Female Team of High School Engineers Create Solar Powered Tent for the Homeless
A team of 11 students from San Fernando High School are tackling the problem of homelessness in their city of Los Angeles by creating a solar power tent that rolls up into a backpack. The tent is made from insulated fabric and contains everything from sol
A team of 11 students from San Fernando High School are tackling the problem of homelessness in their city of Los Angeles by creating a solar power tent that rolls up into a backpack. The tent is made from insulated fabric and contains everything from solar panels to a safety locking system and a UV system for sanitization.
The young women, who have no formal engineering training, were recruited by the non-profit DIY Girls and received a $10,000 grant from the Lemelson-MIT Program to develop the invention. Over the past year they have spent six days a week perfecting their design working even during school holidays and relying on online tutorials for technical expertise and on trial and error. They made two prototypes of the tent, but the first one is now in shreds having been subjected to rigorous quality control tests. This week they will present their final design at MIT as part of a young inventors conference.
The non- profit DIY Girls was established in 2012 to teach girls from low Income backgrounds about science, maths and engineering. Originally working with just 35 students, it now serves 650 girls in elementary, middle, and high schools throughout Los Angeles County.
Shockingly women still make up only around 12% of the workforce in the fields of science and engineering, according to The National Science Board in America.