With a special shout out to Indian Mobile Initiative for winning in all three categories, this year’s winners are:

$10,000 Global Challenge Awards
—
1. KOSIM WATER KEG
2. SOLAR AUTOCLAVE
3. PRACTICAL ENERGY NETWORK – winner of the School of Engineering’s Global Villages Challenge
4. INDIAN MOBILE INITIATIVE – congratulations on your sweep in all three award categories!
5. MAA-BARA – Winner of the Mohammad Yunus Challenge to Alleviate Poverty through Improved Agricultural Processes

IDEAS Awards
—
1. BIODIESEL – $5000
2. EYECATRA – $5000
3. HYDROHARVEST – $5000
4. LOW-COST CURRICULUM FOR THE BLIND – $5000
5. SAFE WATER WORLD – $5000
6. INDIAN MOBILE INITIATIVE – $7500
7. SOLAR AUTOCLAVE – $7500
8. INNOBOX – $7500
9. LOW-COST AUTOCLAVE – $10,000
10. ASSISTIVE TECH – $10,000

$5000 Community Choice Awards
—
1. LOW-COST CURRICULUM FOR THE BLIND
2. AQUA
3. INNOBOX
4. INDIAN MOBILE INITIATIVE
5. EYECATRA

You can learn more about this year’s teams here.

Later that same day, 46 teams of public service innovators led by MIT students entered final proposals into the 2011 IDEAS Competition and MIT Global Challenge. The Salud del Sol and MIT IIH collaborative Solar-Powered Autoclave was one of the teams. Twenty-four hours later, 84 judges from a range of disciplines began their reviews. And the Community Choice Award voting opened.

Please join us in supporting the spirit of invention as public service that has helped to define the Institute over that last 150 years. Today’s young innovators and entrepreneurs are tackling tough challenges in new ways – from low-cost medical devices that expand care to novel education programs that increase opportunity, these young solvers need your support.

Between now and April 25 you have the opportunity to cast up to 5 votes for the teams that you think demonstrate the greatest innovation, feasibility, and impact. The top five will secure $5000 implementation awards to advance their work. Here’s how you can help them succeed:
• Log on at http://globalchallenge.mit.edu/teams and get to know this year’s teams
• Cast your vote from the Solar-Powered Autoclave team’s profile page here.
• Spread the word! Use our social media hooks to promote the teams you support

Join on May 2 for the award ceremony where we’ll announce up to $150,000 in implementation awards – register to host an online viewing party at here.

And don’t forget: if you’re in Boston this weekend you won’t want to miss MIT’s Next Century Convocation. Get all the details here.

In September, the World Health Organization hosted their First Global Forum on Medical Devices in Bangkok, Thailand. Conference participants included winners from the Call for Innovative Technologies, policy makers, researchers, and clinicians. I had the chance to attend this event on behalf of Salud del Sol, Inc.; Innovations in International Health at MIT; and the solar autoclave research team. It was an incredible conference to be a part of and an honor for the solar autoclave to be recognized among such creative technologies as the remote anemia monitoring system from Biosense and Mark Zimmerman from Nepal, who is developing a simplified anesthesia unit for remote settings.

Dr. Margaret Chan, Director General of the WHO, captivated the group of 300 plus conference participants with her inauguration address, which I would describe as the most inspirational locker room speech for global health:

We are here, in part, because of concern about runaway health care costs and pressure to contain these costs. As noted in a 2007 World Health Assembly resolution, health technologies, and medical devices in particular, represent an economic as well as a technical challenge to health systems.

That resolution expressed concern about the waste of resources caused by investments in medical devices that do not meet high-priority needs, are incompatible with existing infrastructures, are irrationally or incorrectly used, or do not function efficiently. This tells us some of the pitfalls.

But we are also here because the unquestionable benefits of medical devices are so unevenly distributed. I wonder if there is any other area that illustrates so profoundly the great difference in the ability of wealthy and developing countries to reap the benefits of advances in medicine and technology?

We are looking forward to continued conversation and relationship-building opportunities from this conference!

 
“Our experience was amazing, there is a huge potential and opportunity for renewable solar energy in developing countries”, according to Dan Selby. Selby and Elsass also had the opportunity to live with host families in the rural villages during part of their visit. 
“We are very thankful for continued work and support that Salud Del Sol has done for the people of Sabana Grande. Their mission is much like that of Rotary International with an ultimate goal of making the world a better place for everyone to live and enjoy,” said Selby.

This restaurant required seven thousand of these bricks and after about an hour and a half we had moved just over one-hundred. As I shuttled the bricks from one pile to another, sweat pouring off me and my hands feeling quite raw, I couldn’t help but feel a sense of awe for the women who built that first centre. Adobe construction is one of the most physically demanding building projects, and The Solar Women of Totogalpa, small in stature but giants in determination, had worked to achieve a vision that even caught the attention of the United Nations, who declared the partnership with Groupo Fenix and their joint achievement as one of the most inspirational in the world.

Read the rest of Robert’s blog entry here: http://blog3p.wordpress.com/2010/05/07/the-solar-women-of-totogalpa-pt-2/

Thanks to all of the workers and owners of Whole Day Café. Without such great service, such a generous donation could not have been made!