After weeks of deliberation, we decided that homelessness in Los Angeles is an issue that we should focus on because it is a daily reality we all must confront. We see homeless people in our community - at church, on the streets, and in our families. In particular, our community, the San Fernando Valley saw a 36 percent increase in homelessness this year, to 7,100 residents.
According to the Los Angeles-based non-profit organization Economic Roundtable, which conducted a ten-year study of county residents on public assistance that was released this year, 13,000 people fall homeless every month (Holland & Jamison, 2016). Local leaders, moreover, regard alleviating the plight of the homeless in Los Angeles as a “state of emergency.” We have reached out to various agencies in Los Angeles that provide services to homeless individuals. We have read many articles, listened to podcasts, and interviewed various service providers that know the struggles of the homeless population intimately; these conversations have influenced the design of the tent greatly.
As we began discussing how we would create something that is unique, we did a lot of research on the solutions that existed already, including patents. In our patent search, we found inventions similar to ours that have been created. However, our invention is unique because of its insulation and sanitation features. Our invention provides renewable solar energy from solar panels to power the UV lights that kill bacteria and solar powered ports to charge electrical devices. The invention’s purpose is to provide a place of rest for the homeless that can be assembled and compacted into the backpack in a short period of time.
Process
We have been working on this project at San Fernando High School since July 2016. We meet every Monday after-school, as well as Saturday mornings. During our winter break, the team put in over 500 hours of work toward this project, and during spring break, we worked for an additional 360 hours. We worked on this project with the help of our educators, Ms. Mardirosian and Evelyn Gomez, as well as with the help of a dedicated volunteer, Luis Luna.
We followed the engineering design process to complete our invention. We started by identifying a problem we wanted to solve and did a lot of research on homelessness in Los Angeles. We have read many articles, listened to podcasts, and interviewed various service providers that know the struggles of the homeless population intimately; these conversations have influenced the design of the tent greatly.
After this research, we made a list of requirements we wanted our invention to accomplish. These requirements also helped us break into technical teams that would focus their efforts on meeting the requirements set forth. These requirements are described below:
After coming up with our requirements, we came up with a few solutions that would meet the requirements and address the issue of homelessness. Through discussions and listing the pros and cons of each potential solution, we decided to move forward with our solar powered shelter for the homeless. We finished building our first prototype in February. With our first prototype completed, we started running tests on each part of our invention. These tests revealed the need to make changes to the design.
After completing our tests, we presented our prototype to our community. Audience members included Congressmen Tony Cardenas, Secretary of State Alex Padilla, various members of LAUSD, countless San Fernando High School Alumni. We were also honored to have our families and friends in the audience. This presentation gave us the opportunity to receive feedback from the community.
Since our presentation in February, we have started build our second prototype. The second prototype incorporates feedback from our Technical Review presentation and from our test plans.