FIRST is about impact on youth and providing a life-changing experience,

not about technical skills or education.

 

An Arial Home objective is to enlist FIRST Robotics team members to help design and build high tech, high quality, low cost homes for poor families around the world.

  

Eleven members of the Deerfield High School FIRST Robotics team (shown above in red tee shirts) built the prototype Arial Home in one day (August 19, 2006) on their high school campus.  The house was assembled from pre-fabricated, foam-in-place, metal insulated panels.   The electrical system was designed by the students and it consisted of solar panels charging 12 volt batteries which powered LED lights and a DC water pump.  The house featured a shower, a sink, a toilet, and a self contained sanitary waste system.

 

Ensenada, Mexico

 On December 16 and 17, 2006, these students and five more of their teammates traveled with us to Ensenada, Mexico where they built two Arial Homes for some very poor families as a Christmas present.   The students agreed it was a “life changing” experience.   It also required a great deal of engineering skill, not just to build high quality homes with electrical systems and plumbing, but to do it in one day.  The four girls on the team contributed just as much to the effort as the boys.

 

 This different type of engineering project appears to have great appeal to girls who find it very satisfying to build homes for poor families. 

 

·        There are considerable engineering challenges involved in building this new kind of home.  The students had to make critical decisions based on difficult site conditions and a short construction timeframe.  The FIRST team members were involved in helping improve the home design and the building process upon their return from Mexico during our recap meetings. 

 

The long term goal is to obtain funding from major Foundations around the world for the cost of the materials for the 300 square foot homes, at a current cost of about $10,000 per house.   The FIRST teams would then be expected to raise money for their travel expenses to the various destinations, whether that be American Indian reservations, Mexico, South Africa, Thailand, or anywhere the need exists.  The students would provide the expertise and labor to assemble the homes. 

 

We intend to make this Initiative an “innovation competition” in the sense that ideas from the students and mentors will contribute to the construction of better homes at a lower cost as more people are involved and more homes are built.   Everything that is learned will be put in the public domain via the Arial Home web site for use by any charitable organization in the world.

 

Similarities to the FIRST Robotics Challenge

 

•       Team work is essential

•       Organizational skills are required

•       Tight timeframes – one day per house!

•       Variety of team roles

•       Must learn to use the right tools

•       Continuous improvements to the product and the process can be made

 

Extensions to the Original FIRST Concept

 

•       Adds a Community Service/Humanitarian aspect component

•       Building homes for families has greater appeal to many girls than building robots

•       Result of the work effort is long lasting – the homes will be habitable for 50 – 100 years

 

 

To summarize, encouraging FIRST teams to build Arial Homes for poor families offers a new program option for students who would like to do useful things with their newly acquired engineering skills.

 

Tom Pirelli
Executive Director
The Arial Foundation

tom.pirelli@arialhome.org