News

This year’s Big Ideas contest launched in September 2015. 266 student teams representing more than 750 students across 16 different campuses submitted pre-proposals. After a preliminary round and a final review, 41 teams were awarded prizes across nine different categories, with award amounts ranging from $1,000 to $10,000. Below is a summary of this year’s winners.

Categories

• Art & Social Change
• Energy & Resource Alternatives
• Financial Inclusion
• Food System Innovations
• Global Health
• Improving Student Life
• Information Technology For Society
• Mobiles for Reading
• “Scaling Up” Big Ideas

ART & SOCIAL CHANGE

FITE Film (From Incarceration to Education) and Resource Connection (1^st Place)
Team Members: Skylar Economy, Tristan Caro
School: UC Berkeley
The FITE documentary film will combat recidivism in the prison system by motivating currently incarcerated individuals to seek higher education and mentorship opportunities. To accomplish this goal, the film will feature the success stories of relatable, formerly incarcerated students at UC Berkeley.  Screening the documentary in prisons and jails around the U.S. will allow currently incarcerated individuals to learn that it’s not only desirable but also realistic to attain higher education both during and after incarceration. In addition, the creation of a structured, regionally-organized resource connection will supply viewers of the film with phone numbers and contact information of trusted, already established organizations that mentor incarcerated individuals on their journey to seeking higher education.
Philippine “Labor Beat”: Work, Social Media, and Documentary Futures (2^nd Place)
Team Members: Daniel Rudin, Abram Sterm, Jim Libiran
School: UC Santa Cruz
The Philippines is the “social media capital of the world,” but it is also a place where labor violations abound.  Philippine “Labor Beat” is a social practice project to support Filipino unionists. Currently, unionists must rely on mainstream or indie media sources to report infractions. Pushing beyond the limitations of these forms of media, Philippine “Labor Beat” uses cell phone cameras, media trainings, and metadata technology to build a social media ecology around workers themselves to empower them to directly document their struggle. The project harnesses the creativity of interactive documentary and the reach of social media. Union institutions will serve as a network, support group, and audience for the project. Philippine “Labor Beat” will create and spread labor news that benefits the Filipino community at large by facilitating worker self-representation, communication, and collaboration in ways that their communities currently lack.
The Medical Social Emotional Arts Project: Transforming Patient-Centered Care (3^rd Place)
Team Members: Rathi Ramasamy, Hannah Leo, Gianna Raggio
School: UC Los Angeles
The Art of Healing will train UCLA medical students and professionals to integrate creative arts programming in inpatient pediatric pain management. They will learn best practices established by the UCLArts and Healing Social Emotional Arts (SEA) Certificate Program for amplifying the innate social-emotional benefits of the arts by using mental health practices. Training will cover verbal and nonverbal communication, managing special needs, traumatic responses, and self-care. Four arts modalities (visual art, dance/movement, poetry, and music) will also be incorporated. By successfully integrating such a program in a clinical setting, the pediatric inpatient experience can become one of reflection, meaningful dialogue, and increased empathy that also fosters connection while reducing the emotional distress of all parties involved.
Root Tongue: Sharing Stories of Language Identity and Revival (Honorable Mention)
Team Members: Anita Chang
School: UC Santa Cruz
Root Tongue is an online platform for audience engagement motivated by the stories and issues raised in Tongues of Heaven, a feature documentary about four young, indigenous women who use personal video cameras to document the challenges of learning their ancestral languages before they go extinct. Their experiences prompt a larger conversation about linguicide and revitalization in Root Tongue, a forum that allows participants to share their perspectives through dialogue as well as uploads of photos, music, writings, and short videos. Users will also be able to access educational and community resources on language preservation. Indigenous people and minority language learners have a keen awareness of the demands and flux of their own communities in the context of other global societies. Root Tongue aims to continually illuminate their visions as they heal, energize, and rethink the personal and local.

ENERGY & RESOURCE ALTERNATIVES

The Alternative Iron by Ferrous (1^st Place)
Team Members: Cameron Smith, Chris Collins
School: UC Berkeley
The Ferrous team is driven to make sure that for the 2.6 billion people living in energy poverty, modern energy satisfies all their basic human needs including dignity.  The Ferrous team’s mission is to design and distribute sustainable, community-supportive, and capacity-building technologies. Ferrous is focused on addressing the current market’s failure to identify and respond to culturally significant needs that the western world has overlooked. A clothing iron compatible with modern energy technology called the Alternative Iron is Ferrous’s first product. With this appliance, Ferrous can rectify the disconnect between social need and technological capacity to ensure that each and every one of its beneficiaries can claim a larger slice of dignity.
Husk-to-Home (2^nd Place)
Team Members: Jose Corbala-Delgado, Dennis Jones, Kevin Li, Jacqueline Ortega, Brian Rojas-Lerena, Brandon Leu, Colin Eckerle
School: UC Riverside
In 2013, a 7.1-magnitude earthquake struck Bohol, Philippines, destroying thousands of structures and displacing nearly 350,000 Boholanos. In response, the International Deaf Education Association (IDEA) employed several teams to build temporary homes using coconut wood boards. However, the homes only lasted two years before they were deemed uninhabitable due to extensive termite damage. IDEA identified the community’s need for economic and sustainable building materials, so they contacted Husk-to-Home to find a reliable solution. As the world’s seventh largest rice-producing country, the Philippines generates an abundance of termite-resistant rice husk waste. Husk-to-Home intends to capitalize on this termite resistance and design a particleboard that is lightweight, water-resistant, and of comparable strength to a commercially available medium-density particleboard. The project’s mission is to create a proof of concept building material composed of rice husk and an innovative binder. This will enable construction of durable homes for the Bohol Island community.
ViaeX: Biowaste to Nanofilters for a Sustainable and Clean Future (3^rd Place)
Team Members: Vivian Qu, Rahul Jain, Rui Wang, Miao-Chun Chen
School: UC Berkeley
Rapid modernization and industrialization in developing nations has significantly improved global standards of living at the expense of human health and the global environment. Air pollutants are now regarded as the most widespread carcinogen and lead to 7 million deaths worldwide annually. Project ViaeX aims to restrict human exposure to both indoor and outdoor air pollution while also providing clean air for people of all sectors of the society. ViaeX is developing a novel low-cost high efficiency nano filtration technology, which can remove 99.999% of all pollutants from the air with no end-of-life environmental impacts since the product is 100% biodegradable. This technology has the potential to transform air filtration into an affordable solution for everyone because it can be used to curtail air pollution at the source or at any point where humans may be exposed to it.
Low Cost Disposable Battery for the Developing World (Honorable Mention)
Team Members: Mohamed Amine Oueslati, Benjamin Williams, Jerry Wang
School: UC Berkeley
Current lighting and phone charging solutions in off-grid regions are hazardous, expensive, and inconvenient. The Low Cost Disposable Battery project addresses these major drawbacks using cheap and safe materials, representing a major shift in the way traditional batteries are made. Users will purchase and assemble the batteries themselves, replacing components as necessary. This solution puts the power in the hands of families, allowing them to personally control their power usage in the safety of their home, at all times of the day, and at a low cost.

