Santa Clara University

Based on market research and considering the need of the low cost and highly usable cell phone, we intend to manufacture a mobile phone, which will take a leap forward in the cell phone design space for rural. This phone will enable the people to use the features of the phone in a more effective and efficient manner rather than getting confused with the software features. Read the full profile »

The Elimunater leverages mobile telephones to make educational information accessible to the masses in an economical fashion via a text-based system. The primary use of the system will be to receive summaries of requested topics, including any important definitions, dates, equations, etc. Users will also be able to request solutions to past national examinations, which students often use to study though they typically are unable to check their work since they do not have access to the answers. Quizzes containing multiple choice, matching, fill-in-the-blank, and true false questions (all of which are typical on the national examinations), will also be available to the user simply by texting keywords (or by using a topic code based on testing categories). Read the full profile »

ROJL is a software company that will create and distribute a mobile application that utilizes location based services using technology that does not rely on GPS, cell triangulation. By using cell triangulation, features phones can now enjoy location based services that are available on many of the expensive smart phones. TrafficCell is the application that ROJL will create. It uses aforementioned cell triangulation to: ? monitor speed of the vehicle ? provide traffic related information based on user?s location ? provide warnings about accident prone locations to users ? locating food supplies/clean water near user?s location Warning messages and information alike can be configured through the extensive settings menu where information can be displayed, spoken to, or sent through SMS. Read the full profile »

Graphics Based Craigslist is a ?Craigslist? application that is completely graphics based, with the exception of numerical characters. No literacy of any kind is required to use this application, users would only be required to understand the basic concept of numbers. In rural areas, inefficiencies in communication is a classic problem and severely slows down the trade in these areas. One cause of the inefficiency is the difficulty of communicating across many zones with different dialects and cultures (for example, in the case of India). A graphics-based ?Craigslist? application will bypass these barriers to temporarily meliorate these inefficiencies in trade. The service will be hosted on the local cloud. The application on the phone interacts with the local database on the cloud through one of the many instances of the web service using PHP. Read the full profile »

Smart Energy is an energy efficient consulting firm that aims to provide profitable and eco-friendly energy and water solutions to remote rural Indian clients by using renewable resources. The strategy is to integrate mobile technologies to implement a pay per use system that functions through cell phone applications. The goal is to make rural areas self-sufficient through individually tailored renewable energy solutions. Read the full profile »

The Giligan Bank is a grouped system of bicycles that use Nokia's cell-phone charging bicycle adapters in all conditions and environments in a communal setting to overcome the difficulties inherent to Nokia?s adapter that only works when the bike is in motion. It's also not always possible to ensure proper riding conditions in developing worlds. By simply lifting the tires of a bicycle to eliminate movement through space, the chargers remain effective no matter if it wet, dry, cold, or hot. Chargers can be used inside or outside for the greatest convenience of the riders, making the task of charging a phone a task that only depends on the availability of time, not the availability of a safe place to bike. A lifted bike remains easy to move so space won't be a major issue, and can still easily be used as a means of transport when needed. The system is easy to setup and use, requiring no fancy equipment or parts, just a few boards to place under the screws holding the tires in place that will lift them to a point where they no longer make contact with the ground. Maintenance of a lifted bike is minimal as the stress most vulnerable parts of the bike ? wheels, brakes, and chain ? is next to nothing. Read the full profile »

textFIRSTAID is an application that combines an extensive web database of women?s healthcare concerns, natural remedies, and information about staying healthy and well. textFIRSTAID is a text messaging application that interacts with its users via text message providing a search of the medical database and sending information about diagnosis and solutions to the user. textFIRSTAID works very similarly to webmd.com (type in a search about healthcare concerns and get information about these symptoms) but is done all through text messaging and in a more condensed form. Not only does ?textFIRSTAID? provide a diagnosis, it provides a solution, remedies, and guidance. Read the full profile »

DIMSUM mobile classified ads is a mobile solution that brings the convenience of classified ads to the hands of people in emerging markets where communication infrastructure is meager and computer access is very limited. The system will rely on SMS service to make it accessible to people even with the simplest mobile phone. DIMSUM mobile ads will enable people to list their items in the network to make it accessible by more people compared to the conventional way. For the buyer, DIMSUM will enable them to access more items. It is expected that after adopting DIMSUM mobile classified ads, people in emerging markets can have better income and more convenient access to classified ads. Read the full profile »

