IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine - June 2018 - 21

A meeting of the
CELCOM team and
the Campo Verde
representatives.
Local community
participant Joselilson is
standing in the back row
(in a black t-shirt and
sunglasses).

because the inhabitants are poor with unreliable sources of income. However, they
do have cell phones, tablets, and computers. "They live far away from the city
center, but they have to travel there for
health care, banking, and other services,
so they do have devices, even if they know
they will only work for a little while,"
explains Vilas Boas. For those who lack
devices, the students have some old ones
they have been able to distribute.
Though the tower and technology are
installed, the project remains ongoing.
An experimental spectrum license allows
the pilot to work for two years and, as
of now, service looks good. "We made a
video call with a contact in the community a while back to test the backhaul connection and it was very cool," Vilas Boas
shares. "We still have to measure exactly
how good the service is, but the video and
audio worked fine."
The students' attention is now turned
to sustainability. "We want the community
to have the capability to run for a long, long
time, so testing, measurement, and training are really important," adds Vilas Boas.
Much of the testing will be done by the students, since part of their learning opportunity with this project is understanding
how radio propagation works in the forest
environment and whether it matches the
scientific propagation models that exist today. The training, however, serves more of
the humanitarian objectives of the project.
"With the training we are planning,
we will show them how the Internet can

be used to improve their income and
share their culture," describes Vilas Boas.
"They'll also be able to call and send messages really well to communicate better
among themselves. Sometimes
people can't walk to meet their
neighbors, so this will be good
for them socially as well."

ment and even listening to brief explanations about how it all would work.
The EPICS in IEEE student team had
an exciting reaction of their own when

Eyes on the Ground
Reaction within Campo Verde
has been really positive, and
the community is eager to get
involved. "The first time we
went there to present the project, they were really welcoming," says Vilas Boas. "They
didn't receive us with the idea
that this was a gift. They asked
what they could do to help
make this happen and have
been true partners." Along
the way, that partnership has
proved invaluable: When the
radio tower was ready for installation, men in the community both helped create the
hole in the ground and provided a machine for cutting some
of the mounting equipment
that was the wrong size. Vilas
Boas also shares that because
the tower is set up next to the
school, children have reacted
excitedly to the project, running outside to watch a guy
climb the tower with equip-

Installing the radio equipment and antennas.

june 2018

IEEE womEn In EngInEErIng magazInE

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine - June 2018