TIer Randy Long’s solution to a first-world problem – using a simple solar-based rig to charge his cell phone on family camping trips – has evolved into an innovative solution that will help students in developing countries get a better education.
“We’re trying to take simple things and enable technology in areas where they don’t have access to it,” said Randy, a product engineering manager in TI DLP® Products.
Randy has joined forces with Tim Dallas, his former Texas Tech electrical and computer engineering professor, to develop a solar- and battery-powered “classroom in a box” that has at its core an ultra-mobile, ultra-low-power digital projector using TI Pico™ projection technology. Pico projectors – which are slightly larger than a mobile phone – can use up to millions of tiny mirrors to project images.
Powered by the sun’s energy, these projectors will be used to display educational content in small village schools in Uganda and other developing countries that don’t have access to electricity or the technologies it powers.
“Being able to minimize the size and cost makes advanced technologies accessible to most of the world,” Tim said. “There are billions of people who lack basic educational resources. The technology development behind pico projectors enables us to do something important. It’s our goal to make other people’s lives a little better.”
Creating opportunities
Students in northern Uganda served by an organization called Fields of Dreams Uganda have been orphaned by AIDS, malaria, poverty and civil war. Some are former child soldiers who escaped from warlords and now see education as the path to a brighter future. Most, however, drop out of school just to survive. Fields of Dreams Uganda is trying to change that.
The villages served by the organization are miles from the nearest electricity. Most teachers and students in government-run schools there had never seen a computer until recently. Classes are held in rudimentary school buildings, with class sizes averaging 70 students. Some classrooms don’t even have chalkboards.
The first five classrooms in box – to be delivered in June as part of a pilot program – will enable teachers to display material to their classes with the push of a button.
“It’s going to be huge,” said Michael Warneke, founder and executive director of Fields of Dreams Uganda. “Our goal is to provide more opportunities to our teachers and students in our partner schools. Technology is the best and quickest way to bring change to these campuses.”
Taking action
The seed for the project was planted in early 2014 as Randy researched ways to charge his cell phone on family camping trips. He learned that some people use solar panels to charge motorcycle batteries that then are used to charge phones and other devices.
At about the same time he was solving that first-world problem, he was standing on the sidelines of his son’s soccer game in Dallas when another dad told him about a recent trip he had taken with Fields of Dreams Uganda to northern Uganda – a remote region of the world that Randy knew little about – and how villages there needed light.
“It’s crazy what a life without electricity means,” Randy said. “Bad things happen at night because it’s dark and they have no light. And education is difficult when there aren’t computers or any sort of modern electronics. I thought, ‘We can at least do something about lights.’”
Randy returned home after the soccer game, went online and ordered a small solar panel, motorcycle battery, charge controller and a strip of 12-volt LED lights. A few days later, the solar panel was mounted on the roof of his backyard tool shed, the battery was connected and the lights were on.
With a lighting solution in hand, Randy began pondering how technology could be used to improve education in Uganda. His thoughts turned to Texas Tech University, where he had earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering and where he now helps recruit students to work in our intern program.
On his next recruiting trip to Lubbock, Randy raised the topic with Tim, his former professor, and the pieces started falling into place. Tim has a long-standing interest in solar technology and conducts research in micro-electromechanical systems, including our DLP technology. As a product engineering manager for our DLP® Pico Products business unit, Randy is very familiar with low-power, highly mobile projection technology.
“These projectors run on batteries,” Randy said. “We realized we could use a solar-panel and battery system – much like I had in my tool shed – to charge the batteries to run the projector. In addition, the projectors include built-in video and presentation capability, so educational material could be loaded on a USB drive or on an SD card like those used in digital cameras. You just plug it in, teach for a few hours and then recharge it. You don’t need a mobile phone or a computer.”
System integration
Tim picked up the idea and ran with it. He assigned students in his solar energy and senior project lab classes to develop a working system that fits in a rugged plastic box about the size of a small carry-on suitcase. The low-cost system includes a pico projector, external battery, a foldable solar panel, a piece of cloth for a screen and cables.
The kit will also include a library of content in various subjects for teachers and others who might use the system.
Tim also recruited a Texas Tech education professor, Heather Greenhalgh-Spencer, to help develop curriculum that would be specific to each developing nation, and representatives from the university’s international affairs department to begin building relationships with other nations and non-governmental agencies around the world. In addition to Fields of Dreams Uganda, the team is now talking to organizations in Tanzania, Ethiopia and Guatemala.
“Charging a battery with a solar panel is not a radical idea,” Randy said. “It’s been around a long time. We didn’t build a battery. We didn’t build a charge controller. We didn’t build a solar panel. We just saw a need, identified a solution and integrated a system of off-the-shelf technologies to help people.”
For more information on this initiative, please contact the development team for the Whitacre College of Engineering at Texas Tech University, at 806-742-3451 or engineeringdean.coe@ttu.edu.