FINANCIAL INCLUSION

Empowering Women through Entrepreneurship (1^st Place)
Team Members: Peter Bittner, Katie J. Niemeyer
School: UC Berkeley
Women living in the squatter settlements of Ulaanbaatar are among the most financially and educationally disadvantaged in Mongolia. The squatter areas—commonly known as “ger districts”—are mainly comprised of recently-migrated nomadic herders. Ger districts make up over 60% of the capital city’s population and have tens of thousands of new arrivals each year. The newly-settled nomads face difficulties in the urban job market due to stark cultural differences between rural and urban lifestyles and a mismatch of employable skills. The challenges of finding employment can result in alcoholism, domestic violence, and cyclical poverty. Women in the squatter settlements need confidence, practical knowledge, and access to capital in order to break from patriarchal gender roles that often prevent them from reaching their full potential as business and community leaders. Through structured small-group support, this project provides impoverished female migrants with information, skills, and low-interest microloans in order to develop their small businesses and foster more economically-resilient communities.
MÄk (1^st Place)
Team Members: Michelle Nie, Aubrey Larson, Ankita Joshi
School: UC Berkeley
MÄk is a social enterprise devoted to empowering urban low-income high school juniors and seniors to become 3D designers. The mission of MÄk is to provide these young people with exposure to various STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, and math) fields while also providing them with training in marketable skills and an income source so they may pursue higher education and STEAM careers in the future. Initially, the MÄk program will run on the UC Berkeley campus in order to utilize its free facilities and 3D design software. First, trained Berkeley student volunteers from MÄk’s partner campus organizations will teach high schoolers from Oakland and Richmond in 3D design through a training program. Then, MÄk will hire these students as paid interns to work on 3D design projects for Bay Area technology startups and design firms. MÄk plans to simultaneously partner with other organizations to host financial literacy workshops that help students manage income wisely.
SocialForce (2^nd Place)
Team Members: Susanne Schöneberg, Denisse Halm, Joh Schöneberg, Mitul Bhat, Reneé Selanders, Vaisakh Shankar, Sid Ghosh
School: UC Berkeley
SocialForce is an impact management platform that leverages the core business competencies available locally to meet the needs of a community in a strategic and sustainable way. SocialForce is based on the premise that community-grounded organizations and their active members understand the needs of their communities best, but lack the ability to harvest the resources necessary to execute projects to address those needs. The team’s goal is to connect mission-driven small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with relevant nonprofit organizations in their communities. The strategic match of local resources to local needs facilitates long-term relationships for greater impact and unlocks the potential of communities to solve what matters most to them. Through SocialForce, SMEs can identify, execute, manage, and measure impact activities in their local communities in a strategic and meaningful way by building long-term relationships that are in line with their mission and vision.
PictoKit: Retirement Toolkit (3^rd Place)
Team Members: Olivia Zhao, Amanda Zhao, Lynn Wang, Terrie Yang
School: UC Berkeley
The Retirement Toolkit is a reproducible workshop kit that through the innovative use of co-design seeks to address the gap in retirement financial literacy for low income, young working adults. The Toolkit‘s application of co-design for education allows the participants to actively shape their learning experience as opposed to conventional, one-sided forms of teaching.  Through creative discussion, design activities, and active visual learning, the program not only teaches, but also empowers participants to secure their own financial futures.  Furthermore, the project is highly scalable because the workshop guide and toolkit can be easily reproduced to allow third parties to hold their own retirement workshops beyond the Bay Area.  Additionally, the individualized curriculum will allow participants to tailor the material to their needs.  The project thus addresses the lack of effective financial literacy programs for low income, young working adults in an innovative application of co-design.

FOOD SYSTEMS

Safi Organics (1^st Place)
Team Members: Kevin Kung
School: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Safi Organics produces a carbon-negative soil conditioner derived from biomass (farm) waste. Designed for rural smallholder farmers, the soil conditioner leads to a 30% increase in crop yield and 50% increase in income by reversing soil degradation. Biomass waste is present in most rural farms every year after harvest, and yet most of this waste is burned in open air rather than economically utilized because existing capital-intensive and centralized processing technologies often require the long-distance transport of this waste, which is very expensive. Safi Organics has developed patent-pending environmentally-friendly reactors and unique recipes that enable the low-cost and decentralized conversion of waste into carbon-negative soil conditioner in under 2 hours. The company’s EcoCert-certified product is currently used in more than 80 acres of land in Safi Organics’ preliminary pilot project and has generated highly positive customer reviews. In addition, this product actively sequesters 1.5 tons of CO2 per acre into the soil each planting season thereby directly mitigating climate change.
Poverty Alleviation through Poultry Education (2^nd Place)
Team Members: Hana Link, Samantha Lawton, Laura Budd, Michelle-Yvette Luis, Sarah Tirrell, Marina Boucher, Kim Conway, Abigail Fosdick, June Barrera
School: UC Davis
The One Health Nicaragua team will address food insecurity concerns in Sabana Grande, Nicaragua, by working with children and focusing on improving poultry production. Integrative workshops for students in Sabana Grande will focus on egg production, chick care, coop management, and disease prevention. Local students will manage a demonstration flock providing them the opportunity to gain first-hand experience with effective methods for raising, handling, and vaccinating poultry. Children can then share this information with their family thereby increasing knowledge dissemination throughout the community. Introducing poultry husbandry skills in the classroom will affect changes at the family level and sustainably improve overall community poultry production in Sabana Grande. Ultimately, this will lead to greater food security within the community.
Just Ripe. (2^nd Place)
Team Members: Geertje Grootenhuis, Kayla Smith, Jessica Welsh, Claire Rosenfield, Ryan Riddle
School: UC Berkeley
Just Ripe takes serving food to a whole new level. Just Ripe’s products—soups, salads, and smoothies all created from 100% recovered, organic produce — will be pedaled around Oakland’s streets on an innovative, eye-catching food bike. The team aims to hold daily “kickstands,” or food bike sales, at Downtown Oakland tech companies to sell products to young professionals at prices between $6-$10. In addition, Just Ripe will distribute refreshing smoothies to Oakland middle schools and high schools free of charge in order to promote healthy eating while spreading the message: “Don’t DiscriminEAT.” Just Ripe’s food bike allows convenient transportation of products through an innovative, low-cost, mobile, and environmentally-friendly alternative to a food truck. The team’s passion for healthy food and their dedication to making a lasting impact inspired this quirky food bike which aims to initiate a dialogue around food waste and food access in Oakland by “Pedaling with a Purpose.”
Ricult (3^rd Place)
Team Members: Aukrit Unahalekhaka, Jonathan Stoller
School: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
70% of the world’s poor are smallholder farmers, and they produce 80% of the global food. However, these farmers are poor and food insecure.  By 2050, the world will need to produce at least 50% more food to feed 9 billion people. This dual-pronged problem of poverty and food insecurity is caused by 3 main issues in agricultural value chains: supply chain inefficiencies, financial exclusion, and information asymmetry. Ricult is solving these issues by establishing a multi-sided, mobile e-commerce platform that fills the holes in the agricultural supply chain by providing farmers direct access to financial instruments, input sellers, end buyers, logistics providers, and real-time crop information. As 80% of the smallholder farmers have access to mobile phones, Ricult’s solution is accessible through both low cost feature phones without Internet connections and smartphones.
Unmanned Ground Vehicle for Water Leak Detection (Honorable Mention)
Team Members: Jan Tanja, Brandon Yang, Brian Swain, Elizabeth Arikawa, Jad Aboulhosn
School: UC Merced
The Unmanned Ground Vehicle (UGV) project is the future of the next generation’s agricultural gadgets. Instead of the past’s archaic methods of manually searching for leaks with acoustic procedures, the UGV project hopes to replace the previous methods with a more strategic appliance – a powerful camera attached onto a fully autonomous vehicle. Utilizing a combination of dynamic image-processing techniques and mobilization, this rover-camera duo is able to autonomously navigate through way-points and detect pipe leaks more frequently, efficiently, and accurately than a field worker would. Powered and guided by the Mission Planner program and the Pixhawk Autopilot System, the rover is capable of decreasing overhead costs, and most importantly, aiding in the preservation of water. The project’s state of the art features are distinguished by its data collection platform, algorithm design, and user-friendly  interface.
Bug Ideas: Feeding the World With Insects Without Ever Eating Insects (Honorable Mention)
Team Members: Alexander Klonick, Tess Petesch, Amanda Bushell
School: Duke University
According to the UN Environment Programme, roughly one third of the food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted. Simultaneously, forage fish stocks, which are a key component of the oceanic lifecycle, are declining due to overfishing. They are being harvested to be processed into fishmeal, which feed the aquaculture boom and livestock. Black soldier fly larvae are capable of feeding on waste and efficiently creating both the protein and fat necessary to meet nutritional requirements of feed operations. If a mere 6% of the food waste were converted into bug protein, it would offset 100% of the need for forage fish. The potential for impact is massive. Bug Ideas aims to centralize currently  disjointed efforts and expedite FDA approval of insects as feed. The team will accomplish this objective by building a coalition of experts, founding a trade association of companies, and submitting an application for FDA approval.

