2007 Tech Laureate Showcase (Part II)

(see Part I for descriptions of other projects: cooking fuel pellets from seaweed, packed earth vaulted ceilings, P2P microcredit, P2P marketplace with a mobile interface, and a web-conferencing platform with VOIP for students.)

The other projects that I got to see were:

TakingITGlobal

This prize-winning project is a social networking software platform for youth interested in humanitarian issues. The site TakingITGlobal.org has about 170,000 members. Membership is free, and they have a global reach (living up to their name). I did a quick search to see how global, and did come up with 50 members in Mali, but after looking through the first 25 profiles, I'd say that maybe only 1 or 2 is still an active member. (They provide both create date and last login date.) They have an impressive number of languages (English, French, Spanish, Russian, Arabic, Portuguese), but the English one was the only one that was really active (41,000 posts); French was runner up with 1,344, Spanish and Arabic had a few hundred each, Russian hadn't even broken into the double digits yet... But they do have good content on various issues (like the UN Millennium Development Goals) and ways for youth to connect with each other and learn about events. In addition to the "free" site, there's a way to use the platform in schools, with licensing costs at the school/district level.

Counterpart International

This project is primarily software for logistics management for humanitarian aid. It allows the tracking of pallets and bundles (sounded like USAID was a prime user, and the goods were rather varied...) from the shipper all the way to the recipient, with report back capabilities. The technology platform is Microsoft (.NET and SQL-Server) though it's not really a web application. (Given money, that's what Vlad, the key developer said he would work on next.) The project has been going for about 7 years, with Vlad Roshchin as the person providing continuity, over the life of the project. He said that it's about the equivalent of 1.5 FTE's per year, so about 10 person-years of effort.

Grameen Shakti, Empowerment Through Renewable Energy Technologies

I was a bit confused about what Grameen Shakti was doing; it seemed a sort of hodge-podge of energy related projects using microfinance to allow even the rural poor to buy solar panels, cooking stoves, etc. Fortunately, I'd grabbed one of the info packets with many pictures of a smiling Managing Director Dipal Chandra Barua receiving prizes around the world. From the booklet, I see they have installed 120,000 solar home systems in Bangladesh and are adding at a rate of 4,000/month. A case study said that a pharmacy owner had replaced his kerosene lighting with a 20 watt solar system. I'm extrapolating a bit here, because the numbers are sketchy, but it looks like he has to pay $13/month for 42 months, and had to pay 10% down (about $56). After the 42 months it's paid off, and he can get a service contract for about $13/year. Given that he was paying about $20/month in kerosene, this is a win, breaking even after 8 months. Plus, the light is better (7 watt CFL, plus 3 LED's) and better for both air quality and environment.

The cook stoves seem a similar benefit, reducing fuel needs by 50%, as well as venting less smoke into living areas. A third program that they run is biogas power generation, converting cow dung to energy and fertilizer. It seems that a "family-sized" unit (3 cubic meters) produces enough energy to cook 3 meals a day.

PATH, Vaccine Vial Monitor

A simple idea, really, but one that seems to work: vaccines spoil if exposed to high temperatures for too long. PATH has figured a way to make labels that contain chemicals that change colors if they've been exposed to temperatures that would ruin the vaccine. So before a vaccine is administered, the health worker confirms that it hasn't spoiled. It's also saved many doses that would otherwise be discarded to be "on the safe side" when refrigeration loses power for a short period. There are different labels that have different "warning" temperature / durations. They cost a few cents each to make, falling within the target of being less than 5% of the cost of the vaccine, especially when the labels are applied to multi-dose containers.

Vaxin Inc., Rapid-Response Bird Flu Vaccine

This seemed like a cool technical breakthrough. I didn't understand the medicine behind it, but the general gist I got from Dr. De-chu Tang was that:

1. You could produce vaccines for avian flu much more quickly / cost effectively
   
2. You could vaccinate chickens while they're still in the egg (much easier!)
   
3. You could potentially combine other needed chicken vaccines with it
   

Vaxin is a private VC-backed company (raised $25M, I think he said) headquartered in Alabama, and founded in 1997.