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Here is the current list of submitted project ideas, including projects submitted by teams who are looking for team-mates (this list is the same as that found in the Future Projects section of this site). If you are interested in any particular project, please email the contact person directly. Please note, to be eligible to enter the IDEAS Competition your solution to any of the challenges listed on this page must be both innovative and feasible. Project Catogies:. Agricultural Technology Do you have a project IDEA that you would like to see here? Fill in the project form, and we will post your idea on this page. This year, IDEAS is partnering with the Stanford University Social E-Challenge to encourage cross-insitutional teams to come together and enter both contests. Cross-institutional teams will be able to leverage the similarity in interests, and diversity in skills and knowledge, of the two institutions to create innovative projects and strong proposals. To enter the IDEAS Competition, at least one third of the team-members must be MIT students; to enter the Social E-Challenge, at least half the team must be Stanford students. Take a look at the Social E-Challenge project database, and make the connections you need to form a cross-institutional team. (The two competitions have different rules and requirements, be sure you check these before entering). Also check-out the ThinkCycle (a href="http://www.thinkcycle.org" target="_blank">http://www.thinkcycle.org) and 2.009 (a href="http://web.mit.edu/2.009/www/assignments/IdeasFairResults.html">http://web.mit.edu/2.009/www/assignments/IdeasFairResults.html) websites for other potential projects. Solar Fruit Dryer for Samoa CONTACT: Anderson Nnewihe, MIT student (nnewihe Working for Peanuts: Designing an Inexpensive Peanut Sheller
In many villages throughout the developing world, peanuts serve as a major subsistence and cash crop. Not surprisingly, unshelled peanuts sell at a cheaper price than products such as peanut butter, but most small-scale peanut farmers don't have the equipment necessary to shell their crop themselves. Instead, villagers often sell their peanuts to large factories in foreign countries - and then, in a dirty twist of international trade, buy the processed nuts back at inflated prices. If small rural peanut operations are ever to gain power over their own futures, the shells have got to come off. Of course, many companies have designed peanut shelling devices, but they were not created with developing countries in mind. Expensive, electric machines that may work in wealthy nations will not work for a village in, say, Haiti. That is not to say that developing countries have been wholly ignored by the peanut sheller industry. Several amazing shelling devices have been designed over the past thirty years which specifically target the needs of communities in developing nations. One such device used in Mali costs less than $10, is powered by hand, and shells 50 kilograms of peanuts an hour. But despite its positive attributes, this device would be a hard sell in Haiti since its construction requires fiberglass molds. Almost all existing shelling machines share a similar story: while technically reliable, they require imported materials and skills that can't be found where peanuts are farmed Some people at MIT recognized the need for a more appropriately designed peanut sheller, and over the past few years, various groups, including teams in the 2.009 engineering design class, have constructed and tested different shelling machines. Each team certainly made progress, but each device designed thus far would have cost too much or simply never got developed enough to be field tested. This past year, the peanut sheller project was picked up again, and this time the idea was to use the ubiquitous 55 gallon oil drum as the primary component for the sheller. A small proof of concept prototype was developed using water jugs instead of oil drums and Solid models were made, but the full scale model has yet to be completed and tested. And while the oil drum approach appears promising, there is a very good chance other designs may work as well or better. If you are interested in either working on developing the existing concepts or have some original ideas of your own, please contact Shawn Frayne for more information. Palm Nut Cracking - Ghana Cracking palm nuts to release the kernels is a time consuming and labour intensive process. Currently this is done manually using rocks. A safer, more efficient method of separating kernels from shells is desired. Palm nut cracking is typically a small enterprise profession for local women. The palm nuts are bashed manually using a rock to remove the shells and the kernels are then taken to the mill for grinding into powder. The person cracking is in constant danger of inadvertently hitting their fingers with the rock. Flying shells also present an eye safety problem. An average work day for a palm nut cracker is from 8am until 4pm. OTHER INFORMATION: ENGhana welcome people to work on the challenges they propose and encourage people to enter their solutions into the IDEAS Competition. CONTACT: Tim Heidel, MIT Student (team
