A radio gets students to NASA

Three teenagers from a tough neighborhood in Curitiba, Brazil, have made it to NASA. They grew up in the city’s most populated neighborhood, the “Cidade Industrial de Curitiba” (CIC), where social inequality is the major issue. However, thanks to Robert Bosch Institute’s “We are all smart” (#WAAS) project, they have had access to a quality education at their local public school.

With the program’s support, #WAAS participants, also known as “ninjas“, learn to use technology for themselves and others. This learning helps them to realize their individual potential. The children take classes on electronic systems, hardware, and software, and develop technical solutions in teams. In 2017, the three ninjas Raul, Mateus, and Jennifer developed Juno Radio. Their project was submitted to the Space Apps Challenge, which earned them a trip to NASA at the beginning of 2018.

In 2017, NASA’s Space Apps Challenge called on participants to help fight fire. The ninjas focused on developing technical solutions to protect Brazilian forests from fires. In remote areas without Internet, the risk of wildfire is higher, as local fire brigades do not receive warnings by e-mail. This is where Juno Radio comes in: it turns digital data from NASA satellites – for instance, the coordinates of possible sources of fire – into analog information, which it then transmits to radio stations across the country. It makes possible for NASA fire alarms to reach the areas concerned almost in real time.

#WAAS participant Mateus was in charge of the team’s hardware. With his classmate Marx, he developed the largest part of the radio. At the same time, his classmate Raul helped Daniel, the #WAAS representative, with coding the programming interfaces. NASA has supported the teenagers from CIC with their idea, which they continue to develop. The fire brigade will soon be testing Juno Radio in Cerrado forest, which is at risk of fire. The solution will thus help to protect the second largest ecosystem in Brazil.