GLOBAL HEALTH

Open Viral Load (1^st Place)
Team Members: Hayley Chong, Kirk Hutchison, Rachel Owyeung, Alex Smith, Wesly Wong
School: UC San Diego
The Open Viral Load project aims to develop an open-source, affordable genetic assay test for HIV that can be easily modified to test other pathogenic diseases, such as tuberculosis and the Zika virus.  As part of the Global TIES organization, the Open Viral Load team is working with both the UC San Diego School of Medicine and the Eduardo Mondlane University in Mozambique. The team will perform preliminary testing in Tijuana, Mexico, followed by secondary testing in Mozambique. This project will allow low resource communities to receive the regular testing they need in order to know the status of their viral disease or to quickly diagnose patients with other pathogenic illnesses. This in turn will help doctors issue proper treatment to those in their community.
VIRA: A Low-Cost HIV Viral Load Quantification System (2^nd Place)
Team Members: Neel Parekh, Yajur Maker, Orysya Stus, Christopher Yin, Bryce Killingsworth, Michael Wang, Jahir Gutierrez
School: UC San Diego
Viral load testing is increasingly supported as a necessary component of the HIV management cycle. Regular monitoring for treatment failure by a viral load test is endorsed by the World Health Organization as essential to a globally sustainable treatment plan. Tijuana has been identified as the potential site of an HIV epidemic due to both its rising incidence of HIV cases and to its disproportionately large populations of high-risk sex workers and intravenous drug users. A novel detection system called VIRA has been developed to make the viral load test financially and logistically feasible for Tijuana health clinics to incorporate into their treatment and containment strategies. VIRA combines a low-cost centrifuge, automated RNA extraction device, paper-based genetic circuit, and smartphone-based photometric quantification system to yield a fast, easy, and inexpensive point-of-care viral load test which may be implemented in Tijuana and readily adapted to other low-resource settings.
FloGlow: Low Cost Spirometer (2^nd Place)
Team Members: Marisa Babb, Luke Stork
School: UC Berkeley
Developing countries have a dire need for measuring the respiratory health of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and asthma. Spirometry is the gold standard in developed countries for diagnosing respiratory illnesses. However, spirometers are costly and require a reliable power supply, regular maintenance, and a computer for operation. All of these requirements are  unmet by the environment of most developing countries. Project FloGlow: A Low-Cost Spirometer addresses this need by developing a spirometer specifically for low-resource clinics and solving key problems existing spirometers fail to address. FloGlow operates without the aid of a PC or smartphone, possesses on-board data storage and display, and allows simple and accurate calibration—all for less than $35. This device has the potential to reduce misdiagnosed cases and provides clinicians the ability to improve management of both the symptoms and the disease to reduce preventable morbidity and mortality.
SHRI Community Sanitation Facilities (3^rd Place)
Team Members: Anoop Jain
School: UC Berkeley
SHRI works alongside communities in rural India to increase access to essential health infrastructure by providing access to toilets that are able to convert waste into energy that runs a water filtration system. SHRI will sell safe drinking water at a fair price to generate revenue. This project aims to end open defecation by encouraging behavior change and positive health outcomes through education. Partnerships with local governments will ensure that allocated land and funding goes to those most in need of these services.
PedalTap: Modifying the Existing Water Tap System to Create a No Touch Cost Effective Solution in Developing Countries (3^rd Place)
Team Members: Grace Nakibaala, Isah Ssevume, Molly Mbaziira Nannyonjo
School: Makerere University
This year, the PedalTap team is taking this Big Idea to another level. The innovative Tippy Tap was made to prevent the spread of infection at communal hand washing facilities in rural areas in Uganda. It is foot-operated, preventing the need for touch. The product is a free-standing, universally-fitting connection that can easily attach to any tap. It is operated by a foot pedal, which is made of a bicycle brake handle and system connected to a spring-loaded water cut off. It is very cheap, easy to produce, and simple to connect. It is also easy to use and water flow can be controlled. It is particularly good for use in communal and crowded spaces. The Tippy Tap builds on existing infrastructure, so there will no extra costs incurred.
SkinIQ: Precision Diagnostics of Melanoma w/ Mobile Imaging & Deep Learning (Honorable Mention)
Team Members: Abhishek Bhattacharya
School: UC Santa Barbara
SkinIQ is developing a mobile software platform and algorithm for the long-term surveillance and diagnosis of potentially cancerous skin lesions. At the moment, even the best methods of diagnosis still lack the sensitivity and specificity needed to accurately classify and distinguish one type of skin lesion from another. Furthermore, there has yet to be a widely accepted tool that connects patients across the world to their own general practitioners and dermatologists in a cost effective and innovative way. SkinIQ solves this problem using a proprietary deep-learning algorithm trained on thousands of images that tracks and tags dangerous skin lesions for doctors and patients. Additionally, SkinIQ uses non-invasive molecular profiling to sequence moles that have been tagged as concerning. SkinIQ hopes to provide a highly accurate diagnostic tool and platform that will decrease discrepancies in the diagnosis of melanoma and pervasive skin diseases.
LiquidGoldConcept: Breast Massage Knowledge Bank (Honorable Mention)
Team Members: Anna Sadovnikova, Jeff Plott, Rachel Atwood
School: UC Davis
In 2011, only 18.8% of US mothers reached the six-month exclusive breastfeeding goal set by the World Health Organization. If 90% of mothers breastfed for the recommended six months, the US would save $13 billion per year. Breast massage can improve, prevent, or alleviate the most common breastfeeding problems and prolong breastfeeding duration. The purpose of the Breast Massage Knowledge Bank (BMKB) is to identify and match unique BMTs to specific breastfeeding problems and breast shapes/sizes. The sixteen BMTs identified in academic literature will serve as the baseline from which the BMKB will grow. The platform allows for feedback collection from breastfeeding experts and mothers. This data is analyzed to develop evidence-based education tools for diverse populations of parents and providers. LiquidGoldConcept is the only research-driven, for-profit company (with a sustainable, non-advertisement based revenue model) creating evidence-based, tailored breast massage videos focused on educating parents and health providers.

IMPROVING STUDENT LIFE

SafeSpace (1^st Place)
Team Members: Monica Casanova, Ann Nguyen, Claire Lee, Noel Frazier, Jaya Mantovi, Daniela Grinblatt, Natasha Hoherchak, Valentine Wallace, Yifan Li
School: UC Berkeley
Poor mental health is a widespread issue plaguing college students across the country. SafeSpace is a website and mobile application for UC Berkeley undergraduates to comfortably share their similar mental health issues through an anonymous, peer-led chat. By keeping it anonymous, students do not have to worry about being stigmatized. SafeSpace will facilitate the transition of first year, transfer, and minority students (including those with disabilities) into Cal by providing them with an outlet for psychological support. The project plans to initially target these groups, although it will not be exclusive to these populations. SafeSpace will serve as a means for students to adapt to the challenges associated with attending a large university, understand that there is a community of people out there like themselves, and have a comfortable space to share their issues with someone who is able to relate to their struggles.
Campus Cooks (2^nd Place)
Team Members: Helia Bidad, Vikram Sivaraja, Donna Ni, Vijitha Sridhar, Tanya Krishnakumar
School: UC Berkeley
In 2014, one in four students said they had to “skip meals in order to save money.” Campus Cooks (CC) seeks to provide students with resources to help alleviate hunger and food insecurity. These two issues contribute to the deterioration of physical and mental health, increased stress, and hindered academic success. The Campus Cooks application includes cooking recipes with concise and informative text, appealing photos, and engaging videos. CC includes a breakdown of the cost of ingredients for recipes as well as nutrient information for the complete dishes. Food assistance programs are detailed on the app in an effort to make students aware of food pantries, urban farms, and other programs that can provide immediate relief. Whether a student is the next Rachael Ray or cannot crack an egg, Campus Cooks consolidates the resources necessary to mitigate one of the most pressing issues for students.
UbiSafe Technologies: Reimagining Personal Safety for UC Berkeley (3^rd Place)
Team Members: (Tom) Seung Kun Lee, Woo Yong Charlie Choi
School: UC Berkeley
UbiSafe provides discreet personal protection that is accessible at your fingertips. With crime rates rising year after year, consumers are flooded with new-fangled safety gadgets from something as simple as a whistle or a stun gun to something more high-tech like emergency apps. The thing is, they don’t work. Whistles and stun guns, when misused, escalate the situation, and you do not have time to unlock your phone and start an app when someone has you at gunpoint. UbiSafe’s team decided to take advantage of how people always have their phones in hand, whether in use or not, to allow for a faster and more discreet system of emergency reporting. UbiSafe’s Nappi utilizes an NFC-powered tactile button connected to your smartphone via mobile application. Simply press, hold, and release the button, and the police and your family will be alerted of your precise location and sent a message without potentially aggravating the attacker.
Luminavi App (3^rd Place)
Team Members: Melody Ng
School: UC Berkeley
Luminavi is a dynamic anonymous reporting and data collection app that will allow the campus community to identify spaces on campus where sexual misconduct is prevalent. Using the information aggregated from the app, service providers like the Restorative Justice (RJ) Center can more effectively direct services to those spaces. The RJ Center will promote opportunities for the community to dialogue in these “spaces” so that victims, offenders, and bystanders have a meaningful opportunity to voice their concerns and can be better informed about how to change the social as well as cultural dynamics in those spaces that enable sexual misconduct. Through access to data provided by app users that illuminate trends in particular spaces, Luminavi can help institutions use big data to adjust their overall response strategy to address sexual misconduct. Over time, Luminavi can catalyze more evidence-driven, community-based responses to sexual misconduct.

