Last week, a solar-powered library device created by a team of Arizona State University professors and students was named one of TIME’s 2025 Best Inventions.
The invention, called SolarSPELL, provides information to rural communities through a Wi-Fi hotspot, eliminating the need for Internet access.
Laura Hosman is the co-founder and co-director of the SolarSPELL Initiative.
“We feel like we can do one better than the Internet because libraries are curated information. It’s the right information for the right people at the right time,” she said.
Hosman and her colleagues were inspired to create SolarSPELL after finding that the Internet was not meeting the needs of rural communities who lack certain digital literacy skills.
The digital library serves three main sectors: education, health care and agriculture. Hosman says seeing the impact of the device on the world is motivating.
“Hearing from nurses how they didn’t know how to do a procedure but now with SolarSPELL they were able to look it up and perform it seamlessly,” she said.
SolarSPELL is also used here in Arizona in partnership with both the Phoenix Fire Department and HOPI Cancer Support Services.
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