2013 Fall Newsletter
School of Engineering, Santa Clara University Overview/Contents The publication you are reading now provides an update on the projects and activities of the students, faculty, partners and staff of the Frugal Innovation Lab over the course of late spring and the summer (May-November 2013).
» Undergraduate and Graduate student projects, » New online resources for Frugal case studies, blog, and media,
Frugal Innovation Lab (FIL)
» Participations in conferences and mentions in the news,
Mission: To develop accessible,
» Corporate, social enterprise, and university partnerships, » Strategy and future activities.
We invite your comments and questions! FIL@SCU.EDU
Check out our new website: www.scu.edu/engineering/frugal
It’s pretty amazing.
NOVEMBER ‘13
appropriate, affordable, and adaptable technologies, products and solutions to address human needs in emerging markets.
Frugal Innovation is a process of problem solving in which the needs and context of developing world consumers are put first. It’s not about taking Silicon Valley technologies, making them cheaper, and sending them to the world’s disadvantaged.
The Frugal Innovation Lab (FIL) is rapidly becoming an international thought leader in providing a holistic framework for designing, testing, and implementing solutions in developing world contexts. It has been an incredibly exciting experience for those involved in building and growing FIL’s established track record to see the Lab finally begin to go mainstream. Just in the last 6 months, the momentum that has been thoughtfully built by FIL leadership, core faculty, and students’ hard work spurred a shift in the winds. Attention from multi-national corporations, global social enterprises, industry institutions, and universities internationally all contribute to this assertion. Over the past summer, FIL has identified three technologies and four human needs focus areas that exemplify the Lab’s specialties. These focus areas are now utilized as a way to filter projects that the Lab has an opportunity to work on, with the aim of achieving an increased level of depth and expertise in specific, chosen use cases.
Technology Specialties Mobile Devices Cloud Platforms 3D Printing Human Needs Focus Areas Global Public Health Clean Water Renewable Energy Livelihood Development
On the Web at: www.scu.edu/engineering/frugal/newsevents/publications
www.scu.edu/engineering/frugal
Volume 1 / November 2013
Frugal Innovation Lab, School of Engineering
FRUGAL INNOVATION LAB Goes Mainstream From Medellin, Columbia to Hamburg, Germany... FIL is SHOUTING LOUDLY. What’s more, we are being heard! FIL leadership, faculty, staff, and students have been increasingly inundated with inquiries and requests - and, happily so. Please peruse the following list of notable highlights: • Radha Basu (Director) chaired a panel on Frugal Innovation at the Academy of Management in
September. It was the first time Frugal Innovation has ever been the subject of a panel, and FIL led the way.
• The Tech Museum requested that FIL host a workshop for their 2013 Tech Laureates in November. There has also been talk about a FIL exhibit at the museum. • Oxford and NYU want to co-author a book on Frugal Innovation with FIL. This is one of 4 book publishing offers FIL has received since January. • Hosted workshops analyzing a Harvard Business School case study on Impact Investing and Frugal Innovation based on the work of Radha Basu. These served as a catalyst for increased involvement between the Leavey School of Business and School of Engineering. (FIL workshops hosted at Oxford as well.) • Journal of Management for Global Sustainability published an entire issue on Social Entrepreneurship and Frugal Innovation. One of their feature articles was written by Radha Basu and Elizabeth Sweeny. • Elizabeth Sweeny (Program Manager) presented Frugal Innovation to 200+ individuals in South America and Europe. She helped to inaugurate a master’s program at Católica del Norte Fundación Universitaria, and began partnership discussions with BanColumbia, 3 Colombian Universities, and several social labs.
Core Curriculum Instruction - Engineering 1 The Frugal Innovation Lab now has two points of contact with each and every entering Engineering freshman through the mandatory course, Introduction to Engineering. First, Radha Basu teaches one of the course modules on Frugal Innovation, where students are introduced to FIL’s engineering design methodologies as well as the business rationale behind them. Second, Elizabeth Sweeny runs a three hour laboratory session for the course. Students tackle a human need by assessing past solutions and generating their own while going through the Design Innovation Process. No structured problem sets here! Starting with Empathy, students conduct their own problem refinement.
