August 2009

Kellen McMartin

Kellen McMartin is an MBSA candidate in the Global Social Sustainable Enterprise program at Colorado State University (CSU) and is a co-founder of AYZH International, a social venture bringing technology solutions to rural women. AYZH is taking an innovative approach to integrating corporate social responsibility into its manufacturing and distribution strategy. Kellen has served as an internal communications consultant to the CEO of Deloitte Tax LLP for the past two years. She also heads up communications for the company's Diversity & Inclusion and Greening initiatives. She holds a BS in Business Administration and a BA in Spanish Languages, Literatures, and Culture from CSU.

Zubaida Bai

Zubaida Bai is an MSBA candidate in the Global Social Sustainable Enterprise program at Colorado State University (CSU) and is a co-founder of AYZH International, a social venture bringing technology solutions to rural women. AYZH is taking an innovative approach to integrating corporate social responsibility into its manufacturing and distribution strategy. Zubaida has a Masters in Mechanical Engineering from Dalarna University, Sweden, and has served as a Project Officer for the Lemelson Foundation's Initiative in collaboration with Indian Institute of Technology Madras and Rural Innovations Network in India.

Randall Tagg

Randall (Randy) Tagg is an Associate Professor in the Physics Department at the University of Colorado Denver and Co-director (with Arlen Meyers, MD, MBA) of two interconnected prototyping labs, one on campus and the other off campus. Tagg was an undergrad at Caltech, where he worked at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. His PhD graduate work was at MIT and postdoctoral work (in nonlinear dynamics) was at the University of Texas at Austin. In developing the off-campus Community Prototyping Lab, the goal has been to translate the rich variety of resources available at these research institutions into a facility that is available--with student assistance--to small businesses and members of the community (including K-12 teachers and youth groups). A parallel effort on campus is focused on involving undergraduates from many majors in the development of biomedical instrumentation, using ideas from nonlinear dynamics, photonics, nanotechnology, and other emerging technologies.

Brian Thomas

Brian Thomas is a Senior Lecturer of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Baylor University. His research currently focuses on electrification techniques for the developing world. His team received a Sustainable Vision grant from the NCIIA in 2008, enabling them to launch village-level electrical companies in rural Honduras.

Brian Thomas has applied for and been awarded 1 grant

Pico-Hydropower Franchising: A Test Bed in Rural Honduras - Village Energy

Began January, 2008 and ended May, 2009

An NCIIA Sustainable Development Grant is sought to facilitate research on methods of generating electric power suitable for the rural villages of developing countries by using small scale hydropower (pico-hydro, or hydropower less than 5000 Watts) and for sus¬taining these methods through innovative entrepreneurial initiatives. A technologically appropriate, environmentally benign pico-hydro system has been developed and installed in a Honduran village as a prototype and proof of concept. • This grant will allow the development of business plans for two types of businesses: franchised power-producing operations companies located in rural villages and system design companies located in a nearby urban centers. • In addition, this grant will allow the creation of three to six more prototype systems in similar villages. • By establishing these systems as small energy providers, the parameters over which these businesses will be self-sustainable and market deployable will be better determined. At the successful completion of this project, the concept of franchised pico-hydropower will be sufficiently developed that researchers may pursue the next stage of funding from sources such as The World Bank, the National Science Foundation, or other sources. The proposed project has significant and probable potential to reduce poverty globally by improving the health, education, and economic burden of rural people while simultaneously generating two types of scalable entrepreneurial opportunities.

With the team:
- Dr. Bill Jordan Chair and Professor, Mechancial Engineering, Baylor University
- Ms. Lisa McKethan Grants Coodinator, Office of Sponsored Programs, Baylor University
- Dr. Gregory Leman Director of University Entrepreneurial Initiatives, Management & Entrepreneurship, Baylor University
- Dr. Kwang Lee Chair and Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Baylor University

Jon Schull

Jon Schull is an Associate Professor of Interactive Games and Media in the Golisano College of Computing and Information Science at RIT.

Xanthe Matychak

Xanthe Matychak teaches design-thinking in the Saunders College of Business and in the new Innovation Center at RIT in Rochester, NY. She holds a BA in music, writing and sculpture from Ithaca college and a MFA in Industrial Design from RIT.

Svetlana Peltsverger

Svetlana Peltsverger is an Assistant Professor of Information Technology at the Southern Polytechnic State University. She received her PhD in Computer Science from the Institute of System Analysis, Russian Academy of Sciences. Her primary research and teaching interests include: computational geometry, networking, distributed computing, and databases. She has achieved the CISSP (Certified Information Systems Security Professional).

Simon Baev

Simon Baev holds a PhD degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Alabama in Huntsville (2008); MS in Computer Engineering from the University of Alabama in Huntsville (2008); MS in Electrical Engineering from the Southern Ural State University, Russia (2000); and a BS in Electrical Engineering from the Southern Ural State University, Russia (1998). Since August, 2008, he has been with the School of Computing and Mathematics in Georgia Southwestern State University, where his present position is an Assistant Professor. His research interests include but are not limited to sliding mode control theory and its applications, robotics control, and virtual computing. He has published one chapter in the book, three journal papers and eight peer-reviewed conference papers. He is a professional member of Association for Computing Machinery.

Boris Peltsverger

Boris Peltsverger is the Dean and Professor of the School of Computing and Mathematics at Georgia Southwestern State University. He is an experienced researcher, educator, and administrator. His research interests include advisor support systems, online test systems, virtual organizations, multi-criteria decision making, large scale systems of differential equations, and industrial automatic system design. He has published over eighty conference papers, and fourteen books or book chapters. He received Soros' Foundation Award in 1994 and GSW's distinguished professor grant in 1997, 1998, and 1999. Under his guidance, the CIS School received a $1.5 million donation from NCR, and created the NCR lab for Web Kiosk research and development.

Katie Hayes

Katie Hayes is the Entrepreneurial/Leadership Assistant Coordinator at LTU. She oversees the junior year requirements for the Leadership Curriculum, and teaches for the Department of Humanities. Additionally, she assists in carrying out the initiatives outlined in the Kern Grant, which aim to inspire an entrepreneurial mindset in undergraduate engineering students throughout the educational experience.