IEEE Puerto Rico MOVE Shows Technical Volunteers Can Benefit Humanity

Forbes

7 hours ago

In May I had an opportunity to visit Puerto Rico for an IEEE Governance Committee meeting and while I was there, I visited the IEEE volunteers who are behind the IEEE Puerto Rico MOVE. MOVE is an IEEE activity to provide technology and communication support to the Red Cross and other groups involved in disaster response activities around the world.
IEEE reached out to Jen Castillo, then Puerto Rico IEEE Section chair, about how it could help Puerto Rico after the damage from Hurricane Maria in 2017. IEEE in general, the IEEE Foundation, the Humanitarian Activity Committee and various IEEE friends helped local volunteers in Puerto Rico by raising money and sending over 500 solar lamps to be distributed through impacted areas on the island.
This experience led to discussions with IEEE USA and Mary Ellen & Garyson Randal, who founded IEEE's MOVE program with support from IEEE-USA in 2016, about doing something with MOVE in Puerto Rico. MOVE partnered with the American Red Cross to provide outfitted trucks for communications and other technical support to disaster areas.
The American Red Cross had an existing Chapter in Puerto Rico and as a consequence, five years ago a number of local IEEE volunteers became ARC volunteers and MOVE PR began. Due to the support needed and the local conditions in Puerto Rico after major hurricanes, the volunteers decide to develop a more compact approach than the MOVE trucks used in the continental USA.
The plan was to create modular kits that have similar capabilities to the trucks but in a smaller and portable configuration, which allow deploying with them anywhere in the island. The picture below shows some of these MOVE modules in the group's storage area in San Juan. The protective boxes are labeled with numbers, so volunteers can quickly grab all the boxes with the same numbers as a kit to take with them to support the ARC at the disaster sites.
MOVE PR modular kits
Tom Coughlin
With the support of MOVE USA, the MOVE PR volunteers were able to create three kits with capabilities for providing power by using inverter battery banks that use solar panels to generate electricity, and equipment that allows people without access to power to charge small devices, such as mobile phones.
To tackle the communication problems that comes after events like hurricanes, the MOVE USA Radio team Helped MOVE PR volunteers to become licensed ham radio operators and provided radio equipment for each of the modular kits including a portable antenna designed by MOVE USA volunteers.
The three modular kits enable the creation of a reliable communication network that could cover the whole island when they are deployed at key locations around Puerto Rico. Another difference for MOVE PR from MOVE USA is that since the island is not very big, volunteers could switch off at a disaster site every few days, rather than the week-long or greater deployments for many disasters in the continental USA.
During these past 5 years MOVE Puerto Rico has supported ARC in various Disaster Response Operations around the island by supporting the Disaster Technical Services team with everything related to technology support during those operations: equipment management, networking support and power generation using these kits. In addition, when not involved in disasters MOVE volunteers provide technical support to the local ARC.
Another key part of MOVE is to spread the message of the importance of STEM education through outreach events that promote technical careers and their impact on society. Along with that message, MOVE shows how IEEE supports student development within these STEM related careers and how it can become their professional home.
MOVE Puerto Rico chair, Francisco Carrero, said that, 'Living in Puerto Rico and having experienced various hurricanes and how climate change is affecting our island, I found purpose on volunteering in the MOVE Program and it has been a fantastic way to use my technical knowledge and skills learned from my engineering profession to help my community.
I definitively agree with IEEE mission: 'To foster technological innovation and excellence for the benefit of humanity.' I can say that the MOVE Program from IEEE gave me the satisfaction of paying forward to the world the blessings that I have received and the sense of gratification of making a difference in my community.'
The picture below shows some of the MOVE PR team in the group's rented storage space in San Juan.
IEEE MOVE disaster response volunteers show how technology can be a force for good and supporting IEEE's missions of advancing technology for humanity.