The Facts - - Haiti is 98% deforested Because wood and wood-derived charcoal have traditionally been the primary fuel sources for indoor cooking in Haiti, the domestic natural resources of the forests are nearing complete depletion. The impact of this deforestation on Haitian life cannot be over-emphasized. Currently, around 90% of homes use wood as their cooking fuel. Soon, they will not have that option. Imported fuel alternatives are expensive Once the domestic wood resources are exhausted, an alternative cooking fuel will need to be found. Haiti does not produce fossil fuels, so any such fuel would need to be imported. Kerosene, petroleum, imported wood - almost any imported fuel - is too expensive for most Haitian households. Smoke: The Covert Killer The burning of wood and dung indoors concentrates smoke to levels that have been shown to lead to multiple afflictions, including Acute Lower Respiratory Infection (ALRI), Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, and Pulmonary Tuberculosis, to name a few. Smoke kills more people worldwide than malaria. And yet, almost no one, except those afflicted, knows about the immense health risks of indoor air pollution. The reasons behind this unintentional cover-up are numerous, not the least of which is that the segment of society most affected by indoor smoke - women and children - is often overlooked in national economic planning. As such, reducing indoor air pollution has not typically been viewed as a means by which to reduce national poverty levels. But it is. A smokeless cooking fuel is highly desirable, since many of the diseases associated with indoor air pollution are linked to the small particulates which make up the smoke released by fuels such as wood and dung. Charcoal happens to be a virtually smokeless cooking fuel that is currently available in Haiti. In fact, it is viewed as an advanced fuel compared to wood, since it is smokeless and produces more heat per unit weight. Unfortunately, almost all of the charcoal currently sold in Haiti is derived from wood. That means even though this wood- based charcoal is a better cooking fuel choice than wood, it nevertheless contributes to deforestation in Haiti as much as cooking with wood does. The Solution - - Fuel from the Fields? .There is a chance that all three problems can be solved by using sugarcane waste as the raw material for a new type of cooking charcoal. Students in MIT's D-lab, working in Haiti, Honduras, and India, have made considerable progress in developing ways to transform various wastes (including sugarcane, rice paddy straw, and cow dung) into charcoal, but much work remains. A simple charcoal briquette press remains to be designed, better binders for the briquettes must be found, and new kilns capable of carbonizing alternate waste products must be developed. And that's just the beginning. If you would like to learn more about work that has been done and what remains, please contact Shawn Frayne. You can also learn more about the work to date by checking out the Sugarcane Charcoal section of the Design for Developing Countries website, http://web.mit.edu/d-lab/portfolio/charcoal.htm
Honey Production and Bottling - Ghana Honey production is an important source of supplementary income for people in the Adaklu communities of Ghana. Hives are made from hollow hardwood logs. However it takes 3 to 4 years before the centre of the log can be removed. An alternative, quicker way of creating hives would be appreciated, enabling local honey producers to increase production over a smaller period of time. OTHER INFORMATION: ENGhana welcome people to work on the challenges they propose and encourage people to enter their solutions into the IDEAS Competition. CONTACT: Tim Heidel, MIT Student (team Cassava Squeezing - Ghana Moisture must be extracted from cassava before cooking. Currently, cassava is placed in a sack and large rocks are placed on top. This moisture extraction can take more than 3 days. A quicker and safer way of extracting moisture from cassava is desired. Cassava can be used in two different ways. When only some of the moisture is extracted, the cassava is made into cassava dough and used to make banku. When more moisture is extracted, it is then dried further in the sun and fried in order to make gari. Cassava is used as a base for many of the most important Ghanaian dishes. Using the traditional method, large rocks are piled on top of the Cassava in order to force moisture out of the Cassava. These rocks are difficult to lift and can be piled quite high. The potential of rocks falling off the bag of Cassava makes thisa dangerous task. Moisture extraction can take 3 or more days using the current process. OTHER INFORMATION: ENGhana welcome people to work on the challenges they propose and encourage people to enter their solutions into the IDEAS Competition. CONTACT: Tim Heidel, MIT Student (team