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY FOR SOCIETY

LiftEd (1^st Place)
Team Members: Andrew Hill
School: UC Berkeley
LiftEd is an iPad application that enables special education professionals to measure students’ academic & behavioral performance on individualized learning goals, analyze learning trends to modify instruction and intervention methods real-time, and ultimately share student progress with districts & parents on-demand. It resembles an EHR  and acts as a centralized repository for a student’s case team to track progress, collaborate, and maintain a transferrable record longitudinally. LiftEd aims to strategically focus on schools to provide aggregate data for administrators that can aid in compliance with federal funding mandates. In addition to significantly saving educators time and providing the ability to work remotely, LiftEd also increases the transparency of student data for parents in order to mitigate risk of lawsuits. It also enables a real-time analysis of progress and modification to classroom activities in order to accelerate student learning. All of these features are accessible from a tablet. The flexible data collection methods and intuitive applied behavior analysis caters to all educators, not just advanced professionals in clinical settings.
Wildfire (2^nd Place)
Team Members: Hriday Kemburu, Vinay A. Ramesh, Jay Patel, Tim C. Hyon
School: UC Berkeley
When breaking news happens around you, how do you hear about it? Whether it’s a mugging, fire, or shooting nearby, there aren’t effective ways of notifying the immediate community in real time. Wildfire sends real-time notifications to your phone when a user reports dangerous activity nearby. With Wildfire, breaking local news is delivered to you, and you don’t even have to unlock your phone. Getting informed on Wildfire is not about who your friends are or who you follow, rather notifications are sourced from people nearby. If an emergency occurs, users can write an alert that is sent directly to their emergency contacts, their nearby community, and a dashboard monitored by public safety officials—all with one button. A user’s emergency contacts do not even have to download the app to receive their alert via SMS. Before walking home, users can also view recent incidents in their area.
et al. Health (3^rd Place)
Team Members: John Semerdjian, Ricky Holtz, William Chambers , Ellen Van Wyk
School: UC Berkeley
People diagnosed with rare diseases often have a lot of trouble finding a doctor that can effectively care for them. This means that they’re spending more time learning about how to find treatment than actually getting treatment itself. Through the use of machine learning, open health data, and a user-centered design philosophy, et al. Health is developing the world’s first doctor search tool based on each doctor’s clinical research experience. By providing honest, accurate, and friendly information about physicians who study rare diseases, et al. Health’s mission is to help patients get useful and objective information that will help them get the treatment they need.
PillPal (Honorable Mention)
Team Members: James Bui, Sofia Noori
School: UC Berkeley
PillPal is a simple application that integrates drug prices with a patient’s particular health insurance benefits to calculate a patient’s out-of-pocket costs. The application will feature three important services: upfront cost estimates, value-based suggestions, and price comparisons by location. PillPal will give patients easy access to information about their drug regime and pricing structures that will allow patients to understand their out-of-pocket costs easily and make better decisions about how to spend their money. With more and more costs shifted over to the patients, there is a need for patients to better understand their healthcare. PillPal will help patients make smart, value-based decisions with their healthcare dollars and spur a price transparency revolution in the current foggy and confusing healthcare pricing system.
Team Members: Ramin Rajaii, Brandon Brown, Bardia Bahadori
School: UC Irvine
More than 10 million Americans experience depression each year. Globally, mental illnesses are projected to cost $16 trillion indirectly through lost labor and capital output. Additionally, subpar mood also reduces the quality of life of those affected. However, the gold-standard in the U.S., one-on-one therapy, is too costly and labor-intensive to keep up with the expected growth of demand. At this point, innovative solutions are needed to improve mental health care delivery and patient self-management. Because 85% of the world’s population has wireless access, mobile technologies are poised to deliver personalized self-care and relieve workforce shortages. MindFull™ is a mobile application created by medical students to boost mood and assist in the self-management of depression, anxiety, and stress. It presents evidence-based treatments as daily tasks the user can accomplish. These are portrayed as interactive, “flippable tiles” that display more information, provide scientific citations, and suggest local resources.

MOBILES FOR READING

Dost: A Mobile Platform to Promote Parent Engagement and Early Childhood Education (1^st Place)
Team Members: Sneha Sheth, Sindhuja Jeyabal, Devanshi Unadkat
School: UC Berkeley
Dost will give low-income moms a leg-up on their child’s primary school readiness and amplify the impact of existing early childhood education programs. Through short, prerecorded voice messages delivered via a call to feature mobile phones, Dost offers moms a low-cost and highly scalable approach to access the knowledge they crave and unleash their child’s potential. Dost is unique because it delivers action-oriented content and can reach illiterate moms using technology already in their hands. Dost’s theory of change is to improve educational outcomes for children by empowering functionally illiterate moms to participate in their child’s education.

SCALING UP BIG IDEAS

The Somo Project (1^st Place)
Team Members: Amelia Phillips
School: UC Berkeley
The Somo Project was started to invest in social entrepreneurs committed to changing their own under-resourced communities by providing the necessary training and tools they need to succeed. In Swahili, “somo” means “to learn lessons.” The organization is called the Somo Project because of the team’s belief that talented and visionary entrepreneurs exist in the poorest settlements around the world — but their contributions are often overlooked in development initiatives. Somo identifies people with intimate knowledge of their communities and the relevant social context to address problems such as sanitation, children’s nutrition, job training, and educational opportunity. At the organization’s core is the belief that local context matters and people know their communities and what they need, but often lack the resources to grow and scale a venture. Somo enables people to find their own solutions rather than dictating what their communities need.
Feces to Fuel (2^nd Place)
Team Members: Ken Lim, Fiona Gutierrez-Dewar, Emily Woods
School: UC Berkeley
Feces to Fuel is pioneering a project that unlocks the potential of human feces and other waste streams by transforming them into an affordable household cooking fuel. Sanivation provides in-home toilets to low-income households and a service to collect and treat human waste. The project aims to create charcoal briquettes from human and agricultural waste. These briquettes can be sold for less than conventional charcoal and produce less smoke than traditional household cooking fuels. This in turn reduces the users’ exposure to toxic fumes and indoor air pollution. Simultaneously, the briquettes have a lower carbon impact than traditional fuel. They offer a renewable energy source that reduces greenhouse gas emissions and deforestation by the charcoal industry. Additionally, these briquettes have the potential to be successful in the market and provide revenue needed to complete Sanivation’s waste reuse business model.
Scaling Up the Biodiesel Project (3^rd Place)
Team Members: Andrew Cho, Christiaan Khurana, Xingkai Li, Zhi Luo
School: UC Berkeley
The goal of the Biodiesel Project is to provide UC Berkeley with a sustainable means of acquiring biodiesel as a cleaner alternative energy source for use in campus vehicles and equipment. This will be accomplished through recycling of waste cooking oil from local campus dining facilities. This self-sustaining initiative will provide a fulfilling hands-on experience for Berkeley engineers, educate Berkeley students about renewable energy resources, and reduce the consumption of fossil fuels. The process involves filtering the recycled oil and producing a biodiesel product through a chemical reaction. The biodiesel product will then be stored and made ready for campus distribution.
m-Omulimisa SMS Services: Mobile Extension Officers in Uganda (3^rd Place)
Team Members: Linlin Liang, Tian Cai
School: Michigan State University
With m-Omulimisa, farmers can use their phones to ask questions in languages that they understand and receive comprehendible feedback from extension officers in the region via text messages. Farmers have to register when they use the platform for the first time. To register, they input their district, sub-county, and full name. They also type in a language keyword to indicate which language they use. To ask a question, farmers begin a text message with their specified language keyword. Then, they type their questions in the text, and send them to 8228. Upon sending the query, the text messages are instantly delivered to a web-based platform. Registered extension officers then check and respond directly to the questions on the platform. The answers are then sent back instantly to the farmers’ phones.
Kids Write (Honorable Mention)
Team Members: Sandra “Sora” Edwards-Thro, Nick Rance, Lydia Boike
School: College of William & Mary
Through Kids Write, Haitian students in grades 1 to 4 can grow their literacy skills by reading and writing in their mother-tongue language, Haitian Creole, for 30 to 45 minutes every day. Students use tablets to download and read books from a digital library, and to write their own books. Kids Write provides training and support to these students. The project also shares exemplary student work between schools. To increase access, Kids Write loans equipment to schools and offers them a one year trial to decide whether they want to continue with the program before they start paying for equipment. Parents at participating schools pay a small fee of $6.21 per year. A recent pilot of the program found that it increased reading scores by 0.8 standard deviations, or 10 correct words per minute.
Mama-OPE (Honorable Mention)
Team Members: Besufekad Shifferaw, Olivia Koburongo, Rodney Sekate, Angella Namwase, Brian Turyabagye
School: Makerere University
The information obtained from listening to lung sounds using a microphone is limited. In order to reveal lung capacity and identify the different fluids that may be in a patient’s lungs, Mama-OPE is building upon software developed to analyze data and aid in the diagnosis of lung diseases. Health workers demonstrated the need to know the severity of diseases using the same device. In a statement about the product, a health worker at Mulago hospital said, “One of the most important things I first find out about the pneumonia patient is if they need oxygen supplementation or not and it would be great if I [could] get that using your same device.”  Mama-OPE’s product will be able to detect oxygen  saturation in the blood based on calorimetric principle.