In a word, the Milagro Water Wheel is a solution to a major theme expressed by so many in the developing world: easy access to clean water. Although there are existing solutions to provide clean water, for example, dispensing clean water through kiosks, due to the remoteness of the villages where many people reside, people often have to travel long distance and carry heavy loads to obtain and clean water. Customer surveys by several Clean Water organizations have shown that the main impediment to their growth is the difficulty in carrying the water home. The Milagro Water Wheel provides a novel water transport product that is designed from the ground up with the developing world consumers in mind. It provides a simple, rugged, and sustainable solution to the water transport problem that could facilitate people?s access to clean water. The Water Wheel sells for the same price as existing water containers, while offering a 40:1 reduction in the effort to carry water. Read the full profile »

Biogas is produced from the anaerobic digestion of organic matter such as animal manure, sewage, and municipal solid waste. After it is processed to required standards of purity, biogas becomes a renewable substitute for natural gas and can be used to fuel natural gas vehicles. Our product will empower each end user with the ability to manufacture their own energy. Each consumer will no longer be subjected to the monopoly that the utility companies currently have on consumers. In the areas where utility companies don?t provide service, our product will enable the end users to have bio gas at their disposal for power usage in their homes, something that would otherwise not be available to them. Read the full profile »

InnoNext has been established with a mission of identifying problems in local villages that would traditionally be solved through charity work and will create local entrepreneurial models ultimately run by local residents. As some experts note, for all the promise of market-based business models, most ventures are viable in markets in which the disadvantaged have at least some income or assets. InnoNext identified a market in Kenya that is prime for agricultural products that also has a need of solar energy products due to the fact that the locals cannot afford electrification costs. Our venture will be bootstrapped by its founders and expect to break even after about 13 months of operation. Our mission is to create a sustainable, social distribution model where we improve the livelihoods of the people by helping generate income from gainful employment or entrepreneurial activities that can elevate their economic status to be consumers of non-essential items. Read the full profile »

We are looking to offer a service that will help fisherman preserve their fish, sell their catch for higher prices, and reduce the amount of fish that is discarded back into the ecosystem. This service would put ice trucks in the poor fishing villages previously mentioned. Trained workers would wait in the harbor, collect and label the fish brought in by each fisherman who accepts the service, and take the catch to the market to sell for a fair price. This will allow fisherman to reach a larger market, including inland areas previously unable to receive fresh fish. Fish unable to be sold will be bought at wholesale prices by local farmers who will use it as feed for their animals. Our overhead will be approximate 30% of the sales of the fish, which will be used to offset transportation costs, pay the workers, and pay our capital expenses. Read the full profile »

The mission of the EDT Team is to design, develop and market new technologies in the field of wind energy. We aim to reduce what is spent on energy by taking advantage of the most common form of transportation in rural India: the bicycle. By attaching our device to the bicycle, we can harness some of the wind energy created by the forward motion. Essentially, instead of paying for all the energy that they need, users will be able to supplement their current energy needs using our product, getting some electricity for free while riding their bicycles. We are committed to providing Wind Chargers for bicycle retailers and manufacturers worldwide. Read the full profile »

Adaptek redesigned the enclosure for the Mr. Fuel Cell line of fuel cells with the intent of making the system both more marketable and appealing, as well as more functional. The new design, tailored to consumer tastes, will not only improve adoption rates for this technology but will encourage communities to incorporate fuel cell technology into their everyday lives resulting in reduced carbon emissions and waste. In addition to making the fuel cell a more marketable product, the redesign of the enclosure package allows for integration of more practical applications of the fuel cell. Read the full profile »

BetterLife, is a non-profit organization that provides a hands-free flashlight that uses human movement as its power source. A small magnet sliding through a copper coil can charge a capacitor which then can power an LED. This flashlight, attached around the wrist or the ankle, can be charged at anytime just by the motion of the arms or legs while walking. It meets the core competencies of the people; rugged to withstand the environment, green technology as there are no disposable parts and no harsh chemicals or smoke as byproducts, affordable and less than our competitors, user centric, anyone can use our product with no special clothing or skills, and the use of local labor and materials will be used whenever possible. Read the full profile »