The province of Colón is an economic center of Panama, having the second largest free trade zone in the world, where import and export goods are sold tax-free. In addition, the most important ports in logistics and international cargo in the country are located here. But this could not prevent a socio-political problem in 2022 when a massive strike limited the arrival of food to the region. From the difficulty, the idea arose: to create an smart irrigation system with sensors to make it easier for people to grow their vegetables, guaranteeing greater food security in the communities.
This is how the “Megaton Plants” project was born, a finalist in 2023 of Solve for Tomorrow Central America and the Caribbean region, which brings together 11 countries: the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Panama, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Ecuador, Venezuela, Belize, and Barbados. “We saw the need, when we saw the prices of food coming from gardens skyrocket and many times there were no vegetables to buy,” recalls the mediator teacher Alba de Delgado. “We also seek to create a culture of planting,” she adds.
The José Guardiola School is one of the first commercial schools in the province of Colombia and was where the teacher also studied. Since 2001, she has been a teacher at the school and also acts as an auditor and Executive Secretary. Today she teaches project formulation and evaluation. “I have always liked the adventure of trying new things and when I heard about Solve for Tomorrow, I thought it was great,” she said. Excited by the idea of participating, the teacher motivated her students as well.
The five young people involved were students in the last year of compulsory schooling, the 12th grade, and were 17 and 18 years old. In Panama, students do baccalaureate courses, focusing on specific areas of knowledge, such as careers. From this team, two students were trained in IT, one was in Tourism and the other two students were in Commerce. In the different areas, they are used to Project-Based Learning; whether with 3D printing or artificial intelligence, for example. Before participating in Solve for Tomorrow, the team did it in a competition with the Ministry of Education, but they had not yet developed the prototype, they were just dabbling in the idea. They did not make it to the final and this left them discouraged; some of them were no longer interested in continuing with this project. However, the five students decided to go ahead and apply for Solve for Tomorrow.
The experience was important for their independence and autonomy. The students had divided up the roles, they organized themselves. Each one saw their potential and it was a very pleasant coexistence, says Delgado.
Research in books and the field
Initially, the young people did scientific research on livestock development and talked to people who were engaged in this rural activity. “It is easy to find a producer near us and ask him what he does, how irrigation works, and even go to stores that sell agro-industrial inputs and be able to ask him questions,” Delgado explains.
They also learned what natural products they could use for plant growth, as well as how to ensure the smart irrigation system so that people could have their vegetable gardens without much work and allow production to take place even when they were not at home. The students also cared about offering a sustainable solution: they created containers, such as 3D-printed boxes at the school, that allow rainwater to be collected.
The materials list included sensors, wiring, solar panels, and batteries, among other supplies for the robotic part. “To test the prototype, they used batteries, but they had the option of charging it through solar panels so that it would recharge itself,” she explains. In the end, everything cost around 100 dollars.
Adjusting the programming for the smart irrigation system
STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) knowledge was crucial to achieving the “Megaton Plants”. With what they had already learned in school about robotics and programming, they could get the robot to move in space, but for this project, they needed to adjust the sensors to detect whether the soil was dry or not. To do this, they trained artificial intelligence to analyze the sensor data and be able to determine the water needs of the cultivated plant.
For the test, they used fast-growing vegetables, such as bell peppers and tomatoes. “They were looking for plants that, due to their similarity, had the same water needs at the time to be put in the same box,” the educator describes.
With the result of the prototype, Delgado notes that the project can be reproduced on a larger scale. “Even in public and private schools that have green areas where we can teach children from an early age how to make their gardens,” she says.
Finally, the teacher also stresses the importance of family support in this process. There was no time to devote to the project during class hours, so they often had to work at other times. “I am grateful that the parents were very involved,” she says.
