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Wednesday, December 17th, 2014
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| 12:00a |
Life in better light Over the years, EGG Energy, co-founded by MIT and Harvard University engineering and business students, has garnered public praise as the “Netflix of electricity” for rural Tanzania.
In the region outside Dar es Salaam, the nation’s capital — where only about 6 percent of households have grid access — EGG equipped off-grid homes with battery systems that powered several LED light bulbs, mobile chargers, televisions, radios, and other electronic devices for several days. Paying a subscription rate or fee per swap, homeowners returned drained batteries to charging stations, erected within walking distance and run by local entrepreneurs, and collected fully recharged batteries — much like exchanging DVDs via Netflix.
By 2013, EGG had provided about 1,000 homes in the region with these systems. EGG aimed to improve the quality of life for families and business owners, but also sought to solve health and environmental issues by replacing hazardous and polluting kerosene lanterns, used for lighting, with light bulbs.
But EGG has since scrapped its battery-exchange model for an improved clean-energy approach: equipping homes with mobile-connected, rent-to-own, solar-power systems. With its new model, EGG is reaching larger homes, schools, and businesses such as barber shops, cellphone charging stations, and movie houses, where people gather to watch movies or sports on big televisions.
“You can go 20 to 30 kilometers out of the city and be in areas where there’s no power, and people there have lost all hope of ever getting any power,” says Jamie Yang PhD ’08, co-founder and president of EGG. “This is a step toward having a more modern household and, for some, it’s a business opportunity.”
EGG sends local electricians to hook up homes with a solar panel supplying 50 to 200 watts (depending on need), a battery, wiring, a mobile phone charger, and at least three 4-watt LED lights. EGG monitors the systems remotely and customers pay bills via “mobile money” services that have started cropping up around Africa. Systems cost anywhere from $650 to $2,000, depending on the size, financed over two years.
The startup has installed more than 300 solar-powered systems, and aims to install 2,000 systems in three regions in Tanzania in the next year. After that, Yang says, it will branch out to other regions of Tanzania, where about 82 percent of the nation’s 45 million people lack grid access.
In June, EGG won the National Geographic Society’s inaugural Terra Watt Prize, worth $125,000. In November, the Alstom Foundation granted the startup about $68,000 to deploy is system to 18 schools in Tanzania’s Iringa region, replacing expensive generators that power lights and phone-charging stations.
Power of connectivity
By providing rural Tanzania with LED lighting and other modern electric conveniences, EGG has created positive social and environmental change, Yang says.
So far, EGG has helped replace thousands of kerosene lamps, traditionally burned indoors for light. These lamps spew out more than 18,000 tons of black carbon annually in Tanzania, according to a 2013 report from the Clean Air Task Force — polluting the air and causing indoor air pollution, which the World Health Organization estimates causes about 4 million deaths annually across the developing world. (EGG estimates that each customer had used about four liters of kerosene per month.)
Households are also using many fewer disposable AA batteries — usually used for flashlights — which tend to pile up in local landfills, where their toxic chemicals can leak into the ground and water.
Not needing to buy disposable batteries and kerosene saves customers about $8 to $12 per month. (With EGG’s subscription battery-exchange system, customers saved around 50 percent monthly.) Savings from replacing expensive diesel generators at businesses, schools, and larger homes are more difficult to calculate, Yang admits. But, he says, solar power is generally significantly cheaper than diesel generators for the service they provide.
Not surprisingly, Yang says, access to televisions and radios has helped EGG customers feel more socially connected. “This ability to connect to other people around the country and to also feel that they’re more knowledgeable or connected to the country, and the events, are the things that people really enjoy,” he says.
Reaching that “last mile”
EGG’s story starts at MIT, where its co-founders met through a shared interest in energy issues in the developing world.
In 2008, Yang, a nuclear science and engineering student who had started researching energy issues, met Blandine Antoine PhD ’13, an Engineering Systems Division (ESD) student who had recently traveled around the world to research energy innovations. When they learned that more than 500 million people in the sub-Saharan African region lack access to electricity, they started brainstorming ways to connect them to the grid.
Reaching out to the MIT community for ideas, they attracted ESD student Rhonda Jordan PhD ’13, who had traveled to Tanzania as part of the United Nations Environment Program, and focused her MIT dissertation specifically on improving grid connectivity there.