Recently sun released the 'speech engine" under DSI license. My idea is to create a linux version with voice interface, license-free and able to run onrefurbished PCs. SKILLS NEEDED CONTACT: Thomasz, MIT student (mlodutbHOOEYPATTOEYmit.edu) Devices for Children with Developmental Disabilities Students at the Cardinal Cushing School in Hanover, MA, have a range of developmental disabilities, and school staff are always looking for creative mechanisms to help the students overcome their challenges. Ideas include a “learn how to bike” bike that meets the special needs of these children, and a mechanism to better measure problems with eye control. COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION: Cardinal Cushing School CONTACT: Camilla Shannon, MIT Public Service Center (camilla Design of an Adjustable Bicycle Frame COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION: Special Olympics, MA. CONTACT: Camilla Shannon, MIT Public Service Center (camilla 'Pistol' for Track Meets COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION: Special Olympics, MA. CONTACT: Camilla Shannon, MIT Public Service Center (camilla Walkman with a timer COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION: The Protestant Guild Learning Center CONTACT: Camilla Shannon, MIT Public Service Center (camilla Shower Assistant Create a highly customizable push-button device that can walk developmentally disabled people through the steps of taking a shower, using auditory and/or visual cues. This product is needed because privacy is critical for developmentally disabled people: research has shown that 100% of mentally retarded people in care for their whole lives are sexually abused. COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION: The Learning Center, Waltham, MA. CONTACT: Camilla Shannon, MIT Public Service Center (camilla Bowling Ramp for Wheelchair Athletes Design and build a bowling ramp for athletes in wheelchairs. Bowling is currently a Special Olympics sport. In designing a bowling ramp, the aim would be to make bowling more convenient for people with disabilities. COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION: Special Olympics, MA. CONTACT: Camilla Shannon, MIT Public Service Center (spitzman
Mobile Shaker Table A mobile shake-table to test low-cost housing in rural regions of developing communities. SKILLS NEEDED: CONTACT: Patrik, MIT student (patrik Cracking Buildings - Ghana Loose and shifting ground at the foot of Adaklu Mountain causes many buildings to crack during or soon after construction. A way of adapting current building styles to work with the local environment is needed. The communities at the base of Adaklu Mountain are subject to subsidence causing most of their buildings to crack or crumble in very little time. Building houses is a large investment for local individuals who cannot afford to build structures that will fall down in a short number of years. Many of the older buildings are on the verge of falling, presenting a grave safety concern to the occupants. The short life span of public buildings such as schools and health centres represents a major burden on public funds and outside investment. In Helekpe, a school fell down in 2001 and the government is currently constructing a new building which will accommodate only half the school. Temporary structures have been erected and will continue to be used. Teachers have expressed concerns that without modification of building techniques the new school will also crumble and it will be even harder to attract further funding for a future building. This obviously has a detrimental affect on the education of local children.In Goefe, large cracks in the floor of the school have been reported to shelter snakes, scorpions and spiders which present both a safety hazard and potential distractions. Members of the community have identified the cracking buildings as a factor in migration out of the area.This problem also jeopardizes the successful recruitment of professionals into the area such as teachers, who are reluctant to live and work in such surroundings. Community members are very concerned about this problem and generally attribute it to their location at the foot of the mountain.
OTHER INFORMATION: ENGhana welcome people to work on the challenges they propose and encourage people to enter their solutions into the IDEAS Competition. CONTACT: Tim Heidel, MIT Student (team Temporary School Buildings - Ghana Temporary school structures are being put to permanent use in the Adaklu communities due to lack of alternative buildings. These buildings have little protection from environmental and weather conditions and are at risk of collapse. A way of adapting the temporary structures for long-term use is needed. The current temporary structures are potentially at risk of collapse, presenting a safety hazard to the students, as well as a constant need for replacement or alternative accommodation. In Goefe, one of the structures has already partially fallen down and classes have been moved into a local church building. Children are often sent home on rainy days since rain and wind comes into the classroom. Many educational materials such as blackboards and exercise books are damaged by rain and wind entering the classroom. Blackboards are often propped up on sticks and fall over easily. Rain falling on metal roofing sheets creates a noise which often drowns out the teacher. The current temporary structures have very little division between classrooms. Sounds from other classrooms are a constant distraction, especially if one class does not have a teacher present. The lack of walls means that animals, insects, and dust can enter the classrooms, and that anything or anybody passing on the roads outside can cause a distraction.
