Over 20 million farmers in the Asia-Pacific region rely on small-scale aquaculture for food security and income. Their yields are less than industrial ponds due to low dissolved oxygen (DO) levels in the water. We have developed a wind-powered aeration system, WERLWind, which can accomplish aeration in ponds sustainably. WERLWind is a floating surface aerator consisting of a vertical axis wind turbine coupled to an impeller underwater. Wind energy is converted to mechanical energy by the turbine which rotates the impeller. This induces circulation inside the pond, limiting DO losses to atmosphere, distributing DO uniformly and improving overall DO content.
The NeMo Assessment System aids identification of seven signs of neonatal illness endorsed by the WHO and aims to empower mothers in low-resource settings to accurately and frequently assess newborn health from home during the first week of life. The device is comprised of a novel, wearable sensor paired with a smartphone application that guides mothers through a comprehensive assessment of neonatal danger signs. Through extensive research and validation conducted in rural Uganda, NeMo has been designed to effectively task shift danger sign identification from community health workers to mothers, catalyzing early referrals of sick neonates to prevent avoidable deaths.
We design and manufacture community-scale, biomass-powered cookstoves that replace the inefficient, smoky open fires and basic stoves used for most institutional cooking in low income countries. Institutional kitchens are notorious for poor air quality, contribute to climate change, and consume large amounts of often unsustainably harvested firewood or charcoal that contribute to environmental degradation and pose a financial burden to institutions. Our stoves protect both human health and the environment by reducing fuel use by an estimated 75-90% and emissions by 90% or more, and by venting all remaining smoke outdoors and away from cooks.
Biomass (crop/forest residues) is loose, wet, and bulky, making it logistically expensive to transport. Therefore, around 4 billion tons/year of biomass are burned in the open air rather than converted into valuable fuels or chemicals. We focus on dramatically increasing the amount of waste biomass economically transformed into marketable products around the world. Using a novel concept called oxygen-lean torrefaction, we enable small-scale, low-cost, portable systems for decentralized biomass conversion that cuts transportation cost by 30 percent, brings additional livelihood to rural areas, and eliminates air pollution from open burning and up to 50 million tons/year of CO2e.
Aedna is a versatile, affordable, and convenient molecular assay platform for genetic analysis of organic matter. From water treatment facilities to household kitchens, Aedna can find widespread use in providing critical information that no other consumer device can.
Solar home systems and minigrids have taken East Africa, Bangladesh, and other markets by storm. As off grid and “bad grid” households climb the energy ladder, they demand new appliances -- especially “productive” appliances that generate supplemental income. Over 70% of families in Tanzania raise chickens for supplemental income and nutrition, but most have subsistence flocks that rely on natural egg incubation and provide small and volatile profits. Through mutual partnership with solar home system and minigrid companies, Kukua enables stable growth of otherwise volatile family income by making at-home artificial chicken egg incubation affordable and viable.
Low-cost drinking water filters are typically limited to bacteria removal, even though low-income people worldwide are disproportionately affected by rising levels of chemical contamination. Additionally, shipping expensive bottled water is common in emergency disaster relief. For ~$30 USD, Aguadapt builds off of our certified ceramic filter to solve these issues. The family-sized system is robust, deploys rapidly, and can be quickly installed in all common containers – providing safe drinking water for over three years. Aguadapt removes organic chemicals and 99.9999% of pathogens. It can be adapted with universal hardware to treat regionally-relevant contaminants like arsenic, lead, or fluoride.
Our core technology is a closed loop monatomic gas breathing power system by which the efficiency of current flexible power generating assets is increased up to 10% while generating zero air pollutants and capturing 100% of the generated carbon dioxide. Conceived to build on and enhance the features of the internal combustion engine, benchmark of power flexibility, this concept renders a zero emission, flexible, and efficient power generation system, retrofittable onto currently operating engines. These same principles provide the versatility to operate efficiently on renewable generated hydrogen enabling for large scale hydrogen energy storage schemes.
Ryan designs stable and scalable frameworks for growing hardware startups, aligning both the product and business strategies. Integrating with your team, he can effectively communicate across roles and disciplines, from the concrete engineering details to pitch decks. His expertise is in hardware product development, manufacturing, project management, process creation and flow, and strategic development.
Mariela is a telecommunications engineer with a Master of Science in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and MPA in Development Practice from Columbia University. In her role as Program Manager at E4C, she leads ICT4D initiatives and partnerships across all programs and supports strategic planning, implementation, and management of E4C programs in the Engineering for global development space.
Maha is an Assistant Professor in the Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Cornell University where she leads the Symbiotic Engineering and Analysis Laboratory (SEA Lab). The SEA Lab researches how to design offshore systems to sustainably extract resources from the ocean such as power, water, and food, as well as minerals key to the progress of clean energy. ISHOW 2015 Winner.
Biomedical engineer passionate about leveraging human-centered design to impact mental health. Previously worked as a health strategy consultant. Knight-Hennessy Scholar pursuing a master's degree in engineering design.
Paul's primary areas of interest are Design for Additive Manufacturing, Digital Thread for Additive Manufacturing, Design Optimization, Knowledge Representation in Product Development, Ontology and Semantic Relatedness for Design and Manufacturing, and Sustainable Manufacturing.
As a program advisor at USAID, Kevin evaluates and advises the Agency, Bureau, and Missions on programs creating resilient and sustainable economic growth among priority countries within the USAID portfolio.
Said Jahanmir is president of ASME and a prominent technology innovator and engineering executive with accomplishments across a wide spectrum of disciplines. Jahanmir, an ASME fellow, currently serves as assistant director for federal partnerships, at the Advanced Manufacturing National Program Office at the National Institute of Standards Technology (NIST). His current assignment is in the Executive Office of the President of the United States, where he serves as executive secretary for the Subcommittee on Advanced Manufacturing at the National Science and Technology Council. Jahanmir is also serving as president and CEO of Boston Tribology Associates
Empowers entrepreneurs to find solutions to poverty and climate change. Empowers intrapreneurs to innovate and commercialize their ideas.
Bob served in a variety of roles for GE for over 30 years and led a global team of over 350 engineers. Bob previously served as the Chairperson of ASME's Engineering Global Development Committee and has provided manufacturing guidance and expertise to ISHOW finalists as a judge since 2015.
As an architectural designer with over 10 years of international experience, Charles has contributed to the design and construction of hundreds of small-scale public infrastructure projects in both rural and urban conditions. Having developed a number of these projects in resource-strained environments, his work has shown consistent dedication to improving the lives of those most in need with low cost / high impact design solutions developed through community-driven design processes.
As ISHOW Lead, James has been a strong proponent of social innovations, lean startups, hardware, research, and entrepreneurship since 2011.
As a Co-Founder at Very and having been involved in over 250 product launches in the last 8 years, Ben leads a team of over 50 full-time engineers, designers and data scientists that work with clients to understand challenges they’re facing and build custom software-driven solutions. Ben believes that attracting and retaining top-tier talent is a key differentiator, which is why he champions reinvesting profits into employee benefits and cultural experiments.
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