In economically advantaged international locations, it’s laborious to think about a time when electrical lighting wasn’t out there in practically each house, enterprise, and public facility. However in accordance with the World Financial Discussion board, the solar stays the first mild supply for greater than 1 billion individuals worldwide.
Referred to as mild poverty, the shortage of entry to dependable, ample, synthetic mild is skilled by most of the world’s poorest individuals. They depend on unsafe, inefficient lighting sources resembling candles and kerosene lamps to carry out duties resembling learning, cooking, working, and doing family chores after nightfall.
Overcoming the stark distinction in dwelling circumstances is the main target of IEEE Sensible Lighting’s Let’s Make Mild competitors.
Open to anybody 18 or older, the competition seeks progressive lighting applied sciences that may be reasonably priced, accessible, and sustainable for individuals now dwelling in excessive poverty.
The entry that greatest responds to the problem—creating a lighting system that’s dependable and grid-independent and may be domestically manufactured and repaired—might 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 world lighting points, together with mild poverty, given to IEEE Life Fellow John Nelson, then chair of IEEE Sensible Village, and IEEE Fellow Georges Zissis, former chair of the IEEE Future Instructions Committee.
Desirous to know extra about mild poverty, Nelson forwarded the presentation to Toby Cumberbatch, who has in depth expertise in creating 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 the best way to create expertise to assist underserved communities.
“A successful design must be usable by individuals who don’t even know what an on-off swap is.” —Toby Cumberbatch
Cumberbatch’s candid response was that the concepts offered 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 group 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 major hole in understanding the components behind mild poverty, Cumberbatch says. The components embody restricted electrical grid entry and the lack to afford all however essentially the most rudimentary merchandise. Cumberbatch says he and his college students have even encountered communities with nonmonetary economies.
Previous entries have failed to deal with the core problem of offering sensible and user-friendly lighting options.
Reflecting on some current submissions, Cumberbatch famous a basic disconnect. “The entries included charging stations for electrical automobiles and proposals to make use of lasers to mild streets,” he says. “A successful design must be usable by individuals who don’t even know what an on-off swap 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 answer should possess, resembling being secure, clear, accessible, and reasonably priced.
“With the appropriate sources,” the video’s narrator says, “individuals dwelling in these distant communities will create new and higher methods to work and dwell their lives.”
For extra particulars, go to the Let’s Make Mild competitors’s web site.
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