OTHER INFORMATION: ENGhana welcome people to work on the challenges they propose and encourage people to enter their solutions into the IDEAS Competition. CONTACT: Tim Heidel, MIT Student (team
Cambridge Children's Shelter An emergency shelter for abused and neglected children. Our mission: to provide emergency shelter, high quality care, and hope for the abused, abandoned, and neglected children of our community. SKILLS NEEDED: CONTACT: Shyamli Sinha, MIT student (shyamli Volunteer Exchange for AIDS Orphans Program I have started my own non-profit organization called the Juliana Timm Children's Fund, aimed at helping tackle the problem of orphans in Malawi, Africa.I want to create a truly effective volunteer exchange program but don't really know how to go about doing this. There is a shortage of trained teachers and medical staff in Malawi, which just further aggrivates the orphan problem. OTHER INFORMATION: SKILLS NEEDED: CONTACT: Josephine Kalipeni, founder of the Juliana Timm Children's Fund (josephinek
Internet and Phone Infrastucture for Developing Countries Based On Low-Cost Self-Powered Wireless Repeater Nodes Hospitals, health workers, schools and many other facilities need phone and internet service in order to operate. In countries that still do not have the necessary infrastructure hospitals and doctors are often forced to pay large amounts of money for expensive satellite phone service. That money could be used to buy urgently needed medicines. CONTACT: Jay Best ( jbest6 Interpretive Services at Hospitals - handheld PDA for determining country of origin CONTACT: Humphrey Wong (humphrey910 Cell phone SMS for Rural India Cell phones have become very common in India -- having, in many parts of the country, far greater penetration than land lines or internet, both geographically and through different income levels. SMS messaging on cell phones is now very popular in urban areas -- widespread applications like railway timetables, cricket scores, and There is scope for bringing applications traditionally found on the web but useful for the rural areas onto cell phones. Examples could be weather forecast for fishermen, market prices of vegetables for farmers, or even simple banking or e-governance applications. I would like to bring these applications on cell phone to the rural population. The applications can then either be marketed directly to the cell phone companies, sold on subscription basis to the cell phone users, or sold to small entrepreneurs/vendors who then sell it on subscription basis to their clients. SKILLS NEEDED: CONTACT: Arvind Saraf, MIT graduate student (arvind_s Point Accident Data CONTACT: Mario Fernando Garca Rivera, in Honduras ( Automated Email System Sunday’s Bread would like to automate their e-mail system so reminders can be sent out automatically to volunteer contacts and replies retrieved and sorted easily. Currently, a large number of volunteer organizations send them email announcements, which they must then resend out by hand. Saturday’s/Sunday’s Bread serves free hot meals to people in need in Boston every Saturday and Sunday. Over the course of its 19-plus years, Saturday’s/Sunday’s Bread has served more than 280,000 guests. COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION: Sunday's Bread http://www.satsunbread.org/ CONTACT: Camilla Shannon, MIT Public Service Center (camilla
Building a Digital Museum Specimens of preserved animals and plants held in the world’s natural history collections offer a vast and vitally important information resource. They provide not only present day information on species distribution, but also historic information about global biological diversity that in some cases goes back hundreds of years. Projects to electronically database this information, which for most specimens resides exclusively on paper tags, labels, and catalogs, are underway in many institutions, and many others are at either the discussion or planning stage of database development. Harvard University’s Museum of Comparative Zoology (MCZ; <mcz.harvard.edu>), the world’s largest university-based natural history museum, working with the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF; <http://www.gbif.org>) seeks help in developing efficient and cost-effective tools for databasing the MCZ’s 21,000,000 specimens of birds, frogs, spiders, bats, and all kinds of other animals. These tools should digitally capture collection data for individual specimens from paper records and convert the data to a small number (< 10) of data fields on an electronic spreadsheet. For natural history specimen data to be maximally useful and accessible, it first must be captured and parsed into an information system. Information regarding the geographic locality of each specimen then can be geo-referenced (i.e., translated into latitude