In economically advantaged international locations, it’s onerous to think about a time when electrical lighting wasn’t out there in almost each residence, enterprise, and public facility. However based on the World Financial Discussion board, the solar stays the first gentle supply for greater than 1 billion folks worldwide.
Referred to as gentle poverty, the dearth of entry to dependable, sufficient, synthetic gentle is skilled by lots of the world’s poorest folks. They depend on unsafe, inefficient lighting sources comparable to candles and kerosene lamps to carry out duties comparable to finding out, 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 modern lighting applied sciences that may be inexpensive, accessible, and sustainable for folks now dwelling in excessive poverty.
The entry that finest responds to the problem—creating a lighting system that’s dependable and grid-independent and will be domestically manufactured and repaired—will probably 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 Sensible Village, and IEEE Fellow Georges Zissis, former chair of the IEEE Future Instructions Committee.
Eager to know extra about gentle poverty, Nelson forwarded the presentation to Toby Cumberbatch, who has intensive expertise in creating sensible options for communities dealing with 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 tips on how 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 tackle the wants of impoverished finish customers he and his college students had been attempting to assist.
That led Zissis to create the Let’s Make Mild competitors in hopes that it will 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 12 months’s entries highlighted a big hole in understanding the components behind gentle poverty, Cumberbatch says. The components embrace restricted electrical grid entry and the lack 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 automobiles 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 swap is.”
To make sure this 12 months’s contestants higher tackle the issue, IEEE Future Instructions launched a video illustrating the realities of poverty and the important qualities {that a} profitable lighting resolution should possess, comparable to being secure, clear, accessible, and inexpensive.
“With the suitable assets,” the video’s narrator says, “folks 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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