WiFi For All

The problem of girls and women not going further in education can be solved by striving to setup an e-learning class for them.

These are requirements;

1. At least ten satellite dishes.

2. Corresponding number of wifi routers to dishes.

3. Smartphones for e-learners.

4. Solar and battery packs to power hardware.

5. IP webcam freeware to turn smartphones into IP cameras to capture the remote teacher.

6. Cables for connecting above hardware

How equipment works;

The ten satellite dishes are arranged in a circular pattern with corresponding specially designed antennae for the routers attached to the LNB position. The dishes are inverted thereby creating  a 360 degrees signal on the horizon.

 Setup achieves the following;

1. The signal is made available on the horizon for several miles with practically no dead spots.

2. Internet use is cutoff, reducing costs.

3. Smartphones connect several miles away.

4. Low setup cost.

The women and girls need to continue their education where ever they are. They must not pull out of the marriage and neither must they fail to learn due to the poverty.  With the education they they will get via e-learning,  it must support their families. They must learn where they are. This is what I seek to address.

In the area I live, over one thousand girls and women are affected. Most women married early and girls are given into marriage or had early pregnancies. Others

dropped out of school due to poverty as their parents are too poor to pay for their fees.

Families must not break up because women and girls want to go back to class. This simply means the classroom must come to where they are. They must  e-learn comfortably  in the present discomfort of their homes.

The solution is a cheap  MESHLESS WiFi tweaked to cover from 0  up to several km radius to bring  e-learning to a girl child or adult woman who missed education either by dropping out due to early marriage or poverty.

 The solution is modified WiFi that is capable of  streaming a video of a class teachers

 the  e-learner's smartphone, without using internet.  Several teachers each explain a topics or lessons in front a webcamera turned smartphone  which are paired each to a corresponding router. Each routers Wifi signal is beamed on the horizon by the antennae attached to corresponding Satellite dishes making the teachers' live video lessons on the webcameras turnrd phone to be accessed by  e-learners several miles or kilometers away simply by typing the webcamera's iP address in their smartphones' browser address bar. 

The e-learners' smartphones are also installed with ip webcam software to make it possible for them interact face-to-face with their teachers.

Lessons can be given at scheduled times to make e-learners follow. Also the e-learners lessons can be live or recorded.

Recorded lessons can be downloaded from the user interface on the browser.

The solution can prevail during calamity, catastrophe and lockdown times

Target population is 1000 girls and 250 women. I have been asking the village Headmen to identify those that would enroll if such a project came into being. The response from both girls and women has been overwhelming.

The solution will tackle their plight fourfold;

A. They can attend school again despite women being in marriage  and girls coming from poor families or having had early pregnancies or marriage.

B. The girls and women will learn from the confort of their homes

The wifi only solution must not only solve the problems of the elite but also those for less previleged such as the girls that dropped out of school due to either poverty or early pregnancies and those women that never completed their  grades but wish they had.

The wifi only solution is one of the most viable solvers of this education problem because it is cheaper than internet.

The main reason why wifi only solution is proposed is because in many African countries like mine(ZAMBIA) there is only 2g network coverage which can not avail video streaming.

My solution is unique in that it eliminates several problems associated with wifi deployment.  For my competitors, where wifi has to be distributed over a larger area, with it comes huge costs.

So many pieces of equipment have to be bought and set up translating into huge costs and time. Along side that, also comes complexity of several hardware and software configurations which is tedious and time consuming, even attracting more costs.

My design can target a specific location while increasing the signal strength which is the opposite with my competitors.

My setup allows the teachers and their students meet face-to-face via video link that works only with wifi i.e without internet connectivity which is a plus.

The equipment used in this solution are common. The satellite dish used is the same used in cable TV. The router that connects to the dish is the same one used. The smartphone used is one used in daily life. So same gadgets but different setup and software addition to them makes a big whole lot difference.

What makes the equipment zoom the Wifi signal is because of the special designed antennae that is fitted in the LNB's place. Not only that, the dish mounting position matters a lot since it must send the signal right on the horizon to be picked by the smartphone. Again a new touch is made to the smartphone, a webcam software is installed to it so that it should be able to work both as phone and webcamera  to enable it view and communicate with teachers respectively. This cuts the need to buy expensive IP cameras.

This is use of available technology by adding software and modifying hardware which is equal to Innovation.

https://www.ab9il.net/wlan-projects/wifi3.h

The overall results to this project can take long to be seen since most of the girls and women have never used the smartphone before. However to achieve quick results, use of easy to use and cations is the way forward. we

Right now am not serving any population but have tested it on myself. If I can be given chance you prove it by next year I should be serving over 500 people and in  next five years over 5000 girls and women.

This translates into well over 20 000 people benefiting from the technology.

The main barriers are 

1. Financial constraints.

2. Legal frameworks surrounding how wifi signal has to be distributed.

 I hope to overcome the financial barrier by putting together what I can from my farming activities plus from well-wishers who might be convinced of the Innovation.

Secondly, engage government/s where the technology is likely to be applied to seek common ground  to remove the barriers as it will be for the good of all. 

I am doing it with two people, all part time.

One is an IT engineer in forth year doing BSC Computer Science at a local University while the other completed a degree in Banking and Finance at the same University.

We are in position to deliver because we first started with extending Bluetooth signal from a computer in our house to link  a 2g phone with EDGE which was almost 1.5 kilometers away. We succeeded linking the two by putting the Bluetooth wireless adapter in a tin can or can-tenna if you like and we were surfing at 10 kb/s during daytime when network traffic was high and at between 25 to 50kb/s at night during low traffic.

We had to find a solution as we wanted internet in the house avoid taking the laptop to where the network was 1.5 kilometers away.

So we have worked before on signal zooming except this time it's a wifi principle.

We do not have any partnerships at the moment.

Products I give to my customers are available in a rural setup and customers appreciate them.

 These are;

1. Printing and photocopying

2. Internet services as a Cafe.

3. Computer repair.

The customers come to the shop and each with their need, we attend to them

My common products mentioned above do bring the much needed revenue to keep business running. 

I am applying to solve the problem of how to send back girls and women who are out of school. 

Solve can help me overcome the financial constrain of 

1. purchasing the gadgets mentioned such as Satellite dishes, wifi routers, smartphones, batteries and solar panels, cables etc

2. Cost of deployment of the technology. 

3.  E-leaner sensitization costs

I hope to partner with organizations whose funding are of similar interests.

I would want to partner with MIT faculty and others UN agencies whose funding falls within my area of interest.

I am registered as business for profit firm in my country.

I  am registered as private for profit firm in my country.

I am registered business firm also trying to help the disadvantaged.

Despite applying MIT solve as an individual, am registered as private firm or business entity for profit.