IEEE SIGHT Projects

The Hermita Community Center (HCC) aims to use an efficient water irrigation system to provide sustainable growth and development to the community farm of La Hermita, Nicaragua. And in turn, sustainable irrigation through the HCC will spur additional community empowerment, micro-enterprise business opportunities, and a unique educational model. A water irrigation system embedded with a low-power consumption electronic micro-controller to allow efficient drip irrigation and assist growing of agricultural crops during periods of inadequate rainfall. A sustainable irrigation solution will enable community members to create more economic opportunities and small businesses to better support themselves near home (by making products more efficiently, by selling other goods, etc.). Additionally, the extra access to electricity through a solar powered system will support lighting and a computer or two to 1) increase the hours in which education can be focused on and 2) increase the breadth of educational opportunities. The HCC will also be a meeting point for community members, IEEE Nicaragua and university volunteers and will provide space and resources for valuable learning and training experiences. The HCC will aim to scale and replicate the good practices of community development carried out by IEEE EDS Nicaragua Chapter, SIGHT Nicaragua and local partners who have been engaged in the community for more than 10 years.

Project Location: Nicaragua

SIGHT Group Affiliation: IEEE Electron Devices Society

This project will benefit Omor ifite ogwari, a farming community located in Nigeria. The group plans to work with the community’s farmers to install a modern automatic irrigation system, allowing them to grow more rice while reducing the work needed to cultivate it. The irrigation system will aid in the continuous growth of rice even through periods of low rainfall, and lead to the modernization of surrounding rice farms which in turn will increase the output of rice to cater to the growing population of Nigeria. This system will provide water at the peak periods, and control the flow and amount of water to reduce waste and aid growth. Additionally, the water will be provided by a solar powered borehole and store water in a tank to be used as needed.

Project Location: Nigeria

SIGHT Group Affiliation: IEEE Nigeria SIGHT

IEEE SIGHT Southern Alberta Section collaborates with the local community to host a 72-hour Makeathon which will bring together 15 teams of engineers, designers, and 15 persons living with disabilities, each with a different need, to take on neglected disability related challenges in Calgary, Canada.

Project Location: Canada

SIGHT Group Affiliation: IEEE SIGHT Southern Alberta Section

Group Contact/More Information: anis.b.arfi@gmail.com

This project is taking place in a small community called "El Pinito" in Guatemala. Residents of this rural, mountainous areas in Guatemala close to the border with El Salvador have limited options for potable water, so this SIGHT group will install a submersible pump that obtains its energy from a solar panel. The group’s goal is to impact approximately 810 people from 3 different communities, improving their quality of life, and preventing diseases due to the consumption of non-potable water. So far they have been able to meet with members of the three communities to encourage their active participation, obtained samples of the well water and sent them to be analyzed, and taken the exact measurements to build the structure that protects the well, the pump, and the other components.

Project Location: Guatemala

SIGHT Group Affiliation: SIGHT USAC

This application concerns activities for the founding year of the Crowfoot Institute, a community development center on a First Nations reserve. The Siksika culture and heritage, combined with the reserve's location, create an opportunity to engage and a gateway for broader STEM education and infrastructure improvement. We will increase interest in STEM through general science demonstrations and activities in elementary and middle school classes and elsewhere; deploy basic wireless devices and build and deploy basic power and lighting systems to families without these amenities while providing members of the community with the skills to do the same; improve college readiness among high school students through courses in math and engineering physics, and through the involvement of some ("outreach students") in prehigh school teaching; and deliver hands-on technical training and emergency communications via a radio technology course leading to amateur certification.

Project Location: Canada

SIGHT Group Affiliation: Southern Alberta SIGHT

Group Contact/More Information: martin.berka@ucalgary.ca

As evidenced by the incredible loss of life and property during the numerous disasters (flooding, earthquake, fire, tsunamis, terrorist attacks, etc.) that have occurred worldwide since 2000 and subsequent investigations on lessons learned, the lack or extreme degradation of advanced communication warning systems and the nearly total loss of communication during such calamitous events resulted in significantly more injury, death, and destruction from an inability to deploy public‐safety services (fire, police, emergency) and to provide disaster relief (water, food, medicine, housing) in a coordinated and efficient manner. The proposed system is aimed at filling that current gap by providing easily and quickly deployed emergency communication systems for a basic communication capability and for coordinating emergency operations. Proof of concept for seamless replacement of Wi‐Fi communications that use existing Wi‐Fi protocols during loss of existing Wi‐Fi infrastructure from catastrophic events. The proposed transmit/receive system will operate up to a LOS distance of at least 15 km and will be small, lightweight, portable, easily erected, and cost‐effective. The transmitter configuration will differ from most existing Wi‐Fi systems in that it will be placed much nearer the ground to take advantage of the better signal propagation at such positions. Also, the antenna may be slightly tilted away from the ground to get a better propagation path loss, close to 20 dB per decade of distance, instead of the usual 30 dB path loss per decade [1].

Project Location: United States

SIGHT Group Affiliation: AP-S (Antennas & Propagation Society) SIGHT

People with hearing loss experience inequities in their lives including social, educational, healthcare, business, employment, income, justice, etc. and miss out on many popular experiences. 1/3 over age 65 have hearing loss; 5% of the population of the world 360 million people have disabling hearing loss. We create affordable apps and cloud solutions for smart phones and devices to assist people, promote Humanitarian policies in IEEE Standards, and address inequities for girls and women in technology invention. People are living longer; hearing loss poses a risk of depression due to social isolation and inability to perform at the workplace impacting economic parody with peers. In 2020 FDA opens the market to non-prescription solutions for hearing assistance. We create mainstream hearing augmentation, available to any networked device, addressing a variety of issues of society. Hearing aid production meets about 10% of need so there's opportunity for a Humanitarian Technology solution. In this proposal, Do Good Things Justice for All, we create a new Virtual Reality Simulator and Learning System to train about the Americans with Disability Act in the Justice System and helping people understand how hearing-impaired people hear the world. We will create a new Multi-user Captioning System for use in groups and meetings with a variety of populations including students, veterans, seniors, etc. so those with hearing loss can read captions of multiple speakers. We will investigate hearing loss in Military and Veteran populations. With Sociavi, we will add Captioning, to attend to the growing population of those who are aging and as a result, might suffer hearing loss, difficulty communicating, social isolation, and associated depression. Sociavi is a proven communication and activity platform for Seniors, a growing population, to easily engage with family, friends, healthcare providers, and remain engaged with the people, and activities they enjoy. We address SDG 5 Gender Equality to reduce inequities for girls and women in inventing and patents through training and outreach. Our project aligns with United Nations Sustainable Development Goals 4 Quality Education, 5, 10, and 16 -- aims to reduce disparities and inequalities in the Justice System for those with hearing loss, to keep Seniors and special needs individuals communicating with the world, and to reduce inequities and inequalities for girls and women in inventing.

Project Location: United States

SIGHT Group Affiliation: IEEE New Jersey Coast Section SIGHT