By Sarah Bernardo

To help celebrate the 10^th anniversary of the Big Ideas competition, a record-shattering 266 applications were received. “The volume, creativity and overall quality of the proposals submitted to the contest this year was amazing — and certainly demonstrates the passion and commitment of students to making the world a better place,” said Phillip Denny, Director of the Big Ideas Contest.

On April 27, 2016, after months of working to develop their ideas, six teams were selected to present at “Pitch Day” before a packed audience at Blum Hall.  Judging the contest this year were former Big Ideas winners, Anand Kulkarni, Founder & President of LeadGenius and Nick Pearson, Founder and Executive Director of Jacaranda Health. Joining them were leaders from industry, academia and the non-profit world. These included: Jean Shia: Head of Operations, Autodesk Foundation, Paul Alivisatos: Vice Chancellor for Research, University of California, Berkeley and Senior Faculty Scientist, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Rebecca Hopkins: Deputy Director, Oakland Public Education Fund, David Phillips: Associate Vice President for Energy and Sustainability, University of California Office of the President, Jennifer Walske: Visiting Fellow at the Blum Center and Social Innovation Program Director & Assistant Professor, University of San Francisco; Danielle Cass: Tech Sector Liaison, US Global Development Lab at USAID, Sophi Martin: Director of Partnerships, Blum Center for Developing Economies, and Doug Parker: Director, California Institute for Water Resources, University of California Office of the President.

Judge Rebecca Hopkins explained the importance of supporting student ideas through Big Ideas.  “Young people are the most creative,” she said, “In the real world they tell you what you can’t do — but students think about what’s possible. They focus on what they can do.”

Despite some last minute jitters, all of the students found Pitch Day to be an incredible learning experience. Clarence Ford, a member of the FITE Film team who won first place in the Campus and Community Impact category, said, “the experience was nerve-wracking, and the three minutes were really short, but it was insightful to be able to hear the other pitches because it made me realize that the world is so big and that there are so many innovative ideas out there.”

During Pitch Day, students, faculty, and community members listened as each team gave a three minute presentation followed by a question and answer session with the judges. Each team explained the pressing social development challenge they were addressing, and included visual representations of apps, product samples, and long-term business models. The judges then asked the teams questions focused on their pilots, initial user response, sustainability, and implementation tactics.

The winning teams were stand-outs in their respective categories. Judge Doug Parker praised the Dost team for their work in developing a mobile platform for parent engagement in their children’s education.  Parker said, “The team was really down-on-the ground working directly in the communities they wanted to affect. Their project had long-term impacts for children which is important because you can really make a difference when you help individuals when they’re young.”

Judge Jennifer Walske noted that the FITE Film team addressed an important population that is often neglected—incarcerated and formerly incarcerated individuals. Walske explained, “The team addressed a clear social problem that is underserved on so many different levels. There are many institutional obstacles for a project like this to get funding, so we (the judges) felt that it was important to give them a vote of endorsement because if we don’t, who will.”

Then asked why other students should apply to the Big Ideas contest, the students emphasized that the resources and mentorship provided by Big Ideas were all important to both their project and their long-term career aspirations. Skylar Economy, team lead of the FITE Film project, stated, “The constant deadlines of the program helped us keep a good pace. Most importantly, Big Ideas helped us believe in ourselves and allowed us to view our project as a possible reality rather than some abstract concept.” Devanshi Unakdat, member of the Dost team, added, “The Big Ideas program was a great way to put our idea into practice. The feedback provided by our mentors has been a useful tool. It gave us the momentum to really transform our idea.”

The Big Ideas contest is made possible by the generous support of the Andrew and Virginia Rudd Family Foundation. We invite you to join us in celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Big Ideas contest this Wednesday, May 4 from 5:00 to 8:00 pm in B100 Blum Hall! RSVP here to attend the event.

2016 Pitch Day Winners:
Campus and Community Impact
1^st Place ($5,000): FITE Film (From Incarceration to Education) and Resource Connection (UC Berkeley) – This project is focused on the production of a documentary film that will combat recidivism in the prison system by motivating currently incarcerated individuals to seek higher education and mentorship opportunities. The creation of a structured resource connection will provide assistance to incarcerated individuals seeking to attain higher education.
2^nd Place ($3,000):  LiftEd (UC Berkeley) – LiftEd is an iPad application that enables special education professionals to measure students’ academic & behavioral performance on individualized learning goals, analyze learning trends to modify instruction and intervention methods real-time, and ultimately share student progress with districts & parents on-demand.
3^rd Place ($1,000): SafeSpace (UC Berkeley) – Poor mental health is a widespread issue plaguing college students across the country. SafeSpace is a website and mobile application for UC Berkeley undergraduates to comfortably share their similar mental health issues through an anonymous, peer-led chat.
Global Impact
1^st Place ($5,000): Dost–A Mobile Platform to Promote Parent Engagement and Early Childhood Education (UC Berkeley) – Dost will give low-income moms a leg-up on their child’s primary school readiness and amplify the impact of existing early childhood education programs. Through short, prerecorded voice messages delivered via a call to feature mobile phones, Dost offers moms a low-cost and highly scalable approach to access the knowledge they crave and unleash their child’s potential.
2^nd Place ($3,000): Safi Organics (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) – Safi Organics provides a carbon-negative soil conditioner for rural farmers who suffer from long-term crop loss due to soil degradation. Their product, Safi Sarvi, provides the essential nutrients and a biochar-based stabilizer that leads to a 30% increase in crop yield and 50% increase in income.
3^rd Place ($1,000): Open Viral Load (UC San Diego) – The Open Viral Load project aims to develop an open-source, affordable genetic assay test for HIV that can be easily modified to test other pathogenic diseases, such as tuberculosis and the Zika virus.  This project will allow low resource communities to receive the regular testing they need in order to know the status of their viral disease or to quickly diagnose patients with other pathogenic illnesses.

The Blum Center for Developing Economies is excited to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Big Ideas Contest!

The Rudd Family Foundation Big Ideas Contest offers students an opportunity to turn their ideas into action. This year saw the largest number of applications in the contest’s history with over 750 graduate and undergraduate students from across 16 schools submitted 266 proposals. On April 27, top teams will pitch their innovative projects to a panel of esteemed judges representing the US Agency for International Development, the Autodesk Foundation, and several Big Ideas winners from the past decade, for an opportunity to receive additional seed funding for their ideas.

Participating in the Big Ideas contest provides students with support and mentorship for developing their ideas. Since its launch in 2006, Big Ideas has received over 1,400 proposals, supported more than 5,000 students from 18 universities, and provided seed funding for participants that have gone on to secure over $80 million in additional funding. The Big Ideas contest is made possible through the generous support of the Rudd Family Foundation, as well as prize sponsors including UCOP’s Carbon Neutrality Initiative, the U.S. Global Development Lab, the All Children Reading Grand Challenge, the Global Center for Food System Innovations, the Center for Information Technology in the Interests of Society, the Berkeley Food Institute, and the Associated Students of the University of California.

Among the students competing this year’s Grand Prize Pitch Day is Skylar Economy, a senior at UC Berkeley’s Department of Film & Media. Economy is the team lead of From Incarceration to Education Film and Resource Connection, which aims to produce a documentary film as well as provide resources to combat recidivism among formerly incarcerated people.

Economy says,”When we were in the very beginning stages of talking about producing a larger-scale documentary project about formerly incarcerated students, this goal seemed far-fetched and frankly unattainable as a student. Applying to Big Ideas was quite possibly the best choice we could have made in order to make this project a reality. We have grown so much through goal-setting, proposal writing, mentorship, and guidance. I’m so thankful to have been selected as a finalist and first place project in the Art & Social Change category, because I now know that we really can have a positive impact on people’s lives—and on the world around us.”

Economy’s project represents just one of the diverse topics that will be covered in the fifth annual Big Ideas Grand Prize Pitch Day. Teams are tackling issues as wide-ranging as addressing mental health issues on the Berkeley campus, developing a carbon-negative soil conditioner for East African farmers, and creating an open-source, affordable genetic test for HIV in Mexico.

The Grand Prize Pitch Day, which is open to the campus community and the public, will be held on April 27, 5:00 pm-8:00 pm, in B100 Blum Hall. (RSVP requested). At this exciting event, contestants will deliver three-minute pitches followed by a question and answer session with the judges and the audience. While the judges deliberate, attendees will be able to network with students and prominent leaders from various Bay Area industries. Audience members will also have the opportunity to learn about all the ideas in this year’s contest and vote for their favorites through the “Big Vote” feature of the event. Food and drinks will be served during the evening, and the Grand Prize winners will be announced at 8:00 pm. Please join us at this inspiring event to cheer on your favorite Big Idea and celebrate the accomplishments of all the finalists!