and longitude coordinates) so that the original collecting sites can be located accurately and analyzed electronically. Perhaps the most serious bottleneck in the process, however, is the first step—initial data capture. Challenges to efficient and accurate data capture vary with the type of animals involved. Insects, for example, are stuck on pins, with a tiny label containing the collection data on the pin below them. Fish and snakes are kept in bottles of ethanol, along with the identifying label; birds and mammals have “toe tags.” Additional data associated with the same specimens may be entered in paper catalogs. Other challenges arise because many, especially older, labels and catalogs are handwritten, and the formats used to record data are far from consistent. Globally, the task is enormous: there are approximately 2 billion specimens of animals and plants in the world’s natural history collections. Any increase in the efficiency or accuracy of initial data capture would generate significant savings in time and cost per specimen databased. It also would help get collections data into the hands of people, organizations, and governments who desperately need access to this information for research, educational, and conservation purposes. Design of workflow models that apply current computer-based technologies most appropriate for each type of specimen is urgently needed. Such practical integration of industrial approaches to facilitate data capture in the museum context could help liberate information critical to understanding, managing, and perhaps even saving the world’s biodiversity. COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION: Harvard University's Museum of Comparative Zoology http://www.mcz.harvard.edu/ CONTACT: Mrs. Allison Schellhammer, Assistant to the Museum Director ( Museum of Comparative Zoology , 617-495-2460
High Schools for Rural India It is hard to build quality high schools in rural india and ensure they remain viable. This is because teachers are hard to find and 1-2 villages cannot sufficiently supply a student population to the school. Our goal is to come up with innovative ideas to counter such issues SKILLS NEEDED: CONTACT: Rohit Singh, MIT student (rsingh Foreign Language Learning: Beyond the Textbook Besides video games, I have a paper http://www.langwidge.com/llt/embedded_language_instruction_current_draft.doc you can read outlining how other elements of the digital world and popular media artifacts such as web interfaces, foreign pop music and mp3 trends can be harnessed to extend foreign language learning beyond the constraints of a textbook. The use of video games and web interfaces could greatly improve the lives of American high school students trying to learn a foreign language (and all the people they could then interact with as they grow up). The MP3 solutions [slightly lower-tech, but very powerful] could greatly aid immigrants trying to learn English, but are unable to set aside enough time to locate and attend quality ESL classes. Both could help learners in other countries trying to learn English. For more information, see my website at http://www.langwidge.com CONTACT: Ravi Purushotma (ravip
Solar/Biogas Hybrid Electricity Generation Design a solar/biogas hybrid electricity generation system to be used in rural areas of developing countries. SKILLS NEEDED: CONTACT: Kurt Kornbluth, MIT staff (kkorn
ManagementVolunteer Management System Like many other non-profits, the CASPAR shelter on the MIT campus needs volunteers—but also like other shelters and community agencies, it has a great deal of difficulty in attracting, managing, and maintaining volunteers. Innovative thinking is needed to help this homeless shelter develop a functional volunteer management system. COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION: CASPAR, homeless shelter for people with addictions CONTACT: Camilla Shannon, MIT Public Service Center (camilla
Suspension system for stretcher when being carried over rough terrain CONTACT: Joaquin Blaya (jblaya Sports Thermometer COMMUNITY ORGANIZATON: Special Olympics, MA. CONTACT: Camilla Shannon, MIT Public Service Center (spitzman Low-cost AIDS testing AIDS testing in third world countries have posed a huge problem for health care workers. The cost is high ($50++/ test) and the availability of test fascilities is prohibitive. A low cost platform currently used for cell detection can be modified to detect key markers for AIDS testing. It is possible to detemine the stage of the disease and properly administer the correct drugs (in the right does) for infected individuals. One of the biggest problems caused by the lack of low cost testing is the inability to properly match drug dose and disease stage. The result is that often drugs are given unncessarily (or at a higher dose than need