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The Frugal Innovation Hub's (FIH) mission is to engage students and faculty in technological and humanitarian projects through partnerships and programs.
The FIH acts as a liaison and as a facilitator. We act as a liaison between engineering students, faculty members, and organizations (our clients) who solve humanitarian problems together. We also act as a facilitator between students and their clients to ensure consolidation of projects and the appropriate technology for deliverables.
"The Engineer requires the imagination to visualize the needs of a society and to appreciate what is possible as well as the technological and broad social age understanding to bring his vision to reality” – Sir. Eric Ashby
When a client approaches us with a need, we engage students and faculty to address their pain-point. Once a student adopts a “need”, the FIH facilitates the process of translating that “need” into an engineering problem through the design innovation process. We do that by:
- Encouraging the student in developing a deeper understanding of the need
- Guiding the student in defining and redefining the engineering problem to solve
- Providing resources and feedback on the potential solutions
- Supporting the process of prototyping and testing
Moreover, we promote a frugal and entrepreneurial approach to projects through our signature programs. To learn more about the structure of our program, check out our hub chart.
We do projects internationally and locally. We have developed humanitarian projects in Africa, Asia, Latin America/Caribbean, and the United States.
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All innovative ideas started the same way everywhere... with a talk... Let’s talk.
We work “hand-in-hand” with nonprofit organizations, NGOs, and social enterprises on technology projects aimed to support organizational efforts to better serve their target populations. If you are working to improve lives and your organization has a need that can be solved through engineering ingenuity, contact us!
Email: fih@scu.edu
Santa Clara University
School of Engineering
500 El Camino Real
Santa Clara, CA 95053
Guadalupe Hall, Bldg. 455, 3rd Floor
(408) 554-2334
Opportunities increase when you help others win. A little win for a partner is a little win for us.
Whether you're a student interested in accumulating professional experience while changing lives, a faculty member interested in supporting students developing humanitarian projects around the globe, a social entrepreneur in need of technical support, or a community organization struggling to create innovation, we are excited to engage with you!
Project Snapshots
These are the kinds of wonderful things our students and faculty are doing in humanitarian technology:
Senior students Alejandra Huitron and Nicholas Supan designed an educational lantern with a solar charging system. The project included lesson plans along with assembly of the lanterns. The kits are intended to be used by the Lightyear Foundation with high school students in Ghana, Africa.
Humanitarian Award 2017
For their capstone work, bioengineering seniors Nina Morrison, Samantha O’Connor, and Callie Weber wanted to tackle a brand-new project, from the ground up. Advised by Unyoung (Ashley) Kim, the team designed a low-cost paper-based sensor to detect the presence of E. coli in human breast milk donated to breast milk banks. Their aim is to ensure post-pasteurization safety in developing countries, where traditional lab culturing methods are unavailable. The team was selected to present their Social Enterprise Pitch at the Global Health Conference at Yale University. In June, Callie and Karen traveled to Mumbai, India, to share their device with LTMGH (Lokmanya Tilak Municipal General Hospital). For now, they are working to validate their results locally with Mothers’ Milk Bank.
When SCU Business major Ty Van Herweg went to Uganda to work with a social enterprise, he noticed there was a problem connecting people in rural areas with the boda drivers that provide transportation on motorcycles. He came back to the US determined to return following graduation to start an UBER-style SMS-based service for rural Ugandans. After hearing that story, Computer Science and Engineering majors Michael Brew and Bryant Larsen offered to build an SMS-based system to connect drivers and riders as their senior project. And they did it! They donated the code, and Ty went back to Uganda with a Fulbright scholarship to start the Wakabi social enterprise.
It turns out that many homeless people own cellular phones, which surprisingly help them out of poverty. After all, how do you get a job if you do not have a phone? How do employers get in touch with you? Based on this information, Computer Science and Engineering students have been developing apps to enable phones to help homeless people. Simply is an app that was developed to make it easier for older people to use smartphones. StreetConnect is an announcement tool that enables organizations working with homeless people to send them announcements via SMS. Youth StreetConnect, a Yelp-like mobile social network, was developed to help young homeless women find resources and support.
