Inspiration
Our friend Zane’s family was recently displaced in the Israel-Iran conflict. Their family is from a small village in Iran. But when the airstrikes came, everything changed. Power went out. Water was cut. Aid workers couldn’t reach them. They were left to figure things out on their own.
The truth is, humanitarian aid is expensive and stretched thin. The World Food Programme estimates that it costs around $53 per person per year just to meet basic needs, such as food and water. Meanwhile, over 300 million people now require urgent humanitarian assistance, and global budgets are falling short.
To combat this issue, our team created TigerMom. TigerMom is a small, low-cost, AI-powered device that gives people like Zane’s family a voice, a guide, and a second opinion even when the rest of the world can’t stay with them.
TigerMom is more than just aid. It's family. It’s the companion that’s always beside you.
What it does
TigerMom is a Gemini-powered helper that runs on a Raspberry Pi. Users can: 🎤 Speak in their own language 🤖 Ask questions about survival, education, or aid 🧠 Get informed responses from Google’s Gemini API 🔊 Hear the response read out loud TigerMom is designed for remote areas, war zones, refugee camps, or rural areas, where traditional internet services, computers, or aid workers may be unavailable.
How we built it
TigerMom combines artificial intelligence and resilient hardware into a compact rover that is easy to deploy anywhere across the globe.
🧰 Materials List for TigerMom
| Component | Description / Purpose |
|---|---|
| 🔆 Solar panel | Power supply for off-grid use |
| 🛞 4 motors | Drive motors for mobility |
| 🛞 4 wheels | Attach to motors to create a mobile base |
| 🖌️ Paint brushes | For decoration and branding |
| 🟠 Orange paint | Tiger-themed aesthetic |
| 👀 Googly eyes | Adds personality and makes the bot more approachable |
| 📢 Speaker | For voice responses (text-to-speech output) |
| 🎙 Microphone | For capturing voice input |
| 🧠 Raspberry Pi 5 | Main computing unit (runs Gemini API and logic) |
| 📏 Ultrasonic sensor | For obstacle detection or proximity awareness |
| 🔌 Male–male jumper wires | For connecting components to the Pi’s GPIO pins |
| 🧱 Plastic chassis | Physical base/frame to mount all components |
Challenges we ran into
We left critical components at one teammate’s house and had to bike back and forth at least 3 times on Saturday. It was also very challenging to set up the Raspberry Pi by connecting to the monitors in the lecture room, but we managed to figure it out in the end.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
Connecting the Gemini API, achieving functionality in our Raspberry Pi, and soldering all the pieces of the TigerMom together. We pulled an all-nighter, but we were ultimately able to assemble a project with the potential to make a valuable impact. We are also proud of our creative and innovative project idea and all the learning we did over the past 36 hours!
What we learned
Building effective hardware can connect unique and innovative software to meaningful applications that reach people across the globe. Through building TigerMom, we learned how important it is to plan out the project before building, consider the user experience, and keep the design straightforward and accessible. We also learned many technical skills such as designing software to work alongside limited hardware, troubleshooting software issues, and connecting different forms of hardware (e.g. motors, sensors, speakers, etc.).
What's next for TigerMom
Testing out additional features like further language support, custom companion voices, and further mental health training. In addition, we intend to begin testing out the project in real world scenarios.
Presentation
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/11lMpnot7R6kBYRIZnrS9y4HgXwNKBJ2CBoZj807aHow/edit?usp=sharing
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