SolidarityPi Ecosystem for Offline-First Education

I had the incredible opportunity to work with Solidarity Engineering on their SolidarityPi project, a remote learning platform designed to be deployed in low-resource settings. A single SolidarityPi device can store and share educational content—including Khan Academy, Wikipedia, and even university courses—by broadcasting a local Wi-Fi network for nearby students to access. My role was to implement the Kolibri ecosystem onto Raspberry Pi microcontrollers and augment their operating systems for remote curriculum deployment. SolidarityPi is already making a significant impact in the education of students in Reynosa, Mexico and the Dzaleka Refugee Camp in Malawi.

In Reynosa, SolidarityPi was used in a STEM class where students engaged in virtual physics experiments and games that taught them about friction, gravity, and energy. The device not only facilitated learning but also created an enjoyable and interactive environment for the students.

Meanwhile, in Dzaleka Refugee Camp, SolidarityPi is being used to connect college students to accredited courses and professors from Central Michigan University, offering them a life-changing opportunity. Education is often hard to come by in low-resource settings, especially for refugees, so it's inspiring to see the potential for remote learning to make a positive impact.

The software behind SolidarityPi is completely open source on GitHub.