On May 4, Big Ideas will be holding its annual Awards Celebration, open to the public, from 5-8pm in B100 Blum Hall. This event brings together the entire Big Ideas community to mark the conclusion of the 2015-2016 contest. This year represents the 10th Anniversary of the Big Ideas Contest and will include a demo session with past winners, a poster session featuring the this year’s award winning projects and plenty of opportunities for attendees to network and learn. RSVP requested

2016 Pitch Day Contestants:
Campus and Community Impact Pitch Round
FITE Film (From Incarceration to Education) and Resource Connection (UC Berkeley) – This project is focused on the production of a documentary film that will combat recidivism in the prison system by motivating currently incarcerated individuals to seek higher education and mentorship opportunities. The creation of a structured resource connection will provide assistance to  incarcerated individuals seeking to attain higher education.
LiftEd (UC Berkeley) – LiftEd is an iPad application that enables special education professionals to measure students’ academic & behavioral performance on individualized learning goals, analyze learning trends to modify instruction and intervention methods real-time, and ultimately share student progress with districts & parents on-demand.
SafeSpace (UC Berkeley) – Poor mental health is a widespread issue plaguing college students across the country. SafeSpace is a website and mobile application for UC Berkeley undergraduates to comfortably share their similar mental health issues; it is an anonymous, peer-led chat.
Global Impact Pitch Round
Dost: A Mobile Platform to Promote Parent Engagement (UC Berkeley) – Dost, or “Friend” in multiple languages, is a mobile platform that helps low-income parents in developing countries engage in their child’s education from day one. Dost is unique because it delivers action-oriented content to functionally illiterate moms through the technology already in their hands.
Open Viral Load (UC San Diego) – The Open Viral Load project aims to develop an open-source, affordable genetic assay test for HIV that can be easily modified to test other pathogenic diseases, such as tuberculosis and the Zika virus.  This project will allow low resource communities to receive the regular testing they need in order to know the status of their viral disease or to quickly diagnose patients with other pathogenic illnesses.

Safi Organics (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) – Safi Organics provides a carbon-negative soil conditioner for rural farmers who suffer from long-term crop loss due to soil degradation. Their product, Safi Sarvi, provides the essential nutrients and a biochar-based stabilizer that leads to a 30% increase in crop yield and 50% increase in income.

For additional information:
(510) 666-9120
bigideas@berkeley.edu

By Nicholas Bobadilla

2015 Global Health Big Ideas winner Hombres Verdaderos aims to improve health outcomes by stopping domestic violence before it starts. Set to launch in March, the program will engage young, at-risk adolescent boys, ages 11 to 14 years old, from districts in Barranquilla, Colombia.

Co-led by UC Berkeley Master of Public Health candidate Nerissa Nance and her friends and colleagues Jairo Martinez and Vanessa Sanchez Conquett, Hombres Verdaderos is a product of passion and diligence that developed over several years. The idea for the organization grew out of Nance’s conversations with Martinez and Conquett, two psychologists who work with the Ministry for Women and Gender Equity in Barranquilla. Together, they discussed ideas to collaborate on a nonprofit organization dedicated to preventing domestic violence by focusing on youth populations. Nance also mulled over ideas with Aarthi Rao, a student in Berkeley’s MBA program, about a domestic violence prevention program that combined their interests in health and behavioral economics. With the support of Big Ideas, and project mentor Bridget Brennan, the group came together to create a concrete design for Hombres Verdaderos.

“We wanted to address the upstream risk factors of violence,” Nance said. “We wanted to engage young boys and expand on existing programs.” She is adamant about domestic violence’s relevance as a public health issue. “Domestic violence isn’t what people think of when they think of public health, but I see domestic violence as an issue that affects the health outcomes of all genders. That’s what we had in mind when writing the proposal.”

Through workshops and youth-driven media campaigns, the boys in the program learn about domestic violence prevention and become advocates for change. Participants undertake a month-long series of play-based workshops on relevant themes, including power, oppression, and the effects of gender expectations. The project will enlist older adolescent volunteers to help lead the workshops and create positive role models for the boys.

Hombres Verdaderos will partner with a local organization called Promotora de Excelencia Personal (PEP) that provides youth the skillset to become responsible leaders in the community. “We identified PEP as a great program, because they have youth that are motivated and want to be successful,” said Nance. The current cohort will then train the next cohort, and eventually Hombres Verdaderos will recruit from other youth development programs within the Ministry for Women and Gender Equity.
Nance recently returned from Colombia where she, Martinez and Conquett were building rapport with PEP and the Ministry for Women and Gender Equity. Their ultimate hope is to scale up Hombres Verdaderos regionally through the ministry, but recent structural changes have fenced this goal and forced the team to seek out new ways of scaling. This isn’t the first set of hurdles the project has had to overcome. In December, the team put the program on hold due to complications in developing the curriculum. Nance considered handing it off to a third party, but found it difficult given how much the team had already invested.

Now set to begin in April, the program will consist of two month-long phases. The first is educational and will engage participants in a series of workshops that explore gender roles, violence and the potential for change. The primary focus will be improving bystander intervention among young men, which has proven an effective and productive method of preventing domestic violence. Nance says, “The psychological literature says bystander intervention moves past blame and shifts toward a more positive role we can play in preventing domestic violence.”

Pre and post-program surveys, along with interviews and focus groups, will be conducted among participants to measure impact. The team will also issue follow-up surveys six months after implementation to test for attenuation of program effects.

Following the first phase, the youth participants will recruit a second cohort through social media and arts-based campaigns. This approach will allow them to engage with the community, integrate the freshly learned ideas into their own value system, and take on leadership roles among their peers. The long-term benefits of Hombres Verdaderos will be based largely on the strength of peer influence.
“When youth are teaching youth, they get to have this feeling of ownership over the program,” Nance says. “Once you pass a certain age, the people you look up to start to be your peers, especially during this period of early adolescence. Youth seek to belong to something and feel good about their positions relative to their peers.”  Nance stresses the importance of targeting male youth through the program, saying that peer influence in a single-sex environment will have a large impact. “Boys bonding and going through the program with other boys will begin to shift the paradigm of what it means to be cool,” she says. “That happens in a very different way in a single-gendered environment than in a co-ed situation.”

(Hombres Verdaderos recently received a spot in the Clinton Global Initiative University. Donate to their crowdfunding campaign and help them advance to the next round!)

By Nicholas Bobadilla

When it comes to public health, changing behavior sometimes requires coming up with creative incentives. That’s what 2014 Big Ideas Winners Jacqueline Nguyen and Mark Webb had in mind when designing their clean-burning stove, KleanCook, for populations in the developing world. The stove reduces smoke and uses less wood—meaning healthier lungs for its users, less deforestation, and lower greenhouse gas emissions. But the market for health comes with a unique set of challenges.

“It’s difficult to make an argument for latent health exposure, especially for a disease that may arise 20-30 years down the road,” said Webb. The solution was in the stove’s ability to power a phone and, if needed, the user’s home. It’s often expensive in the developing world to do either. “You can’t sell health, but you can sell electricity,” said Webb. “The utility of charging the phone is the most sought after utility for the consumer. That’s why people buy the stove. For us, it’s a means to an end. It’s a way to create demand for a stove that improves health.”

The KleanCook stove is powered by a thermo-electric generator that works by moving heat between two regions. Heating one region and cooling the other generates a heat flow, which creates a charge separation in the thermoelectric material. This produces the electricity that powers the stove. Under optimal conditions, a typical thermo-electric generator produces about 8 watts of power. KleanCook generates up to 15, a number that far surpassed the team’s expectations.

The idea began when Webb wanted to create a stove that could provide a hot shower for campers who could only bathe with cold water in the wilderness. Fascinated by the idea, Nguyen teamed up with Webb, and the pair began collaborating on the first model of the “Power Shower.” It wasn’t until Nguyen’s mother suggested the device’s potential in the Philippines that the pair considered its benefits to the developing world. Around the same time, Nguyen discovered Big Ideas, which provided the incentive and support to transform the Power Shower into the first generation of KleanCook.

The team has come a long way since then. After winning the Energy and Resources category of Big Ideas in 2014, Webb and Nguyen distributed ten models of KleanCook in the Philippines. The pilot was successful, but it came with many logistical and technical hurdles. “KleanCook 1.0 worked very well but we learned a lot from it. It produced too much power and was over-engineered because we were in a rush for the pilot study. We learned in the Philippines that as much as you plan for something, there are certain cases you can’t account for,” said Webb.

Webb and Nguyen are working closely with Dr. Amod Pokhrel, a project scientist in the School of Public Health, as well as Professor David Levine of the Haas School of Business to deploy 250 units of their KleanCook stove in Nepal this Spring. They made this decision after Lakpa Sherpa, a Nepali undergraduate researcher, inquired about including the stove in his research on improving health outcomes in his home country.
After collaborating with Lakpa and his mentors, Drs. Pokhrel and Levine, the team aimed to deploy the stoves in Spring 2015. However, they were forced to rethink their strategy after an earthquake devastated Nepal last April. “It [the earthquake] redirected our focus from doing a study to providing relief for victims. People really needed the stoves because they didn’t have power,” Webb said. “The goal wasn’t to sell anymore. It was to find families that really needed it.”

