Perspectives on Innovation

BonnieJean Butler is the newest member of our Client Services team, and is managing the Water Problems Affecting People in Developing Countries Challenge.  BonnieJean spent time in India and offers a unique perspective on the impact of this Challenge.

You and I can help save a life. Yes, you and I. And it’s easier than you think.

During my world-wide travels, I saw hard-working moms walk for miles in the hottest, most humid weather you can imagine. The destination? The closest stream. Why? To fill a bowl of water and walk back those very same miles to bring the water to their babies.

Her goal seems like a simple one, but these moms know the water has something in it that may make their children sick and possibly die. They’ve seen before; so many other babies have already died. Maybe this time it will be different. Maybe this stream is cleaner. Maybe my baby is stronger than the others. Maybe not.  So why do it? Simply, their babies will die quicker without water. What a horrible choice.

In some countries, more than 20% of children die before they reach 5 years old and high bacteria content in water is a major contributor. It’s hard to believe or even imagine if you haven’t seen it. People world-wide are dying because of bacteria-filled water.

We wonder, “can’t they just fix it”? Great question! Here’s your chance to help, and it’s easy! Not like “lose 50 lbs in 3 weeks” easy, but really and truly easy. We are seeking to identify these water related issues and you can help identify and solve them. Submit your own ideas or forward this Challenge to your family, friends, or strangers; whatever it takes.

You don’t have to irrigate the Sahara. Smaller incremental changes or improvements are usually more actionable. Get creative with solutions that use limited funding, but create a big benefit for a population. Think about cost efficient solutions can be deployed quickly and have a wide ranging impact.

Please get involved with this Challenge. You really can make a difference and maybe even save the life of a child. So think about it… And pass it on.

BonnieJean

Adrienne Peirce, a Solver from Minneapolis, Minnesota, recently won the InnoCentive Challenge “Ideas for Redesigning the InnoCentive Website”.

I was a Quality Engineer in the medical device industry for 6 years. Before that, I earned my bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Minnesota. Having decided to pursue a career in business and possibly non-profits, I returned to the University of Minnesota to get an MBA from the Carlson School of Management. After graduation, I decided to spend some time in India to learn about social needs and business in one if the fastest growing economies on earth. After 4 months of volunteering and touring, I have returned to the Minneapolis to start a freelance consulting practice with a friend focused on business strategies for the greater good.

At one point in India, I had some spare time while I researched different volunteer and internships opportunities. I had read about InnoCentive in business school, so I went to the site to see if there were any Challenges with a business orientation that I could solve. InnoCentive had posted its own Challenge for ideas for updating their website. As a new user I had plenty of ideas and spent some of my time in India putting them all together in my submission.

I am a huge InnoCentive fan. It is a very modern way for companies and individuals and ideas to come together. The fact that InnoCentive is expanding into even more areas that I am interested in, like the Rockefeller Foundation, Clean Tech, and Public Policy, keeps me coming back to check for new challenges.

Find out more about Adrienne on her blog, Life of 80.

In September of this year, we announced that a Challenge to create technology for solar-powered wireless routers had been solved. The purpose of this Challenge was to provide marginalized women and children in rural India access to the skills and knowledge needed to escape the sex trade.

The Seeker organization for this Challenge, ASSET India was founded by Ray Umashankar two years ago, with his daughter Nita and his wife Sushila. In the two years since ASSET was founded, the organization has opened several training centers in urban areas in India, where 369 students have been enrolled. Plans for 2009 include two or three more training centers and 600 or more enrolled students. Now with the availability of wireless, solar powered routers, he can reach many more people, including those who live more remote rural areas.

In December, Umashankar was recognized with The Purpose Prize which celebrates and supports “outstanding individuals 60 or older who are producing significant social innovation and accomplishing work of great importance. ”

I recently caught up with Dean Umashankar, to get a status update on the implementation of the wireless router technology, as well as an update on the organization’s plans for the future.

Hello Dean Umashankar. It has been a few months since the solar powered router Challenge was solved – what has ASSET been up to in this time?

ASSET has been busy raising funds to pay for the hardware, student wages and faculty salary. The total budget is $42,000 and so far we have raised $8,000. The two prototypes for the router should be ready and tested by September 2009.

Our partner organizations are eagerly awaiting the deployment of the routers. Once the technology is deployed successfully, we will be able to open several centers in rural India. ASSET has had many requests for setting up centers in small rural towns.

How do you anticipate that this deployment will help expand the ASSET mission?

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Dr. Sureshan, an InnoCentive Solver from India, was one of the winners of the TB Alliance Challenge seeking new methods to cost-effectively manufacture tuberculosis drug candidates.

I am a scientist by profession. My training was in organic chemistry and my present interests are in medicinal chemistry and chemical biology, more specifically in cellular signaling. Recently I have joined as a senior scientist in the Institute of Life Sciences, Hyderabad, India. I did my PhD from National Chemical Laboratory Pune, India working in the group of Dr. M. S. Shashidhar. After my PhD, I moved to Japan to work in the group of Prof. Yutaka Watanabe, Ehime University availing JSPS fellowship from Govt. of Japan.  After two years of postdoctoral stay in Japan, I joined Prof. Barry Potter’s group (University of Bath, UK) as a Research Officer. After spending two years in England, I have received Alexander von Humboldt fellowship from the Federal Govt. of Germany and joined the group of Prof. Herbert Waldmann at the Max-Planck Institute for Molecular Physiology, Dortmund, Germany.  I have published my research accomplishments, till date, in more than 35 international publications.  In recognition of my scientific achievements, my biography has been incorporated in three books by Marquis Whos Who, U.S.A namely, Who is Who in the World, Who is Who in Science and Technology and Who is Who in Asia. Among other academic activities, I am a frequent reviewer of different international journals and I am editorial board member of the journal OPEN GLYCOSCIENCE, a forum for publishing chemical and biological aspects of carbohydrates and related biomolecules. (more…)

Liz Moise:
I’m joined by Ray Umashankar, Executive Director of the ASSET India Foundation. ASSET India is a non-profit organization that provides computer literacy programs to marginalized children in India so they will have the skills and knowledge needed to escape the sex trade industry in India. ASSET India recently posted a Challenge on InnoCentive seeking the solution of a solar-powered wireless router so they could bring their services to rural parts of India. The Challenge was recently solved by Solver, Zacary Brown. We’ll be putting out the announcement in the next few weeks. Ray, Can you describe the challenges that marginalized Indian children face and how your organization is working to alleviate them?

Ray Umashankar:
Liz, all the new found wealth generated by India’s prominence as a global IT power has not trickled down to the people at the bottom of the pyramid. Life at the bottom of the pyramid has become even more difficult with rising food and fuel costs.

Working with nonprofits to help abused women and children get back on their feet, our daughter Nita was stunned to discover the hopelessness of the children of sex workers. She knew she would see dire poverty in India, but these children seemed to be the most disenfranchised of all: even the poorest of the poor ostracized them. The fear of HIV/AIDS made it worse.

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