The idea for this project came to me while I was looking for a summer project during an internship. A few days back, I had heard my house help narrate to my mother how she had fallen and injured herself the previous night, only because she did not have a reliable light source some nights. This left a lasting impact on me, and I felt the urge to help out and make Aunty's life a bit easier. Thus I came to the decision of undertaking project SuryaDeep. As an individual who has been environmentally conscious for a long time, solar energy was an exciting and new technology to me when I heard about it years ago. I took this opportunity to delve deeper into its workings. I also used this project as a venue to not only research more about solar energy but also to combine it with my interest in electronics. 

To develop this lamp, it took me almost 4 weeks of consistent research and learning. Most of the learning was new to me and not from my school syllabus, so I took time to understand concepts such as Solar panels, Integrated Circuits,  Relays, MOSFETs, etc in depth. 

Through this project, I have been able to delve deeper into the field of electrical engineering through a real-world project. This project has shown me how I can connect my passions, such as environmentalism to electrical engineering to develop a helpful and impactful product. 

Further, I talk about the 3 step process I took to make this project a success. 

1. To start, I had to educate myself about what even was solar energy, and how it was generated and used. I did this through online forums. All my research was documented, and I have put a concise version on the page Understanding Solar Panels

2. After this, I looked at aspects more specific to my project, a solar lamp. I tried to focus on different materials I could use, and their working. After finalising a list of materials I would require for this project, I set off to research and look for these materials in local stores. I visited around 10-15 stores to look at the various options for each material available in local stores. I also tried to visit the maximum amount of stores possible to ensure I found the most cost-efficient material. 

3. Making the Solar Charge controller required a separate set of skills and understanding, which was more in-depth and broader compared to the Solar lamp. I spent time researching electronic circuits and basic components which I later used, and documented my research and learning on the page Solar Charge Controllers.  I assembled the circuit but had to make nearly 6 iterations before it worked as needed. However, the feeling I got once I finally got a working circuit was inexplicable, and has further ignited my passion for this subject.