Ask HN: Ideas for tech in developing countries?
Dear HN,
My lab is looking for ideas, particularly in relation to developing countries. What sort of problems have you seen that we might be able to solve through technology?
About us: We are the Sustainable Engineering Lab at Columbia University (http://sel.columbia.edu/). We are a team of students, engineers, programmers and experts in renewable energy.
We've done work in Nigeria, Indonesia, Myanmar, India and a whole bunch of other places (http://sel.columbia.edu/projects/).
51 comments
[ 2.6 ms ] story [ 111 ms ] threadIn a country like India, there is a huge problem to solve when it comes to basic necessity like Electricity for everyone. Specially in smaller towns and villages. Since you mentioned renewable energy, I am sure there is a huge potential there.
The problem is that the electricity grids (or transformers) are just not enough for everyone. So in many small towns/villages, they do something called "load shedding" and power cuts are frequent even if there is electricity available. Hardly there are areas where there are no transformers or grid but most of the times, they are not functional or just badly managed.
Find a way to create enough energy AND then channel it efficiently as well. You have a winner right there.
I'm only starting to get involved in the energy group, but I know that we've had a project focused on providing off-grid solar energy (http://sharedsolar.org/), as well as some software to model the costs of grid rollout across countries such as Myanmar (http://networkplanner.modilabs.org/). The idea is that this research would later be used to back funding proposals from entities such as the World Bank.
How do you make this a completely self sustaining model where expansion is built in to the model without charging the users more money than they can afford? Can you charge the power users more money than the basic user? e.g. if basic user is paying $10 to use X kilowatts and makes $15 in income from that electricity, then the power user who uses 10X kilowatts can be charged $140 under the presumption that the power user uses that extra electricity to generate an income > $150 for themselves. The profits can then be put back into expanding the solar station capacity.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refreshable_braille_display
All current models I have seen are over $1000, over $2000 for anything of a decent size. Something that could use Bluetooth to connect to old iPhones, low end Android devices, and windows computers running the open source screen reader NVDA could be very useful in countries where government does not subsidize the purchase of expensive assistive technology.
http://www.raspberrypi.org/mudra-a-braille-dicta-teacher/
eamanshrivastava@gmail.com
For more info : contactus@projectmudra.com Cheers!
Here's a (poor) rendition of how it works: http://mondrian.io/?p=NlAQ8x
I'm told that 50 years ago or so it was quite common for small towns to have hydro-power, but then the government strung up wires from far away coal-powered electricity plants, and that was the end of that.
Perhaps such towns could be incentivized to install/reinstall hydro power, and achieve some degree of energy self-sufficiency. I have no idea whether the incentive could reasonably be price-based, as coal seems cheap.
Additionally, the sun is almost always shining in the Colombian Andes, and I've never seen a solar panel.
Not only have potential for solar panel, but also wind turbines (in the north, mainly).
One problem? The electricity is cheap.
(2 gig on an SD card at point of manufacture vs. download costs.)
2) Sawyer filters: 170 litres a day, for a million litres of virus-purified water, for $120. But those straw filters... those are industrial-generic, aren't they? Cheaper ways? (see Safe Water Trust for an example)
3) Craigslist for refugee camps / crisis areas.
4) My own project, http://hexayurt.com can _always_ use bright sparks!
Enjoy!
This started off as an offline wikipedia project at Geekcorps Mali and now has been adopted as an official Wikimedia project.
Very neat. Thanks for sharing!
Advances in logistics, transportation and information flow which can be used by the local population in the most simplistic way without compromising on equality
We are building a free opensource app to manage the security of people mostly present or operating in the developing world. It's called Umbrella. Would would love to speak some more with you guys and see how we might cooperate with you. Check us out at www.secfirst.org and reach out!
All the best, -SF
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_traffic-re...