be) because there is no easy way to determine the "right" amount... resulting in the prevelance of drug resistent strains. SKILLS NEEDED: CONTACT: Charlie Lieu, MIT grad student (bunny Devices for medical chronic conditions My name is Rajiv Dulepet, and I am currently a Visiting Fellow/Industrial Affliate in MS&E (Mgmt Science & Engg) department, Stanford University. I am also founder of Lakshya Inc. Marketing and Business SKILLS NEEDED: Medicine CONTACT: Rajiv Dulepet, Visiting Fellow/Industrial Affiliate, MS&E Department, Stanford University (rdulepet Scale-Up Power What is Scale-up Power? Services: A low-cost peak flow meter for asthma diagnosis and management Peak flow meters measure the maximum amount of airflow during expiration and are used to diagnose and manage asthma. CONTACT: Stephen McCrosky (steve
One-To-One skill Matching One-to-one skill matching for mentoring relationships using proximity sensing via cell phones - a la serendipity, Advogato (a reputation system), and a token credit system with points awarded for tutoring services. SKILLS NEEDED: CONTACT: Tony Pryor, community partner and volunteer at MIT Media Lab (tpryor Peace Corps Technical Network Web/email based technical project support. Appropriate technology research. Global connections. Project pack deliveries. Student field support. SKILLS NEEDED: CONTACT: Will DelHagen, MIT grad student (willd China's Innovative Students Initiative While having the skills and the expertise, university students in China often lack the mindset, the financial means, the technical guidance, and the social support to innovate solutions for their own problems. We wish to provide them with the financial means and the technical guidance in order to inspire them to have a more innovative mindset and then to help them build their own social infrastructure that facilitates further innovations and problem-solving activities. To the government of China, we are helping university students contribute to the development of their motherland by embracing the open-door policies and welcoming foreign help. We will start by helping a group of graduate students in China address the lack of heating in university dorms throughout Southern China. We will then move on to address the lack of hot water showers. We will focus on the process and the involvement of the students in China rather We will market innovations by the students and use the profit for funding further innovations. We will also enlist help from NGOs in China. We will then help the students found an organization in China that will facilitate problem solving by students for students. OTHER INFO: SKILLS NEEDED:
We (three IIT, Delhi Post Graduates in Computer Science) are working on an idea called "Online Mentoring". We have solid experience in web technologies and innovation on the web. We strongly believe that there is still a lot of scope for innovation in information management(specifically related to mentorship) on the web. We are successfully running a Mentorship programme on the web for our Alma Mater's current students. SKILLS NEEDED: CONTACT: Deepak, in India (
Ship of Hope - India The Brahmaputra river and its tributaries flow down from the eastern Himalaya and the Tibetan Plateau into Assam in Northeastern India, enriching and also devastating the region every year with silt deposits and vast flooding and erosion. An estimated two to three million people (about 10 percent of the population) are displaced by floods and high water every year, with little access to health and other facilities, including education (schools and colleges are damaged and flooded) while lack of sanitation results in the spread of diseases such as dysentery and diarrhea. Government outreach is limited by a number of factors, including financial resources, personnel and the lack of good and well equipped boats which can move quickly over flood waters to reach the needy and stranded. The Centre for North East Studies (CNES) proposes the development of a prototype of a well designed and locally built country boat, low-draft and quick-moving, to carry teams of medical personnel from government and private agencies as well as life saving equipment sent by government, donors and relief agencies. Such boats can be designed and built locally but with better technology including the use of stronger diesel engines , rather than irrigation pump sets which double as motors. Through the process of designing and building such a boat, CNES would seek to encourage changes in government policies to develop a fleet of ships which can not just reach the stranded at times of flood but also become part of macro and micro-level planning and implementation – these are practical ways to close gaps in rural needs. CURRENT STATUSEarly this year, CNES drafted a proposal for the "Ship of Hope" requesting for