Logistical hurdles, which included delivering the stove to affected areas and circumventing the Indian embargo placed on Nepal in August created more complications and stalled the project, but Webb and Nguyen used the extra time to improve KleanCook’s design.

KleanCook is now back on track and will be shipped in the coming weeks. Once the components arrive, Webb will travel to Nepal to train three engineers on how to use and assemble the stove. These experts will become the managers of the operation. From there, Professor Levine will use survey data to determine the balance between the health benefit and the amount people can pay for the stove. Professor Amod and Lakpa will market and distribute the stove at prices that vary based on income brackets, but guarantee they will break even on aggregate.

Looking beyond Nepal, Webb and Nguyen are optimistic but pragmatic about the market for KleanCook, which they believe exists primarily in the developing world. “This kind of product is only desired in a meaningful way in developing countries. That’s the only viable market where there’s need and demand for it,” said Webb.

Webb hopes the stove will catch the eye of institutional investors who can make large scale purchases and turn to the stove as a first choice for distribution among vulnerable populations: “I see the stove long term as being a staple investment of institutional buyers. Once we build its credibility through these initial rollouts, we can approach institutional investors. The goal is to get it to a place where they see it as a go-to thing.”

By Sybil Lewis

In 2011, Nick Pearson was working for Acumen Fund seeking to invest in businesses serving low-income populations in Kenya, when he felt compelled to start a social enterprise for improving maternal and infant health care.

Pearson’s decision was influenced by his wife, Megan Huchko, an obstetrician on the UCSF faculty who had worked extensively in Western Kenya. Together, they saw that even though the number of women delivering babies in health facilities had grown in Kenya, maternal mortality in peri-urban or slum communities remained high: 700 deaths per 100,000 live births, compared to the national average of 360.16, and a hundred times higher than some countries in Western Europe.

The aim of Jacaranda Health was to recognize that the main problem facing poor women was not a lack of access to health facilities, but a lack of quality facilities and skilled care.

“In the last 20 years there has been a strong focus on facility-based care across all income levels,” said Pearson, who holds a MBA from UC Berkeley. “The problem for the next generation is not that women aren’t going to the hospital, but that when they do go the quality is poor and they are often disrespected.”

Indeed, a 2006 study from the African Population and Health Research Center found 70 percent of births in Nairobi’s peri-urban areas take place in health facilities, but only 48 percent of women deliver in facilities meeting minimum standards. Women reported being physically and verbally abused by healthcare practitioners during their maternal visits, discouraging them from returning for postpartum check-ups.  Other reports found inadequate resources in public health facilities, resulting in understaffed facilities and overworked practitioners. Kenya falls below the international minimum threshold of 23 doctors, nurses, and midwives per 10,000 people to deliver essential maternal and child health services.

“Jacaranda Health emerged from a confluence of understanding health care through the eyes of women and identifying the gaps in the business landscape,” said Pearson. “This was a good opportunity to use business models to address clinical service gaps.”

In 2011, Jacaranda Health started operations as a mobile clinic providing antenatal care. By 2012, it had opened its first maternity clinic in Ruiru, a community east of Nairobi, after receiving feedback from women that they preferred a fixed clinic because it better met their expectations.

In September 2014, Jacaranda Health opened its second maternity hospital in Kahawa West, a community on the outskirts of Nairobi, with new facilities to perform cesarean sections and other emergency care. Since Jacaranda’s founding in 2011, the two clinics have served over 7,000 women and delivered over 900 babies with over a 99 percent survival rate. The nonprofit employs 80 people in Kenya.

Jacaranda Health’s model is built on the principal of patient-centered design and currently provide antenatal, obstetric, postnatal, and family planning services to its patients. In addition to providing medical services, the Kenya-based organization strives to be a “global innovation laboratory,” adapting and integrating the best clinical protocols, technologies, health information systems, and business approaches. Clinic staff focus on adapting internationally recognized medical protocols to the Kenyan context, to ensure that women receive quality care as well as care that is respectful and dignified.

“In the American health system, quality care is defined in seven pillars and one of them is respectful care, which is especially important when dealing with maternity care,” Pearson said. “From focus groups, I heard stories of women delivering their babies in public and private hospitals in Kenya, but being treated terribly by medical personnel who lacked empathy. This has an impact on women’s dignity, self-respect, and empowerment, preventing them from seeking further care.”

By adapting recommendations from international organizations, such as the World Health Organization and the Population Council, providers at Jacaranda Health ensure that women build a rapport with their providers while also receiving high quality of care. Some of the evidence-based protocols include checklists, evidence-based algorithms for clinic operations, and regular clinic case and chart reviews with staff. Jacaranda Health also incorporates a Japanese philosophy called Kaizen, commonly known as “Lean Methodologies,” which relies on small, continuous improvements to boost productivity and reduce waste.

Jacaranda has been able to succeed with its patient-centered approach by adapting human resources. Nurse aides conduct non-clinical care, and community health workers manage home visits and client education, granting Jacaranda’s nurses more time to tend to individual patients.
With the goal of being a health care think tank, as Pearson describes it, Jacaranda has incorporated various technological innovations to further improve its client experience. Because over 80 percent of clients have mobile phones, the clinics send SMS text messages to schedule appointments and send postpartum family planning information. Other simple uses of technology include a Whatsapp messaging group for groups of prenatal clients to ask questions and share their experiences.

Jacaranda supports itself through grants and client fees, with a goal of having its maternity facilities become self-sustaining from earned revenue. According to Pearson, normal delivery costs are about US$90, significantly less than other private clinics in Nairobi. Furthermore, in 2014 Jacaranda Health was certified to accept Kenya’s National Health Insurance Fund, reducing out of pocket costs for many clients.

While the majority of services provided are pregnancy-related, Jacaranda Health is expanding its family planning offerings. In 2012, Sirina Keesara, a UCSF medical student now doing her ob-gyn residency at the University of Chicago, won a $9,000 award from the Big Ideas@Berkeley competition in the Global Poverty Alleviation category to build Jacaranda Health’s family planning portfolio.

Keesara arrived in Kenya in August 2012, and implemented a human rights-based counseling process for nurses to better inform patients about contraceptive decisions. The process is based on the Population Council’s Balanced Counseling Strategy (BCS+), which allows mothers to lead the discussion as they consider their option. Keesara extended her stay in Kenya until August 2014 and increasingly focused on postpartum family planning, which is crucial to initiate six weeks after delivery. According to a study published in the International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, the ideal interval between pregnancies is 18 months and women with shorter birth spacing times were twice as likely to have a premature birth.

“In Kenya, almost all family planning resources are easily available, but what was missing was excellent counseling on the different options and the potential side effects to help women make the best decision for themselves,” Keesara said.

Jacaranda Health is also trying to involve male partners in family planning decisions by providing educational materials tailored to fathers’ needs and by encouraging open discussion.

To scale up its health impact, Jacaranda is working in partnership with public hospitals to adapt its tools for delivering high-quality care. In 2015, the organization launched its first partnership with two hospitals outside Nairobi and will expand its partnerships in 2016.

“To achieve scale and impact, we plan to have a few of our own maternity centers of excellence to act as drivers of innovation, and then to work with the government to adapt and replicate quality care in public hospitals,” Pearson said.

Blum Center News

In the summer of 2012, UC Berkeley undergraduate Amelia Hopkins Phillips traveled to the Kibera slum in Nairobi, Kenya to teach at a grade school. Over the next three years, the Development Studies student found herself yearning to return to the informal settlement, where 250,000 residents live in less than one square mile and lack basic services and infrastructure such as education, healthcare, and clean water.

Like many Kibera visitors, Phillips was disturbed by the high level of poverty she saw. But she found herself attracted to the place, because she encountered several people who were remarkably inspiring and entrepreneurial. On her second visit in 2013, Phillips met Joshwa Tambo, a Kibera native who grew up in a family of seven and, like most of his neighbors, struggled to make ends meet. Tambo attended the University of Nairobi and majored in development. After graduating, he started an organization called the Kibera Community Empowerment Organization, or KCEO, which sells products made from recycled materials and uses the proceeds for educational sponsorships.

To Phillips, Tambo epitomized the self-help spirit that she feels is Kibera’s best bet for social and economic mobility and is often overlooked by development programs and foreign NGOS. And the more she got to know Kibera, the more against-all-odds entrepreneurs she met—people like Rita Omukhango, who improves childhood nutrition by growing and selling indigenous vegetables to Kibera schools, and Joseph Odero and Stanley Kagunza, who teach computer skills to local residents. Phillips saw that what these entrepreneurs lacked was not ideas or energy, but investment capital.

