The goal of this project was to create a plan for maintainable and sustainable small-scale stand-alone photovoltaic systems to be used to power educational tools in order to improve education in rural hill-tribe villages of Thailand.

Two Karen children who attend the
Missionary school at Mae Wae Village

To successfully accomplish this goal, three main steps were completed. The first was to assess the needs of three Karen hill-tribe villages in order to evaluate what tools would best improve their education. The second step was to design a sample system that would best meet the educational needs of these villages. This system was then implemented in step three for one village as a pilot test.

The information and experiences gathered from these three steps resulted in the creation of the plan, to aid in the design and implementation of similar PV systems in other rural hill-tribe schools. The entire IQP is included in a 140 page report, created under the guidelines set forth by the Interdisciplinary and Global Studies Division of WPI.

Charles McAuley showing some
photos to WPI's President Parish