funds from the World Bank as part of the Bank’s Development Marketplace 2004 (www.developmentmarketplace.com) in New Delhi. Out of 1500 proposals, CNES was one of the 20 winners and was awarded a seed grant of $20,000 to design and implement the idea. After a comprehensive exploratory study, local boat builders, CNES & AID-MIT volunteers have created a draft of the revised boat design. However, in order to finalize the design and begin boat construction, the project requires people with technical and design expertise who can verify the boat design, perform engine power and other technical calculations and help in fundraising so that the project idea can become a reality. COMMUNITY PARTNERS ETC • Sanjoy Hazarika, the managing trustee of CNES and his team of local boat experts in Assam, India. • Association for India Development (AID), USA • MIT's Design Center "Design that matters" SKILLS NEEDED:
Water Scarcity - Ghana Water is in extremely scarce supply throughout the Adaklu communities in Ghana. The problem is compounded by an annual four month period of no rainfall. A method of supplying and/or conserving safe drinking water is needed. The collection of water is difficult throughout the year, however, the December to March dry season is a particularly trying time for the Adaklu communities. Rainfall is often non-existent in this period. During the dry season, community members must travel to Ho, nearly 16kms, to fetch water. This is expensive and time intensive. It is particularly difficult for residents of Tokor and Kordiabe who must then climb the mountain upon return. Water borne diseases are often found in animals. Worms are a problem due to animals drinking the water and then being eaten or leaving faeces in public areas as well as direct drinking of poor water. While this problem is lessened in humans due to some awareness about unsafe sources of water it is still a local concern. The health centre doses children throughout the Adaklu communities every three months to treat against worms. Many residents see the lack of water as a factor in the poor state of local education, explaining that teachers often refuse to stay in the area due to the living conditions. Lack of water has also been described as a factor in migration out of the communities. OTHER INFORMATION: You can find more information about this project on the ENGhana website http://www.srcf.ucam.org/enghana/index.html ENGhana welcome people to work on the challenges they propose and encourage people to enter their solutions into the IDEAS Competition. CONTACT: Tim Heidel, MIT Student (team Safe Water System Background to the following projects: The Safe Water System (SWS) is a water quality intervention that employs simple, robust, and inexpensive technologies appropriate for the developing world. The objective is to make water safe through disinfection and safe storage at the point of use. The intervention consists of three steps: Point-of-use treatment of contaminated water using sodium hypochlorite solution purchased locally and produced by a local manufacturer or in the community from water and salt using an electrolytic cell; Safe water storage in plastic containers with a narrow mouth, lid, and a spigot to prevent recontamination; and Behavior change techniques, including social marketing, community mobilization, motivational interviewing, communication, and education. System Design PROBELM STATEMENT : Currently, the safe water system includes chlorine addition, storage in a safe container, and education. The safe container is currently plastic and is not stackable, which raises logistical and transportation difficulties. QUESTIONS: Can we design a better stackable system with an attached lid, a spigot, and a way to get the water into the system? How does the plastic container or receptacle degrade with time with chlorine use? What is the best spigot design? How does the plastic react with the chlorine? Is there any danger of generation of by-products from either the plastic container for the sodium hypochlorite or the plastic receptacle? Is it possible to use a metal container for the safe storage receptacle? CONTACT: Daniele Lantagne, MIT alum, now with the Center for Disease Control (dul4 Novel Technologies PROBLEM STATEMENT: Although simple and inexpensive to produce locally, sodium hypochlorite solutions are not the ideal product for chemical treatment of drinking water at the point-of-use for several reasons: a) they are not active against many parasites and some viruses; b) they lead to the formation of disinfection by-products in treated water, particularly in the presence of organic material; c) because of their weight and volume, they are relatively expensive to distribute; d) they have a limited shelf life; e) they produce a taste and odor in treated water that is not always