So in 2014, she, Tambo, and George Rzepecki, a young San Francisco venture capitalist, applied for and won a Big Ideas@Berkeley award of $10,000. The funding allowed them to start The Somo Project, whose mission is to identify, train, fund, and mentor people looking to drive social change by building enterprises in their own low-income urban communities. In its first year, The Somo Project—”somo” means “to learn lessons” in Swahili—has provided $8,177 to support Tambo, Omukhango, Odero, and Kagunza and three other Kibera businesses as well as spent $5,210 to set up a co-working facility.

“The funding provided by Big Ideas allowed us to invest in a co-working facility for our entrepreneurs and the capital goods needed for them to start up their businesses,” said Phillips. “For example, we purchased a wagon and a pull cart for Rita to deliver her produce to schools as well as the computers needed for Stanley to start teaching programming skills to youth in Kibera.”

In July 2016, the Somo Project intends to launch a new class of entrepreneurs. One of its focus areas is to identify high potential women and youth, populations that, Phillips said, are often overlooked and for whom business opportunities are scarce.

“We call our organization The Somo Project because we believe that talent is widely distributed, and visionary entrepreneurs exist in informal settlements around the world,” said Phillips. “Right now, their lessons and learnings are often overlooked in development initiatives, but we hope that soon will not be the case.”

By Sybil Lewis

Sanitation and the removal of human waste are among the biggest environmental health issues of our time. According to UNICEF and the World Health Organization, 70 percent of the population in Sub-Saharan Africa lacks access to adequate sanitation—and in Kenya, sanitation coverage is available to only 41 percent of the country, largely because the government cannot afford or is not incentivized to cover the high costs of building pipes and sewage treatment plants in low-income areas. This leads to open defecation, fecal contaminated water, and disease.

To deal with this crisis, many non-governmental organizations are trying to come up with affordable and sustainable toilet solutions. One UC Berkeley student team and Big Ideas@Berkeley winner has been working in Kenya not just to increase sanitation services but to turn human waste into an energy solution—what they call “turning poo to power.”

Appropriately named Feces to Fuel, the four-member Cal team has been collaborating with Sanivation, a UC Berkeley- and Kenya-based organization that provides in-home toilets and waste collection services. Feces to Fuel’s plan is to collect fecal waste from Sanivation’s facility in Naivasha, Kenya and turn it into charcoal briquettes that can be sold at an affordable price and used as cooking oil.

According to Catherine Berner, a UC Berkeley graduate and member of the Feces to Fuel team, the creation of charcoal briquettes addresses another major issue affecting low-income populations in Kenya and throughout East Africa—the financial, environmental, and health costs associated with using traditional forms of cooking oil.

Berner, who majored in Environmental Engineering Science, explains that in many semi-urban and urban communities in Kenya the only available and affordable fuel sources are wood and charcoal, which have become increasingly unaffordable. Over the past decade, energy prices in Kenya have increased five-fold, and in Naivasha families are spending over 30 percent of their income on cooking fuel, hindering their ability to move out of poverty. Furthermore, burning crude forms of energy produces hazardous gasses, which are harmful not only to the environment but lead to serious health problems—more than half the deaths of children worldwide under age five are due to inhaling household air pollution.

Sanivation and Feces to Fuel have combined these seemingly unrelated problems to create a solution that both improves sanitation services and provides affordable fuel for low-income families.

But the enterprise is still very young. Sanivation launched its sanitation services in only September 2014. From its facilities in Naivasha, the social enterprise has been installing free in-home toilets, called Blue Boxes, for a $7 monthly subscription that includes twice weekly waste collection. In its first four months of operation, Sanivation signed up 57 customers for its in-home toilet and has maintained a 98 percent re-subscription rate. It aims to reach a million users by 2020.

Also over the past year, Sanivation has expanded its business model to turn the collected waste into energy, which is where Feces to Fuel comes in. Feces to Fuel is helping Sanivation identify and implement the best technology and method to transform human waste into a reliable fuel source. The project—which includes Cal students Emily Woods, Ken Lim, and Fiona Gutierrez-Dewar—is funded largely by an $8,000 prize from the 2015 Big Ideas@Berkeley competition in the Clean & Sustainable Energy Alternatives category.

“Before collaborating with Feces to Fuel, Sanivation was using solar concentrators to heat up the feces because their original plan was to turn waste into fertilizer, yet people were asking if they could use it to cook food,” said Berner. “Sanivation replied no because it was not safe yet, but what they realized is that there is a huge need for fuel created from treated feces.”

Andrew Foote and Emily Woods, the founders of Sanivation who developed their model while undergraduate students at Georgia Institute of Technology, said they have spent the past four years trying to figure out a reliable method of sanitizing feces using solar energy. Woods is now a PhD student in the Energy and Resources Group at UC Berkeley and Foote works fulltime on Sanivation.

In 2014, Sanivation started to develop a process that combines two waste forms—agricultural and human—to produce biomass-based briquettes for use in household stoves. The team now collects rose waste from surrounding flower farms, which otherwise would be burnt or discarded, and carbonizes the waste to create an energy dense charcoal dust. The rose waste biomass is then combined with human feces, collected from Sanivation’s in-home toilets, and heated up with solar concentrators to inactivate all pathogens, rendering the feces safe for use. The mixture of rose waste and feces is then placed in a machine, which turns the mixture into small briquettes.

According to Berner, the briquettes sold in Kenya are usually made with local organic waste or charcoal dust from traditional charcoal with trash-slurry as the binder. This combination produces little energy and lots of smoke, making it difficult to compete with charcoal. Whereas the energy-dense rose waste and high calorific value of feces used by Sanivation and Feces to Fuel produces briquettes that emit less smoke and burn longer than traditional biomass briquettes.

“Around the world and specifically in Sub-Saharan Africa, a lot of people are working on carbonizing agricultural waste into fuel and reusing feces for fuel,” said Woods. “We are carbonizing rose waste and using feces as the binder, which has never been done before.”

Other feces-to-fuel efforts have turned human waste into biogas, biodiesel, and fertilizer. Notable examples include the feces-biogas powered bus in the U.K and bio centers in Kenyan slums, which turn feces into biogas to power public showers. No other method, however, has used human feces to make briquettes for cooking.

While the number of feces-to-fuel innovations is growing, there is still a lack of research on the composition of feces and its potential for fuel. To develop its model, Sanivation relied on the work of few research organizations, such as the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (Eawag).

“I think that there is little research on the composition of feces, largely because of social stigma,” Berner said. “Human waste is just seen as that, waste, and not as a resource. For our model to work, we must find and show the value of waste.”

Sanivation conducted a beta test in mid 2014, in which 2,000 kg of briquettes were tested by families in Naivasha and the Kakuma refugee camp, along with small businesses and some industrial settings, to determine the best markets. Feedback from the beta test showed high customer satisfaction with the quality of the fuel; it also revealed that people are not uncomfortable with the idea of cooking with materials made with human feces. This is attributable to the fact that the briquettes do not look or smell like feces, said Berner.

Further analysis from the beta test showed that small businesses, such as hospitals and schools, are the key group for Sanivation to target, because they can provide consistent, mid-size orders, said Berner. However, Sanivation plans to continue working on sanitation in refugee camps in East Africa. The social enterprise received funding from the CDC’s Innovation Fund to design a system in the Kakuma Refugee Camp on the Kenya-South Sudan border. As part of the pilot for the toilet implementation, 30 families in the refugee camp tested their briquettes over a period of eight weeks.
During the summer of 2015, Feces to Fuel focused on improving the quality and manufacturing capability of the briquettes. In Naivasha, Woods, Berner, and Gutierrez-Dewar, implemented the Adam Retort, a carbonizer with high-energy efficiency and low pollution, which has been producing over 300 kgs of charcoal dust per week, according to Berner. The Berkeley team also helped Sanivation build out their waste treatment site and a greenhouse to study the potential of making fuel from dry waste.

Meanwhile in the U.S., Ken Lim, a UC Berkeley junior and member of the Feces to Fuel team, conducted research at MIT with experts in the briquette and charcoal field. Sanivation’s feces treatment method had already been proven to be safe for human use by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention; Lim’s role at MIT was to conduct more research to understand the composition of feces and its potential for fuel. The team is currently conducting further research on its briquettes at the Chemisense lab.

One of Sanivation’s main aspirations is to improve environmental health. If its briquettes can be sold at 60 percent the cost of charcoal, Woods said they will reduce the demand for traditional charcoal, offsetting the industry’s environmental impact that has left Kenya with 5 percent of its historic forest cover and contributed to climate change.

“We estimate that each ton of our briquettes saves 88 trees from deforestation,” said Berner. “Briquetting is taking off in Kenya. If we are able to prove our model, it will bring more attention to the briquetting industry and help replace the large demand for unsustainable charcoal.”