With Jordan’s knowledge and connections to Tanzania, the startup formed with an initial focus, in fact, of bringing solar-home systems to the country. But when a fourth co-founder, Jukka Valimaki MBA ’10, briefly traveled to Tanzania to conduct market research, he returned with dire news. “To our surprise, solar was completely infeasible economically,” says Jordan, who initially served as EGG’s chief operations officer and is now an EGG board observer.
In their combined research and experience, however, the co-founders had discovered an interesting phenomenon in Tanzania: Even for houses close to the grid, an inefficient distribution system and prohibitive costs were stopping widespread connectivity.
“In some rural, and in urban and [suburban] areas, you’ll see these power transmission lines, but there’s no distribution line that’s strapping to the customer’s household,” Jordan says.
So the team added three MBA students from the Harvard Business School and pivoted to its battery-exchange model — almost literally a “last-mile” distribution plan — that earned them awards from the 2009 MIT IDEAS Global Challenge and other competitions. From 2009 to 2013, EGG erected several charging stations, which became widely popular. (In an article in MIT Spectrum, Jordan recalls, early in the startup’s history, seeing customers lined up at the stations an hour before they opened.)
Even after connecting about 300 households to each charging station, however, the startup was falling short of its target of 800. With a declining cost for solar panels and the ability for customers to make mobile payments, which greatly reduced the price of operations, Jordan says, it was time “to go full circle” — back to solar.
But EGG’s “last-mile” philosophy hasn’t changed, Yang says — it’s just taken on a new meaning. Technology-agnostic, the startup focuses only on marketing and deploying optimal energy systems to customers, managing interactions, and troubleshooting. Today the best energy solution for customers is solar power, Yang says, but tomorrow it could be something new and improved.
“It was more literal ‘last-mile’ with the original conception,” he says. “But in general, we’re talking about closing that final gap between that energy system and the customer.” | | 12:00a |
3Q: Hacking Ebola health care Bryan Ranger, a third-year doctoral student in the Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology program, was the student lead for MIT’s participation in the weekend event Stop Ebola Hackathon (Dec. 13-14). The event was sponsored by the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Center for Global Health, MIT Hacking Medicine, and other organizations. It drew more than 100 participants, who heard from front-line medical workers about their experiences dealing with the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, and then spent the weekend in teams attempting to devise ways of addressing the hardships and issues of working against a deadly disease under difficult conditions. MIT News asked Ranger to describe the organization and the outcome of the weekend hackathon.
Q. What is the group MIT Hacking Medicine, and what was the idea of this weekend’s event?
A. MIT Hacking Medicine is an organization on campus that consists of students as well as other members of the greater Boston healthcare community. Our mission is to bring different stakeholders together to come up with innovations and solutions in the healthcare space. To that end, we help coordinate hackathons to encourage unlikely players to work together on solving real medical challenges. MIT Hacking Medicine has held more than 20 hackathons, and in some cases, teams have even gone on to form successful companies to turn their ideas into a reality.
This weekend’s event, which was primarily organized by the MGH Center for Global Health, focused specifically on driving innovation for frontline healthcare workers and patients dealing with the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. The hackathon kicked off with several speakers, including a nurse who just recently volunteered with Medecins Sans Frontieres in Liberia. She, along with other speakers, shared their experiences and their challenges, which nicely led into a “pitching session,” where participants proposed possible solutions to the challenges they heard about. Participants then formed diverse teams (consisting of clinicians, business people, designers, and students) and spent the remainder of the weekend developing their ideas together. At the end of the hackathon, each team made a three-minute pitch about the innovative solutions they came up with.
Q. What kinds of ideas were people able to come up with in such a short time? Were there any that seemed promising?
A. Overall, some great ideas were presented, and it was fantastic to see how much the teams were able to accomplish in such a short time! At first, many teams focused on personal protective equipment (PPE), which is a very significant issue for those working on the front lines. These ideas ranged from big challenges like developing an entirely new design for the protective suits people working with Ebola wear to focusing on smaller challenges that could potentially be implemented faster. For example, one team concentrated on ways to prevent fogging of masks, while another worked on a wearable cooling system that could be worn under standard PPE. Small modifications like this wouldn’t require changing the whole 20-step process that professionals working with Ebola have learned and are used to [for donning the protective gear].
