Globally, 1 in 3 people still do not have access to a toilet, causing over 3.6 million water related, preventable deaths each year. In sub-Saharan Africa, the number of people without access to safely managed sanitation continues to grow. ElectroSan is reimagining the global sanitation problem as an opportunity. If disposal and treatment of human waste can be made profitable, the generated revenue can be used towards the cost of providing sanitation services and ultimately can help alleviate poverty. ElectroSan’s ion exchange technology has been demonstrated to create a valuable fertilizer end-product from human urine. Through a partnership with a local social venture called Sanergy, ElectroSan can meet the high demand for fertilizer in the Kenyan market, addressing sanitation needs for low-income communities like Mukuru while instilling a self-sustainable sanitation solution.
Across Burkina Faso and Africa, the inadequacy of skills in the workplace greatly contributes to the non-utilization of the continent’s human potential. This issue, rooted in the inadequacy of the education students receive in schools, explains their low employability and lack of skills to innovate. LEAD emerges in this context with a mission to prepare students for the workplace in Africa. The school will offer a unique curriculum aimed at immersing students in general education, as well as practical and technical education, all in a framework focused on developing entrepreneurial thought and action. LEAD will nurture students who have the skills required for successful entry in the workforce, and who will use their entrepreneurial skills and knowledge to innovate on the technical and practical skills they learn in the school. LEAD aims to graduate not just qualified job seekers for Burkina Faso and the continent, but also job creators.
There will be one million unfilled technical jobs in 2020. There are 2,220,300 people in the U.S. prison system. Opportunity Through Data hopes to address this gap in human capital while simultaneously reducing recidivism rates in California prisons and increasing the number of women, especially minority women, in technical roles. The project is centered around a ten week certificate course on data science for inmates who have attained their high school diploma or GED. The course, taught by university students and industry volunteers, will connect women to lucrative data analysis jobs upon release from prison. Throughout the course, participants will learn statistics and computer science, and they will complete projects that can be used to bolster their resumes upon release. Opportunity Through Data will develop key industry partnerships to place program graduates in jobs, thus reducing recidivism.
Currently at UC Berkeley marginalized students receive little to no mentorship or resources to conduct research. Students of color perform low rates of research and campus research programs have low acceptance rates of underrepresented students. Of the 54 undergraduate research programs on campus, 12 are directly for first-generation, low-income, historically underrepresented students – however these programs often have limited resources to offer and/or limited space. Mentorship for underrepresented students is also lacking, with university faculty consisting of few scholars of color. Through a series of workshops, UROC will equip students with key skillsets for conducting research, including: designing research questions, creating literature reviews, analyzing primary archives, and designing methodologies.
AsphyxiAlert addresses the need for a tracheostomy alarm system that alerts caregivers in the event of accidental tube dislodgement and tube occlusion. AsphyxiAlert’s dual purpose device houses sensing technology to warn against these two emergencies, with the ability to add extra features for the home consumer. In the case of airway compromise due to a tube dislodgement or blockage, the device will remotely display critical warnings to a personal electronic device or nursing station module. Using big data, the team will tailor the algorithm for each patient’s breathing to personalize the system. This safety device is for home and hospital/rehab facility use in both children and adults. While saving lives is AsphyxiAlert’s primary goal, this device can prevent costly hospitalization, consumption of resources and provide an early warning system as an FDA approved medical device.
Suturing is a low-complexity yet technical and time-intensive step of every open surgical procedure. In recent years, few innovations in wound closure have worked to improve the process of closing open incisions. The QuickStitch device takes an innovative approach to enhancing the efficiency of the hand-suturing process, which is considered the gold standard in wound closure. By automating the delivery of the needle through the tissue, the tying of the surgical knot, and the cutting of the suture tail, QuickStitch helps save precious and costly OR time by accelerating and simplifying the wound closure process. The device can be utilized in the closure of any layer of tissue and promises the same quality of wound closure outcomes as hand-suturing. Most importantly, QuickStitch will decrease time spent suturing by more than 75% and therefore will reduce patient risk by decreasing time spent under anesthesia.
Opi-Aid is a protein-based diagnostic for cheaper and more sensitive opioid detection. With over 289 million opioid prescriptions written each year in the U.S. and the public’s eye on the “silent epidemic” of addiction, there is a growing need for drug testing to better control the misuse and abuse of opioids. Currently, opioid testing involves an immunoassay screen; however, the screening antibodies are primarily designed to bind morphine and its derivatives, resulting in large false positive and false negative rates and leading to unnecessary confirmatory testing. The Opi-Aid leverages the binding properties of the opioid receptor; thus, this technology is sensitive not only to all current opioid drugs, but also to future opioid derivatives and analogs. In streamlining and improving the opioid testing process, Opi-Aid will help providers and patients safely alleviate and manage pain.
More than 18 million people in the US are currently at risk of suffering from lead poisoning due to the high amounts of lead in their drinking water. This is usually contained through the slow and natural development of a scale in lead pipes; however, depending on the scale composition and water quality, this scale may dissolve, exposing the population to the deleterious health effects of lead. Once the scale dissolves, it takes years for it to form again, causing well-known health crises like that in Flint, MI. The team has developed a novel, fast and cost-effective technology to solve this problem, termed ALPS (Accelerated Lead Pipe Scale-buildup), an electrochemical method that accelerates the development of a protective scale in lead pipes. By providing an effective and accessible method for controlling lead in drinking water, ALPS will prevent health hazards like that of Flint, MI.
Social isolation is a prevalent issue known to cause loneliness, depression, and other health ramifications in the growing population of elderly. While some community programs for isolated elders exist, very few are effective or accessible. Forget Me Not is an intergenerational nonprofit organization that tackles this issue by partnering seniors with teen volunteers in weekly companionship phone calls. Seniors simply sign up for the program and are immediately paired with a trained volunteer who calls them every week. The program allows any older adult to participate with the only requirement being access to a telephone, thus eliminating any physical, geographic, or technological constraints. The calls are mutually beneficial and conducive to the formation of lasting meaningful bonds.