• Radha Basu was on 4 SoCap Panels. Yes, 4. Two were explicitly focused on Frugal Innovation, and generated tremendous interest. • The Institute of Technology and Management (Hamburg University of Technology) has partnered with FIL to sync solution development efforts. Radha and Elizabeth will be presenting Frugal Innovation to a
corporate and academic audience at a conference in Germany in November. • Bioengineering Professor Ashley Kim and Computer Engineering Professor Silvia Figueira published 4 journal papers on FIL related projects this year alone. Links to the papers can be found at: http:// www.cse.scu.edu/~sfigueira/papers.
In The News “We urge people from all backgrounds and disciplines, regardless of profession, to seek an understanding of the needs of the developing world. By doing so, we can all move synergistically toward a more sustainable world...” E l i z a b e t h S w e e n y , Program Manager Frugal Innovation Lab in Journal of Management for Global Sustainability
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Engineering With A Mission
E-Mail: fil@scu.edu Website: www.scu.edu/engineering/frugal
M obi le La b Projec t Upd ate s The FIL Mobile Lab has been busy. Really, really busy. Below are some updates on a few of the projects that are attracting attention and promise to make critical impacts. Hewlett-Packard & Conservation International
Working prototype of a tablet application for ecological monitoring has been delivered by two graduate students this summer, and a graphical interface is now in development.
MUVE
Milestones for FIL Spotlight Project: Lab on a Chip Several students bridged Frugal Innovation Lab work with field work this summer. They travelled to Kolkata, India, to test their design prototypes and collect critical data to pursue their next iteration. A bioengineering student (see above) was able to test the water pathogen detector that has been in development for almost 2 years in more than 34 sites in rural India. Lab on a Chip continues to thrive as a project, with bioengineers, electrical and computer engineers all working toward developing an integrated mobile device capable of on-site, accurate analysis and mapping of arsenic / pathogen levels in ground and well water. (Professor Ashley Kim and team - congratulations!)
University Partners Tecnológico de Monterrey (Monterrey Tech) and Technische Universität HamburgHarburg (Hamburg University of Technology) are partnering with FIL! Student and faculty exchanges, as well as joint projects and immersion experiences are being developed for full program integration in 2014. Radha Basu has given Frugal talks at Universities all over the world - Oxford, Xavier College in Kolkata, NYU, etc. FIL’s 10 unique Core Competencies are being used as a framework by more than 35 universities worldwide. Brandeis, Georgetown, and Oxford’s Saïd School of Management have all sent letters of inquiry.
Partnership discussions with the Blum Center and CITRIS at Berkeley are underway, and Radha will be a judge in their upcoming ‘Big Ideas’ competition.
Corporate Visitors Quick, tidy up - the corporates are coming! Over the past several months, FIL has hosted meetings with Presidents, CEOs, Directors, and Managing Partners of a wide range of tech companies. With Qualcomm, Samsung, Vodafone, Ricoh, Nvidia, Cisco, Winkler Group, and HP visiting, it’s no wonder the lab is squeaky clean! FIL is keen to further develop partnerships, as well as their corporate workshop program(s).
Mobile for Humanity Cisco has sponsored the development of an online resource to mobile-enable social enterprises. FIL and GSBI are currently piloting the project with 9 social enterprises globally, using a newly created Mobile Taxonomy - thank you, Radha! - to take the entrepreneurs through problem definition, technology choice, and development/ implementation plans to integrate mobile technology into their daily operations.
A web-based tool to digitize books that can be read on any phone was developed for a social enterprise in rural India, iMerit.
StreetConnect II
Creating a platform to send SMS announcements for homeless individuals in San Jose (with San Jose’s Community Technology Alliance ‘CTA’).
Orphanage w/out Borders
Essentially an SMS-SOS. Will enable isolated children to reach out for help.
