There are many problems in various areas of the world: poverty, inadequate healthcare, and a lack of natural resources, to name a few. Yet with sufficient help, the affected communities themselves can stand up to inequality, poverty, and disease by having the ability to solve their own problems. Future Scientist was founded with the belief that science education can provide people with the ability to solve many of the problems that affect the communities they live in. Future Scientist provides immediate technical resources to those in need through community-based projects. Scaling up, Future Scientist will be focusing on two projects: developing an international medical rotation in partnership with UCSF and starting partnerships between K-12 schools in the U.S. and Peru.
Current water-heating technologies in developing countries are either expensive or have poor quality that increase health and environmental risks. CalSolAgua (CSA) designed a simple, yet patentable, low cost solar water heating system capable of reducing energy costs and carbon emissions for households in developing countries. CSA’s solar water heater can sell for onethird of the price of competing water tank heaters and less than one-eighth the cost of existing solar water heaters. Additionally, it will reduce carbon emissions by over 90 million tons, which is equivalent to taking 17 million cars off the roads. As a 2008 Big Ideas award recipient, CSA has made considerable progress in developing its technology, partnerships and business model. The team will build off this foundation by launching sales in Guatemala and preparing to launch in Mexico City through market research and test installations, to be followed by expansion to Brazil, China and India.