There were also other teams that focused on more technically complex solutions that could have farther-reaching impact in healthcare beyond the Ebola epidemic. This included one team’s efforts in developing a computerized facial-recognition system that could be used in the field to quickly link patients with their medical records.
At the end of the hackathon, two teams were given prizes for their pitches. One prize went to the team that developed an idea for a portable containment unit that could quickly be set up at field sites in rural areas as the disease spreads. The other went to a team that developed a concept for a low-cost and sterilizeable wristband device that would measure a patient’s temperature and alert a doctor if a fever was developing.
Q. How did you get involved in the organization?
A. I joined MIT Hacking Medicine this past summer after having a great time participating in their “Grand Hack” last spring. At the event, I worked with a very diverse team on an exciting global health project — it was a lot of fun!
I have a strong interest in global health, so what really solidified my involvement with MIT Hacking Medicine was my participation in a hackathon we held in Mbarara, Uganda, this past summer. I work in prosthetic-device research at the MIT Media Lab, and also co-instruct a course at the MIT D-Lab called “Developing World Prosthetics.” I took this opportunity to pitch a project at the event and subsequently worked with a local prosthetist to brainstorm solutions to some of the challenges he faced. This gave me a unique opportunity to actively engage some of my research work at MIT in a manner and in an environment that involves local stakeholders, which was really exciting.
Since then, I have mainly been involved with the organizational side of hackathons. I enjoy fostering these collaborative environments, and providing participants with experiences that are hopefully as memorable and as enjoyable as my own experience has been with hackathons. | | 12:00a |
Life on an aquaplanet Nearly 2,000 planets beyond our solar system have been identified to date. Whether any of these exoplanets are hospitable to life depends on a number of criteria. Among these, scientists have thought, is a planet’s obliquity — the angle of its axis relative to its orbit around a star.
Earth, for instance, has a relatively low obliquity, rotating around an axis that is nearly perpendicular to the plane of its orbit around the sun. Scientists suspect, however, that exoplanets may exhibit a host of obliquities, resembling anything from a vertical spinning top to a horizontal rotisserie. The more extreme the tilt, the less habitable a planet may be — or so the thinking has gone.
Now scientists at MIT have found that even a high-obliquity planet, with a nearly horizontal axis, could potentially support life, so long as the planet were completely covered by an ocean. In fact, even a shallow ocean, about 50 meters deep, would be enough to keep such a planet at relatively comfortable temperatures, averaging around 60 degrees Fahrenheit year-round.
David Ferreira, a former research scientist in MIT’s Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences (EAPS), says that on the face of it, a planet with high obliquity would appear rather extreme: Tilted on its side, its north pole would experience daylight continuously for six months, and then darkness for six months, as the planet revolves around its star.
“The expectation was that such a planet would not be habitable: It would basically boil, and freeze, which would be really tough for life,” says Ferreira, who is now a lecturer at the University of Reading, in the United Kingdom. “We found that the ocean stores heat during summer and gives it back in winter, so the climate is still pretty mild, even in the heart of the cold polar night. So in the search for habitable exoplanets, we're saying, don't discount high-obliquity ones as unsuitable for life.”
Details of the group’s analysis are published in the journal Icarus. The paper’s co-authors are Ferreira; Sara Seager, the Class of 1941 Professor in EAPS and MIT’s Department of Physics; John Marshall, the Cecil and Ida Green Professor in Earth and Planetary Sciences; and Paul O’Gorman, an associate professor in EAPS.
Tilting toward a habitable exoplanet
Ferreira and his colleagues used a model developed at MIT to simulate a high-obliquity “aquaplanet” — an Earth-sized planet, at a similar distance from its sun, covered entirely in water. The three-dimensional model is designed to simulate circulations among the atmosphere, ocean, and sea ice, taking into the account the effects of winds and heat in driving a 3000-meter deep ocean. For comparison, the researchers also coupled the atmospheric model with simplified, motionless “swamp” oceans of various depths: 200 meters, 50 meters, and 10 meters.
The researchers used the detailed model to simulate a planet at three obliquities: 23 degrees (representing an Earth-like tilt), 54 degrees, and 90 degrees.
For a planet with an extreme, 90-degree tilt, they found that a global ocean — even one as shallow as 50 meters — would absorb enough solar energy throughout the polar summer and release it back into the atmosphere in winter to maintain a rather mild climate. As a result, the planet as a whole would experience spring-like temperatures year round.
