Building an e-Nose Lab and Makerspace in Brazil

How our Electronic Nose project will build a makerspace for at-risk youth in Brazil and ways you can help make this a reality.

First I want to share a little about who we are and why we are doing this…

A little about me and my team

After several years as a family caregiver, I found myself starting over at nearly 50 years old. A had left my career as a computer systems architect, automation specialist, and businessman. In my previous career, I developed part of the automation system that keeps the global Internet working.

 My wife was very ill and not able to work outside the home, so she did charity work from home.  She became involved in several online groups that made crafts for charity.  She eventually built a business out of that work. Because of her illness she often ran that business from her bed. Sometimes that bed was in an RV so that she didn’t have to look at the “same four walls” all the time. There was a lot she couldn’t do because of the illness, but she found ways to do as much as possible.  Caring for my wife launched me into the world of remote working and digital nomad life.

Debi died in August 2018.  Within a year after she died, I had quadruple bypass surgery, and another year of recovery.  As I was recovering, I decided to go on a mission trip to the Amazon region of Brazil with my church. I saw much need and opportunity where I could put my technical and remote work knowledge to use. Instead of focusing on rebuilding my career, I decided to travel to remote villages where I could bring income and education through remote work.

Along the way I met..

Renato and Ingrid

Renato was in school, starting a career in technology and feeling called to missionary life. He was serving as a translator during one of the mission trips I went on. He was very interested in the tech projects I was doing, so I became a mentor for him. He recently married Ingrid, and together they are supporting several projects in the small town of Goiana, Pernambucco, Brazil.

When he heard my story, to quote him, “Chet turned my world upside down”. Although he continues to work in technology, he has set boundaries with his employers so that he can work with at-risk teens in his community. Ingrid is working on her Instagram skills and helping several small businesses grow their customer base. These are “side” businesses women have started to help support their families. Again I will stress this is in a very poor and at-risk community.

Yuri

I really needed a translator with the freedom to travel with me, and knowledge of the specialized business and technology terminology.

I met Yuri  in a hostel in Recife last year. He had just arrived in Recife to start over after some hardships. His original degree was in business administration, but had gotten burned out. He was going to school to change careers to software engineering to better support is young daughter. He was doing several odd jobs just to survive.

We began to discuss the possibility of him coming along with me as my translator. I had to leave to visit Renato and prepare for his wedding. So Yuri and I continued talking on WhatsApp. He found a volunteer job at a hostel in Recife for a few weeks so that he has a stable place to stay. After Renato’s wedding, I returned to the hostel Yuri was working at, so we could get to know each other better.

A few weeks later, he accompanied me to Goiana and then to Manaus and Tres Unidos. It worked great having him with me. God showed me that I should take him with me when I left Brazil. We ended up in Europe, where we visited some makerspaces, learned about 3d printing and embedded system educational programs. He also started helping me on the Electronic Nose project. The same system he is now working with a friend to start selling here in Brazil.

About the community

Goiana, Pernambucco Brazil is a small community outside of Recife.  The primary industry there is sugarcane.  Yuri and I went last year to see the sugarcane harvest.  It is very hard manual labor.  Unlike many places around the world (and in Brazil), they do not allow children or teens to work in the fields. Most of the men we talked to said they do not want their sons to have to do this work.  They want better jobs for their children.  Many of the teens Renato works with come from broken homes.  The community struggles with the results of alcohol and drug addictions.

Renato’s cousins have been working on social media and video editing to help tell the story of their community and raise awareness of the needs in Goiana.  Their church is actively engaged in projects to serve the community.  I am doing what I can to help support these projects.

The Opportunities

My dream has been a technology consulting business (www.unswivel.com) which helps small businesses streamline their operations through technology.  While working on the consulting projects, we mentor someone who is wanting to learn about technology.  For example, Renato learned about full-stack development through our work on RootLo.  And Yuri has been learning from the Electronic Nose project.  As we develop expertise, we launch products and services based on that expertise.  We will train people to support these products.  In the process, we set up a workspace and establish a makerspace so that people in the community have access to the equipment.  We freely offer training to anyone who wants it.

The first of these products is our Electronic Nose service.  There is much data analysis that is required to create a system based on the BME688 chipset.  We will set up a “smell lab” to support this development.  Most uses of this product will need specialized embedded systems hardware design.  So we will be investing in Arduino and Raspberry Pi based systems along with numerous sensors, 3d printers, and AI support technologies and basic computing technologies.  The equipment we use to support this technology will be made available to the community for educational and business development purposes.  All of this will lead to jobs and opportunities in this at-risk community.

The Fundraising Challenge

We are raising $25,000 to build this makerspace.  Of course sales of the electronic nose system goes into this lab.  But, I am also asking for donations to help get this built quicker.  When I do my fundraisers, I often like to help support other programs as well.  There are 5 charities/startups with some technology needs that we help support.  Each of these have a website/web application that they need help developing.  If we can raise the full $25,000 in the next 2 months, we will donate a customized web application and 1 year of our Standard Unswivel Services to these 5 organizations.  I will be providing more details about these organizations and their web application projects soon.

Founding Sponsors

A special thank you goes to the following founding sponsors

• Mark Mahan

• John Blacklock

Become a founding member of this newsletter or contact me for other ways to sponsor this project.

Final Thoughts

God tells me to go and I go (thus the name of this newsletter.) And with very little financial backing we do some pretty amazing things. The four of us are working to help other organizations and support education and jobs in at-risk communities. Yuri said just the other day as he purchased a bag of peanuts from someone on the beach, “I was just talking to God. We help so many people. Who helps us? … But I know God is helping us.” There have been many times over the past several years that I have given the last of my money to someone in need. And at those times someone has made a donation at exactly the time I/we have needed it. God uses you all to help us help others. There are so many lives that get touched by what we are doing, and the support you all give.

I want to be clear on this: I never put funding first. We are moving forward with these projects with whatever funding we receive over the next several months. I trust that God will give me the money I need to survive and fund these projects.  I limit the consulting practice to the bare minimum so that I can focus my time on these projects.  The donations make it possible for us to do more and there are many community projects we support.