Vocal-Fold Evaluation
Using vocal analysis through a mobile phone application to screen for various diseases and health conditions.
Mobile Health for Underserved Women
System for medical triage and follow-up of homeless young women’s health issues with YTH (Youth + Tech + Health) and CTA.
IhaveIneed
Tool to deliver community-based financial instruments appropriate for the un-banked population in South Africa.
Thank you to Associate Professor of Computer Engineering Silvia Figueira, who is an invaluable member of our core faculty team.
Social Enterprise Connections Our valued field partnerships continue to grow (a lot)! From Clínicas del Azúcar and Lumeter Networks to Conservation International and Equal Access - we thank you all for your devotion and committment.
Instruction, Innovation, Immersion
Volume 1 / November 2013
Santa Clara University
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The Jesuit University in Silicon Valley
Frugal Innovation Lab Bannan Engineering Labs #404 500 El Camino Real Santa Clara, CA 95053-0633
Frugal Innovation Lab, School of Engineering
FFF - Fun FIL Facts INSIDE SCU Two Leavey School of Business MBA candidates are developing a workshop with FIL for engineering students to become comfortable with business fundamentals related to product design and development. FIL is aiming to integrate Leavey capstone projects with School of Engineering senior design projects. From supply chain, distribution models, and pricing-business students will be an invaluable source of knowledge for engineers (and, obviously, vice-versa)! FIL is reaching out to Santa Clara Law to generate collaborative ties there as well.
The Public Health Department continues to be an incredible partner, and the Public Health Institute (PHI) has been in contact with FIL to pursue potential joint projects.
Course Updates
Frugal Open House In May, more than 250 University, Industry, and Partner guests visited the Frugal Innovation Lab for an Open House celebrating our first year of operation. Twenty-six projects were presented to public by both undergraduate and graduate students, and the intense buzz generated from the event lingered for months. The ice cream, samosas, and popcorn couldn’t have hurt either... Special Thanks To: All Faculty, Students, Staff, Partners... Cheers to all who have contributed to nurturing FIL’s explosive growth.
Another successful session of Engineering for the Developing World (EDW) for graduate students was concluded at the end of the summer. Feedback was resoundingly positive (always room for improvement though)! Looking Forward: FIL is looking forward to crafting a certificate program with faculty from the School of Engineering in 2014.
Publicity New Scientist interviewed Radha Basu for an article on sustainability. Nine thesis papers (PhD and Master’s) on various topics related to Frugal Innovation are being advised by Radha, from students in universities located in France, England, Germany, and the U.S. In October, Radha presented at NetHope’s annual Global Summit as well as the BOP Summit in Ann Harbor about New Venture Development and Frugal Innovation.
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Social Justice, Technology, Entrepreneurship
FIL was presented by Radha to the School of Engineering Board of Directors in Spring. Radha is a contributing author for the book Globalization, Change and Learning in South Asia. It is now published and available on Amazon. 12 International Social Enterprises on a State Department coordinated visit were hosted in FIL, and several partnership discussions have resulted from the tour.
Online Presence FIL now has a weekly blog, an extensive online project gallery, and a shiny new brochure! Admittedly we are biased, but it is the prettiest website and brochure in all the land. While Radha Basu (Director) hosted 8 SCU students in Kolkata this summer (8!), FIL was able to track updates and post highlights.
Upcoming Senior Design 2013-2014 Senior Design is promising to be as exciting as last year. Examples of projects in development are: • Micro-Grid Team: Creating a solar-based micro-grid infrastructure. • Vaccine Transport: Designing a solar backpack for vaccine last-mile distribution (absorption refrigeration). • Methane to Methanol: Providing energy while healing the environment. • Innovative Cookstove: Creating a system to utilize excess heat from cookstoves to charge mobile devices, provide lighting, or run a pump. • Mobile Projects: Teams working on 13 mobile projects, from using a mobile phone to perform MRI computations to building a ‘StreetPhone’ for homeless people and creating a mobile interface for a low-cost and lowpower underwater robot.
www.scu.edu/engineering/frugal