Implementation and evaluation of solar powered wireless intranet devices in rural schools in Ratanakiri Province, Cambodia
Ana Cedillo, Brandon Simons, Jordan Ermilio, Iain Hunt · 2023
With the existing discrepancy in levels of education between urban and rural schools in developing nations, the issue of availability and quality of educational resources needs to continue being addressed [1]. A team of engineering students from Villanova University aim to address this issue in Ratanakiri Province, Cambodia with the implementation of an ICT4D initiative. This initiative involves collaborating with in-country partners to design, assemble, and deploy solar-powered wireless intranet devices for augmenting educational resources in rural schools. In May of 2022, the system was piloted at five rural schools and provided key findings on how to improve the hardware and software of the system as well as in-country implementation strategies. The successes, challenges, and additional insights from this pilot are documented in this paper along with generalized recommendations on how to improve the sustainability of future project deployments.