appreciated by consumers. QUESTIONS: What are the relative benefits, and the disadvantages of using chlorine dioxide in place of hypochlorite salts? (Chlorine dioxide can be produced locally through technology marketed by several companies – see http://www.projectgoodwater.com/product2.htm. We have not evaluated this technology in the lab or in the field. Is it practical, inexpensive, safe, acceptable, and effective? Ozone is a powerful disinfectant. Are there methods by which it could be safely generated in situ for household water treatment applications? What potential do other chemicals have for point of use disinfection applications (peroxides?) What are the criteria to consider when evaluating new compounds for potential point-of-use applications (cost, ease of manufacture, safety, effectiveness, etc.), and can a candidate list be identified? Is it possible to engineer nano-particles that will adsorb and inactivate or remove pathogenic organisms from water? Or evaluate existing nano-particles? At what cost could these be produced? To what degree would pre-treatment filtration or flocculation be required? CONTACT: Daniele Lantagne, MIT alum, now with the Center for Disease Control (dul4 Clay Pots PROBLEM STATEMENT: Many homes in Africa collect their drinking water in plastic jerry cans, and then pour the water into large 60 L ceramic vessels that are stored on the floor. There are many issues with this, including treatment in the large vessels, removal of water from something stored on the floor, and design of the pots themselves. QUESTIONS: What is the best option for treatment in these vessels? If water is treated in the jerry cans and then poured into the ceramic, is there enough residual to ensure no contamination in the pots? What cultural factors exist that prevent users from using plastic jerry cans to store their water in – would people be willing to switch to plastic? What is the contamination level in the clay pots in normal household use? Is there more chlorine demand in clay or plastic pots? How does the clay and chlorine interact? CONTACT: Daniele Lantagne, MIT alum, now with the Center for Disease Control (dul4 Test Methods PROBLEM STATEMENT : Accurate determination of the strength of hypochlorite solution produced, and of the available free chlorine residual in treated water is critical to program success. We generally rely on the DPD colorimetric method, but recognize that it is not 100% reliable. QUESTIONS: What interferences can give false positive readings for chlorine residual and what measures can be taken to improve accuracy? Are there simple inexpensive field-friendly methods to test hypochlorite solutions for the presence of metallic ions? When salts that contain bromide are used to produce hypochlorite by electrolysis, bromates are also produced. How can we test the salt to make sure it is safe to use to produce hypochlorite? What concentration of bromide in the salt would be acceptable? CONTACT: Daniele Lantagne, MIT alum, now with the Center for Disease Control (dul4 Natural Flocculation PROBLEM STATEMENT : A variety of naturally occurring materials (alum, moringa seeds, other plants) have traditionally been used to clarify water. More recently, manufactured products for flocculation and coagulation (e.g. PuR) have been introduced. These products can remove the organic matter that reduces the effectiveness of chlorine. QUESTIONS: What are the characteristics and relative advantages / disadvantages of these different materials? How do these natural flocculants work? Do any of the naturally occurring flocculants have the potential to be inexpensively manufactured on a large scale and become commercially viable alternatives? CONTACT: Daniele Lantagne, MIT alum, now with the Center for Disease Control (dul4 Marketing PROBLEM STATEMENT: A key challenge to any developing world project is distribution and marketing. First, how do you get the product to those most in need, and secondly, how do you make the project sustainable. Currently, we implement many of our projects through the social marketing agency Population Services International. While they are very good at marketing and distribution, it is unclear how their model correlates to correct and consistent usage in the home. QUESTIONS: What is the level of continued and consistent use of hypochlorite solutions in populations served by PSI? How do we assess that? What are models to combine the top-down marketing approach of PSI with bottom-up approaches on many NGOs? We have done some work with Community Sales Agents and community mobilization – what are methods to improve this? What other models are out there to ensure access of the product to those in need? CONTACT: Daniele Lantagne, MIT alum, now with the Center for Disease Control (dul4
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