Our Mission

The Notre Dame chapter of Society of Women Engineers Technology Team aims to accomplish a yearly project.

This year, we are collaborating with the South Bend community to build a solar-powered connectivity pavilion. The pavilion will be located in a local park – accessible to all – and house solar panels, Wi-Fi, and charging units. Multiple factors were considered before deciding on which location to prototype these pavilions in. After considering factors that can be seen in the matrix, the Tech Team decided on building the pavilion in the Southeast Neighborhood Park. We met with SOAR (Southeast Neighborhood Organized Area REsidents) and their residents were excited for the opportunity to implement this pavilion in their neighborhood.

In order to accomplish this project, the Tech Team was split into three subgroups that has more refined tasks.

Connectivity: The Connectivity subgroup focuses on the Wi-Fi capabilities of the pavilion, taking into consideration not only the technical aspects of providing free Wi-Fi for the neighborhood (router choice, local ISPs, existing infrastructure), but also the legal responsibilities that come with providing internet access on a public network. They aim to make the Wi-Fi network feasible, reliable, and safe for everyone to use.

Energy: The Energy subgroup is focusing on how to provide power to the pavilion. We are planning on using solar panels to provide the power. The solar panels will connect to a battery that will store energy for use when the solar panels do not provide enough. 

Structure: The Structure subgroup is focusing on the future use of the connectivity pavilion. The current prototype the Tech Team is building will become a guide for the Parks Department, where they will further implement this technology in parks and vacant lots across South Bend. The connectivity pavilion will be housed with a permanent structure that will allow people to have a safe place to use the internet. Eventually, the structure may be heated and run completely on solar energy (including heating, lighting, and connectivity), allowing all users to have a reliable internet source running on renewable energy.

Stakeholders are an essential component to create this prototype, which leads to an immense amount of interaction with people and companies all around Notre Dame and South Bend.

Our project will be entered into the SWE Tech Team competition and will hopefully be presented at the National SWE Conference in the Fall of 2018.