In economically advantaged nations, it’s laborious to think about a time when electrical lighting wasn’t obtainable in almost each residence, enterprise, and public facility. However in response to the World Financial Discussion board, the solar stays the first gentle supply for greater than 1 billion folks worldwide.
Often called gentle poverty, the shortage of entry to dependable, ample, synthetic gentle is skilled by most of the world’s poorest folks. They depend on unsafe, inefficient lighting sources reminiscent of candles and kerosene lamps to carry out duties reminiscent of learning, cooking, working, and doing family chores after nightfall.
Overcoming the stark distinction in residing situations is the main focus of IEEE Good Lighting’s Let’s Make Mild competitors.
Open to anybody 18 or older, the competition seeks modern lighting applied sciences that may be reasonably priced, accessible, and sustainable for folks now residing in excessive poverty.
The entry that finest responds to the problem—growing a lighting system that’s dependable and grid-independent and could be regionally manufactured and repaired—will likely be awarded a US $3,000 prize. The second prize is $2,000, and the third-place finisher receives $1,000.
The deadline for submissions is 1 November.
The competition’s origin
The Let’s Make Mild competitors was born out of a presentation on international lighting points, together with gentle poverty, given to IEEE Life Fellow John Nelson, then chair of IEEE Good Village, and IEEE Fellow Georges Zissis, former chair of the IEEE Future Instructions Committee.
Desirous to know extra about gentle poverty, Nelson forwarded the presentation to Toby Cumberbatch, who has intensive expertise in growing sensible options for communities going through the problem. Cumberbatch, an IEEE senior member, is a professor emeritus {of electrical} engineering on the Cooper Union, in New York Metropolis. For years, he taught his first-year engineering college students learn how to create know-how to assist underserved communities.
“A successful design must be usable by individuals who don’t even know what an on-off change is.” —Toby Cumberbatch
Cumberbatch’s candid response was that the concepts introduced didn’t adequately deal with the wants of impoverished finish customers he and his college students had been making an attempt to assist.
That led Zissis to create the Let’s Make Mild competitors in hopes that it could ignite a spark within the bigger IEEE neighborhood to develop applied sciences that would really serve those that want it most. He appointed Cumberbatch as co-chair of the competitors committee.
Understanding the wealth hole
Final yr’s entries highlighted a big hole in understanding the components behind gentle poverty, Cumberbatch says. The components embody restricted electrical grid entry and the shortcoming to afford all however probably the most rudimentary merchandise. Cumberbatch says he and his college students have even encountered communities with nonmonetary economies.
Previous entries have failed to handle the core problem of offering sensible and user-friendly lighting options.
Reflecting on some latest submissions, Cumberbatch famous a basic disconnect. “The entries included charging stations for electrical autos and proposals to make use of lasers to gentle streets,” he says. “A successful design must be usable by individuals who don’t even know what an on-off change is.”
To make sure this yr’s contestants higher deal with the issue, IEEE Future Instructions launched a video illustrating the realities of poverty and the important qualities {that a} profitable lighting resolution should possess, reminiscent of being protected, clear, accessible, and reasonably priced.
“With the proper assets,” the video’s narrator says, “folks residing in these distant communities will create new and higher methods to work and stay their lives.”
For extra particulars, go to the Let’s Make Mild competitors’s web site.
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