Yes, and let me talk about indoor and everyday life scenarios or it will be used in the future maybe. And think about the office workers in the building where the air conditioner is either too weak, too strong or non-existent or the outer people who are more sensitive to the heat, but they don't want to open the air conditioning for the whole day because of the electricity bill. I used to live with two migraines parents who refused to turn on the AC because they believe it is a waste of electricity that the heat is nothing. So we really spend a long time trying to help them understand, no, this is life and death. If you don't want the AC to blow right into your face, go to another room, turn it on in another room, don't go in there but let the cold air flow out. So yeah, for a lot of elders it is really a mind blowing thing to really embrace the idea of AC. And all are even for just regular people who have different comfortable preference.

15:19I think many couples may argue about the suicide sightings. Like females prefer a woman one and males like a cooler one. So I'm sure the point is personalized cooling matters. So why cool an entire room to maybe 22 degree when you only need to cool down just one person and let one people feel comfortable? So our government actually have for adjustable power levels and the TEC module and the funds can be controlled independently. So if you are just sitting at your office desk, maybe you can just open it at a low level of the fund. And if you go outside you can adjust this module. And these active modules attach this velcro. So you can detach them easily.

16:24It means the system can adapt to many different scenarios. Looking ahead, I think there's a potential of customization of this garment, maybe different size, different courage areas, or maybe some garment designed for specific professionals. Yeah, totally. Imagine construction workers who work with the neon yellow and orange vests on. With a little bit of modification and adaptation, I can totally see your little device attached to their vests without changing the design of the existing style and also trying to help them cool them down. Yeah, that's something very smart. And speaking of this very unique device, did you, like you too, or other members of your team manually pull it together yourself or did you have somebody or manufacture design for you? Actually, we make it manually and we also ask some factory to help us to provide us some modules.

17:32But you guys also just made it manually with your hands. Wow. I know there's a spirit that people on social media talk about every day. It's called Shotsuo. To start from ground zero with barely any resources. You just use your own hand to put something together. Does Shotsuo happen a lot in your lab with where without this project? Actually, it's not frequent in our daily work. Honestly, this is quite a shift for us in our day to day academic work. We usually focus more on pushing the boundary of specific matrix, for example, to improve just one parameter of cooling power of a material. We are just optimizing the thermal interface. We are looking at what was scientifically possible and what state of the art.

18:34But turning into a working product requires a completely different mindset. Did you encounter a lot of challenges in the process? Yes. If you make this change, you're not just optimizing just one parameter. You need to consider more factors such as the cost, durability, the user experience of this product, the battery life, the white. All these factors don't show up in just one live paper. But it will have enormous influence of the person who really veers this comment. For me, personally, the biggest eye opener was realized in that the best technology in the life is it not always make the best product. Looking at how you get your hand dirty, like you mentioned, and getting your entire lab room messy because of the manually putting together of the device just make me really think that nowadays our Chinese scientists are working hard on tackling real issues, issues that can make an impact out there, that can change something as big as climate change that's faced by the entire world.

19:57So I'm really impressed by it. And I think this is a good chance for you to share with the rest of us who don't work in a lab to know that actually our scientists are not all white robe doing fancy computing or funtling with glass cups and stuff. We're actually getting our hands dirty, getting our feet wet and exploring things from ground zero. That's really important. Also, how do you see the role the Chinese scientists are playing nowadays in terms of actually tackling global challenges brought by the climate change nowadays. I know people scientists from all around the world are all working on this very topic. How do you see it from the viewpoint of a Chinese researcher? I think Chinese researcher and engineers could play an important role. And in many ways they already are. If you look about the field of some regulation or climate adaptation,

21:06you will find lots of latest contributions are from Chinese researchers whether about the latest advanced material or smart textile technologies. And I think something that really side Chinese scientists apart is their strong sense of social responsibility and a desire to benefit for general public. They truly believe that tackling global climate change and ensuring safe, better life for humanity is what give their work meaning and value. And honestly, I think it is pretty rare and admirable. But what's particularly exciting I think is China's strength in rapid prototyping and manufacturing scale up. It is one thing to demonstrate some new ideas in the life and it is another process to produce a foldably at scale.

22:12And China has the ecosystem from the materials to manufacturing to market testing. That allows good ideas to become real products quickly. And I think there's also a growing awareness of Chinese researchers that we need to move beyond just publishing papers. And climate change isn't waiting for us. So we need to translate our understanding about the science to some tangible solutions which could really use for people. That's a gap we are trying to bridge with this cooling government. Yeah, and it's also very impressive to see you both very young and very distinguished researchers yourself sitting here and really trying to make science understandable and simple enough for people outside of your expertise to really understand what you're doing. I think that's impressive too. And the very fact that before the show I was chatting with you Dr. Fou that I realized you're actually a few years younger than I am.

23:17Which is so impressive because the very fact that there are continuously young people, young researchers joining this workforce, joining this whole project of combating bigger challenges is important for not only the Chinese research and academic field but also worldwide how we can make this impact benefit more people. So I would be interested to know that what's your viewpoint that younger generation, the younger researchers, how they're going to benefit or what they're going to bring on the table in the near future. What I'd really love to see from the next generation is a breakthrough in the battery of between research and real work application. And to often we see brilliant demonstrations never leave out the university because the researchers don't think more about the cost, the durability, the user experience, these kind of things at the first day.

24:22I hope young scientists will identify the core problem and the fox mall on the solutions that they are really practical, not only technical elegant. And since you mentioned about the possibility, let me share something maybe like an imagination in the future. Maybe an ideal version of this product would be something that doesn't need a battery. Imagine a cooling garment that can harvest energy from your own moment, from your walking, from the temperature difference between your skin and the environment or even from the water suite. If the next generation can create self-powered, reliable cooling, that would be revolutionary. No charging, no battery and dirty and no weight. You just put it on and it can keep you cool. That's the future I'm holding for.

25:22Wow, when you say without a battery, the only thing I can think about is everybody wearing, not that big, but a photovoltaic, like a sunlight collector or something that can power it. And then you can get some sweat from motion, that's something so unimaginable and sci-fi-like. But do you see that coming true anytime soon? Yes, actually I have read some reports about this as I mentioned, you can get energy just from a human moment. Yes, because you know that walking, our moment of a personal just walking or doing some sports is also kind of energy. So we can find some way, maybe to collect this kind of energy and transfer the energy into the form we want, like electricity or some or cooling. That's very awesome to hear and I do hope that your product will enter market. Perhaps in the next year, next summer, next July I'm going to scand and rent a little vest from the side of the street and then walk around to charge it and then get myself cold down and return it outside of my office, hopefully.

26:36And hopefully it won't charge too much and yeah, all the best on the design of your product and thank you so much for spending your time sharing your design with us today. Thank you. Thank you.