Teen Girls Invent Solar-Powered Tent For Homeless, No Engineering Experience, Win MIT Grant
By Organic and Healthy
Homelessness is on the rise in the city of Los Angeles, and residents of the city are coming together to come up with solutions to the growing issue.
A group of students at the San Fernando High School decided to make an effort on their own.Â
They had no invention or engineering experience and were able to build a roll up tent that runs on solar power, and can be carried in a backpack. The would-be builders were recruited by DIY Girls, which is a non-profit organization thats goal is to inspire teen girls living in low-income families in LA to work towards an education in engineering and technology.
The executive director of DIY Girls, Evelyn Gomez, lead the project where she helped when needed and could, but was under control by the 12 girls all the way to the end.
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Through the help of searches on Google and videos on Youtube, the girls teamed together and worked on the tent through coding, sewing and 3-D printing over the year.
The hard work earned them a $10,000 grant from the Lemelson-MIT program, and their invention is being displayed ar MIT’s EurekaFest on June 16. The girls almost didn’t make it to the trip being in poor families, but luckily, a GoFundMe page was made to raise money to bring them to the event. The page received $18,000 in donated funds.