Wind Turbine Structure: Two vertical axis turbines whose blades are hollow (containers) are connected to a circular belt. A tower structure holds the belt in a position such that when the weight ratio of the top turbine vs. the bottom passes a certain threshold, gravity will rotate the belt until the heavier turbine rests at the bottom. The belt will turn a dynamo style generator. While at the bottom, the turbine container will have a plug pressed open and any water inside will drain wherever directed. So on dry and windy days, the turbines will generate electricity. On rainy days, the dynamo will generate electricity while the rainwater is harvested. A great way to store the electricity without an expensive lead-battery is to charge personal electronics or lighting systems (for use at night), and use the rest for refrigeration and ice creation.
Solar Radiation Collection: A semi-spherical lens on top of the wind turbine tower will direct solar radiation inside the hollow tower structure toward a system of lenses and mirrors that focus and collimate light onto the heating element of the Water Distillation structure. The focused ray will be contained within an enclosed structure along its entire path to avoid injury. When the solar radiation is not necessary for water distillation or food preparation, it should be utilized to generate electricity. I don't know the best way to do it without using PV cells or a heat engine with parts that may be too valuable for thieves to resist.
Water Distillation/Food Preparation Structure: The water distillation process will work similar to this image: http://ep.yimg.com/ty/cdn/solaqua/stilldiag.gif However, the solar radiation will not enter from above. Instead the focused ray from the wind turbine tower will heat a metal heating element positioned underneath, but in contact with the dirty water container. The dirty water container will be a u-shaped tower such that a rectangular metal box can be inserted into the the center. At least three sides of the box will be in direct contact with the dirty water container, and the bottom will be near the heating element. The metal box will work like an oven to cook food when the heating element brings the dirty water to boil. Because the structure does not need solar radiation to enter from above, the top of the structure will be a solar food dehydration chamber.
Considering solar panel costs are < $500 kW and Chinese lithium iron phosphate batteries are < $400/kWh, a financially sustainable business model is entirely possible.
Mobile operators are the ideal vendors but lack imagination. That's where you come in.
How technology can help?
- Most of people who do not have their own drive, rely on public transport which is 'generally' overcrowded to reach to their destination.
- Now there are people who have vehicle (mostly car) for going to office (downtown like area) which has space for other 3-4 guys?
- I always see those empty seats and people on the other side of road waiting for a bus/train (which might be going to same place as that car).
- So if we can provide some way of communication between these two, wouldn't that be awesome? As they do travel on approximate same time (like morning 9-10) to same places.
- I do think people having vehicle don't have any problem giving ride to others who are sharing same or nearby offices. If they don't have to stop at too many places and wait.
How can we implement this? (just a suggestion)
- We can divide the whole city in some kind of hexagonal area <cellular towers?>, and then a simple mobile app can connect people travelling to same 'hexagon' maybe?
- Each hexagon should cover only 'walkable' area. So if I drop someone anywhere in that hexagon, his/her destination is at max 8-10 mins walk from there. Otherwise he/she might have to use other ways of transport which is not convenient.
I think it might change the way people travel in big cities.
It would be true People Powered Public Transport then! :)
Let me know your views on this.
I honestly think they could be useful in the US for commuting purposes. Everyone going to the same office park from the same neighborhood could charter a shared taxi and relax instead of drive. Cost would have to be low. I'd use it. Hell, I even had idle thoughts about trying to create it. However, I have neither the capital nor the expertise to make this happen.
Edit: also see Demand Responsive Transit (DRT). It's the western name for this, and it's been tried before for various uses. Getting disabled people to the doctor is a common use in the US. Various European cities have tried this for getting people to train stations. In my opinion, it's never been marketed the right way. Also, the big bus/taxi companies that have tried DRT didn't have the vision or will to make it happen. Nor do the municipal governments that have tried.
Food and water is where I would start. You give the people that and one of humanities biggest problems is solved (of course, not "giving it" in that sense, as that would be the same as any other charity just giving stuff away with no sustainability in mind).
Education research could happen in developing nations instead of developed countries. If the alternative is no education or jobs that are dangerous, this approach might make a lot of sense.