How to design lighting systems for refugee camps

I’ve always been excited about using technology to improve the lives of underserved communities. As a third-year engineering student, I felt I wasn’t gaining enough hands-on experience applying my skills effectively in disadvantaged communities. I sent a cold email to Dr. Janet Ellzey, the director of Humanitarian Engineering at UT Austin. It was this email that sparked over 2-years of research on minimal lighting systems.

At first, the problem space involved lots of ambiguity. The Red Cross was looking for ways to reduce gender-based violence in refugee camps in Lebanon. Research showed that gender-based violence increased at night near bathrooms and hygiene facilities, where people are most vulnerable. Humanitarian organizations attributed this problem to poor lighting in hygiene facilities and landed on the most obvious solution: install bright lights in bathrooms. Surprisingly, when these organizations installed brights lights, rates of gender-based violence didn’t decrease (and in some cases even increased). The brighter lights led to meeting grounds for groups to socialize at night, which increased the vulnerability of women and children. This was the first time I recognized that the most obvious solution is not always the most effective solution.

I had to rely on frequent Zoom calls with the Red Cross to deeply understand the problems and environmental settings of these refugee camps. The ambiguity soon turned to clarity and I learned the following insights:

1. The brightness or the lux level of a lighting system impacted large-group behavior in refugee camps.
2. Bathrooms in refugee camps were typically built from corrugated tin so any lighting system needed to easily work well with this material.
3. Theft was a serious problem with past lighting systems, as they were frequently stolen or dismantled to be sold within the camps.
4. Refugee camps in Lebanon were typically exposed to the outdoor elements which involved sand storms in the spring and heavy rains in the winter.
5. Lighting systems needed to be portable and low-cost so they could be easily assembled by volunteers on-site.

Meeting regularly with the Red Cross helped me better understand our end users: (1) Refugees who need adequate lighting systems to safely use washrooms (2) Red Cross volunteers who need to easily assemble these lighting systems on-site. Understanding the user personas and needs helped me land on our ultimate goal of this research: develop a low-cost, portable minimal lighting system for washrooms in refugee camps.

It became clear that building a great solution would require both electrical and mechanical engineering expertise. I contacted my classmate and good friend, Ashley Perez, to co-build a lighting solution. I kicked off the research by deconstructing low-cost garden lights which are affordable, portable, and utilize solar energy. I wanted to understand the circuit and solar cell used in these types of products. The circuit for a garden light is quite simple - it involves a battery, inductor, solar cell, LEDs, and QX5252F (integrated circuit used in most garden lights). We needed to implement this circuit but we still had no idea how to design a lighting system of the right brightness levels.

People were at the center of this research, so we spent lots of time understanding the current lighting conditions in camp settings. We read publications such as Lighting, WASH, and Gender-Based Violence in Camp Settings, How Night-Time Lighting Street Lighting Affects Refugee Communities, and The Sphere Handbook to learn more about how lighting impacts behavior and standards in humanitarian response. After reading these papers, we noticed that there are no minimal technical standards for lighting systems in emergency camp settings. This makes it increasingly difficult for researchers and engineers to develop lighting solutions for emergency camp settings. Before finalizing any designs, we set standards across illumination, sustainability, durability, and size. Our proposed minimal lighting standards were outlined in a Technical Literature Review. This became our first major deliverable for our research.

The lighting standards were principles that guided our designs. We developed three possible design solutions: (1) pop-socket setup (2) glow-patch implementation (3) band-aid design. We evaluated these three designs based on our lighting standards (illumination, sustainability, durability, and size) in a Design Decision Matrix. We chose to proceed with the band-aid design which was rated the highest across our lighting standards. If you’ve gotten this far, you might be wondering: how are band-aids and lighting systems even related?

The band-aid lighting system can be broken down into three main features:

1. 1 central module which serves as the casing for the circuit and solar cell
2. 2 flaps on either side which serve as the light source with embedded LEDs
3. Adhesive backings to ensure the lighting system can permanently stick to any surface

I started prototyping by building a custom printed circuit board (PCB) for our band-aid implementation. I used KiCad, an open-source software, to build the PCB. Since the original band-aid implementation required 3 LEDs on each flap, I designed a custom PCB that connects rows of LEDs in both directions and radiates the optimal minimum lighting levels of 200 lux.

I spent 2-weeks rapidly prototyping with the goal of building a low-fidelity, working prototype. I leveraged the circuit, solar cell, and LEDs of a deconstructed garden light and 3D printed a case in which the circuitry could be protected in the central module. This was truly a low-fidelity prototype so I used masking tape and paper to build out the flaps. This was my first real foray in rapid prototyping and I learned how crucial this process is for quick testing and iterating on ideas.

In the second iteration of the lighting system, I developed a high-fidelity prototype which leveraged the custom PCB that radiated light at exactly 200 lux. This iteration involved more research into materials design where I used nylon for the band-aid flaps to waterproof the system and an epoxy adhesive that prevents the lighting system from being removed/disassembled from the washroom. Once the prototype was fully assembled, I spent time testing the lighting system outdoors to weather conditions like rain and dry heat.

The rapid prototyping culminated in developing a low-cost (less than $2) minimal lighting system for washrooms in refugee camps. This research was presented at the annual Poster Exhibition on Engineering Research (PEER) Competition where we won 1st place. I hope to continue iterating on the designs by working closely with the Red Cross and the Humanitarian Engineering Department to test the product in refugee camps in Lebanon.