“We were expecting that if you put an ocean on the planet, it might be a bit more habitable, but not to this point,” Ferreira says. “It’s really surprising that the temperatures at the poles are still habitable.”
A runaway “snowball Earth”
In general, the team observed that life could thrive on a highly tilted aquaplanet, but only to a point. In simulations with a shallower ocean, Ferreira found that waters 10 meters deep would not be sufficient to regulate a high-obliquity planet’s climate. Instead, the planet would experience a runaway effect: As soon as a bit of ice forms, it would quickly spread across the dark side of the planet. Even when this side turns toward the sun, according to Ferreira, it would be too late: Massive ice sheets would reflect the sun’s rays, allowing the ice to spread further into the newly darkened side, and eventually encase the planet.
“Some people have thought that a planet with a very large obliquity could have ice just around the equator, and the poles would be warm,” Ferreira says. “But we find that there is no intermediate state. If there’s too little ocean, the planet may collapse into a snowball. Then it wouldn’t be habitable, obviously.”
Darren Williams, a professor of physics and astronomy at Pennsylvania State University, says past climate modeling has shown that a wide range of climate scenarios are possible on extremely tilted planets, depending on the sizes of their oceans and landmasses. Ferreira’s results, he says, reach similar conclusions, but with more detail.
“There are one or two terrestrial-sized exoplanets out of a thousand that appear to have densities comparable to water, so the probability of an all-water planet is at least 0.1 percent,” Williams says. “The upshot of all this is that exoplanets at high obliquity are not necessarily devoid of life, and are therefore just as interesting and important to the astrobiology community.” | | 11:55a |
Glen Shor named vice president for finance Glen Shor, who is now secretary of administration and finance for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, will join MIT in January as its next vice president for finance (VPF). Israel Ruiz, executive vice president and treasurer, announced the news today in an email to MIT faculty and staff.
Shor has worked for Gov. Deval Patrick’s administration since 2007. Before assuming his current role in 2013, he served as executive director of the Massachusetts Health Connector, overseeing the Commonwealth’s public health insurance exchange from 2010 to 2012; as assistant secretary for health care policy and deputy general counsel; and as policy director in the Commonwealth’s Executive Office for Administration and Finance from 2007 to 2010.
Before serving in the Patrick administration, Shor was senior policy counsel and assistant attorney general in the Office of the Attorney General of Massachusetts, a senior policy aide to former U.S. Rep. Martin T. Meehan, chief counsel to U.S. Sen. Charles E. Schumer, and a public interest attorney. MIT’s previous VPF, Michael Howard, left MIT in June.
“Glen brings exceptional financial, operational, and leadership skills to the position of VPF. He has a deep commitment to service and a collaborative leadership style that resonate with the MIT culture,” Ruiz wrote.” I have the greatest enthusiasm for the contributions Glen will make to the Institute.”
In his new role, Shor will lead a team that is charged with delivering effective financial and administrative services to the Institute. As VPF, he will have responsibility for budget, financial analysis, accounting, and tax functions, as well as financial operations, which include procurement, sourcing, travel, accounts payable, and payroll. The VPF also plays a critical role in ensuring the integrity of the Institute’s financial reporting and compliance functions.
“The vice president for finance plays a vital role as a strategic steward of MIT’s resources,” MIT President L. Rafael Reif says. “With the breadth and intensity of his past experience, Glen Shor will be a tremendous addition in this post.”
“I am excited to join MIT as vice president for finance,” Shor says. “I look forward to joining an exceptional finance team in supporting MIT’s mission of advancing knowledge and progress through world-class academics and research.”
As secretary of administration and finance, Shor was responsible for managing state finances and budgetary activities, including development of the Commonwealth’s operating and capital budgets. He oversaw 17 state agencies with more than 3,300 employees providing core administrative services, including state-tax collection, information technology services, and human resource management. As chair of the Board of the Massachusetts Health Connector, Shor continued to lead health coverage expansion in the Commonwealth; he also served on the boards of the Health Policy Commission and Massachusetts Life Sciences Center. Previously, as assistant secretary for health care policy, he was a lead policy person for implementing health care reform in Massachusetts, and was profiled in the Boston Globe Magazine in 2012 for his leadership.
Shor holds a BA in history from Yale University, awarded in 1993, and earned a law degree from Harvard University in 1996. He lives in Needham, Mass., with his wife, Ellen, and two children. |
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