advanced e-team

Mekong Green Tech (Lac Hong Gasifiers)

Georgia Institute of Technology, 2012 - $18,500

In a number of rural industries in the developing world, waste matter is burnt in order to generate the heat needed for manufacturing. This is the case in the Asian brick making industry, where the combustion of biomass is so inefficient it causes incredible amounts of air pollution (one third of the emissions of the global airline industry), acute respiratory illness, and poor crop growth. In Vietnam, the government has made attempts to shut down the traditional brick making industry because of the pollution, and some kilns have been shut down entirely.

This E-Team is developing a new low-cost gasifier to slash pollution in Vietnam’s traditional brick making industry. Gasification is a technology that converts organic material into clean burning, flammable gas. The team’s demonstration unit, built between Georgia Tech engineers and a Vietnamese partner organization, will cost roughly ten times less to run as current kilns and would pay for itself in under five years. The team is planning six more paid pilot installations. In Vietnam alone, over 10,000 small businesses stand to benefit.

MaxQ LLC

Oklahoma State University, 2012 - $20,000

Shipments of vaccines are often temperature-sensitive and require special care while in transit from manufacturer to end user. This presents a problem in emerging markets; about 50% of the vaccines shipped by the World Health Organization are damaged in transit. Even in the US, the vaccines for a children’s program faces a $20 million loss in vaccine wastage due to poor temperature regulation.

The MaxQ E-Team is developing MaxTemp, a series of multi-use, lightweight, insulated shipping containers made of a novel composite material called NeoTherm. NeoTherm consists of a vacuum core sandwiched between two face sheet materials. The core contains a combination of space-grade, silica-based porous insulation material and structurally rigid honeycomb material, which are vacuum-sealed inside an aluminum-coated thin sheet. MaxTemp containers have three major advantages over existing insulated storage containers: they have much larger maximum usable volume (up to 80%), a higher insulation rating and high impact resistance. Their initial target market is in the US with the American Red Cross for blood transport and storage; they are also exploring the food transport and cattle reproduction markets.

Near Zero

University of California, Berkeley, 2012 - $20,000

“Grid regulation services” are performed by power companies to ensure that power supply remains equal to power demand within a small margin. They do this with power plants equipped with governors and automatic generation controls to maintain minute-to-minute generation-to-load balance. While this setup is precise, it has several drawbacks: it is inefficient; ramping up power supply quickly puts extreme stress on plant components, shortening their life spans; and current grid regulation services are predominantly provided by environmentally damaging fossil fuel plants. While there are aggressive mandates in place to increase the percentage of renewable energy on the grid, the inherent unpredictability of renewables results in an increased margin for error that threatens grid stability.

This E-Team is developing a new grid-level storage technology, the Near Zero flywheel battery, to absorb energy (renewable or otherwise) when it is in excess and deliver it quickly when there is a shortage. Unlike chemical batteries, which have a limited power output and diminishing cycle life, flywheel batteries can supply quick surges of power in milliseconds with a reliable 20-30 year life span. The team’s plan is not to replace but to supplement current grid regulation operations, enabling more efficient operation of fossil fuels plants in a collaborative integration.

Momo Scientific

Johns Hopkins University, 2012 - $18,500

While cervical cancer has been largely eradicated in the developed world by the incorporation of regular screening and new opportunities for vaccinations, it remains a large burden in the developing world. Inadequate healthcare infrastructure, high costs, and the lack of an appropriate technology for treatment combine to make cervical cancer the third most common cancer in the world, with over 250,000 deaths per year. Eighty-eight percent of all cases occur in the developing world.

This team, incorporated as Momo Scientific, is looking to reduce the incidence of cervical cancer in the developing world with a device called the CryoPop. The CryoPop is a patent-pending, low-cost medical device that uses dry ice for the treatment of cervical pre-cancerous lesions in low-resource settings. The device, which relies only on the carbon dioxide tanks already available in developing countries (as a result of the presence of soda companies), is ten times cheaper, thirty times more efficient, and more effective and reliable than current technology.

GiraDora: Affordable Human-Powered Washer/Spin-Dryer

Art Center College of Design, 2012 - $19,500

GiraDora, a human-powered washer and spin dryer, increases the efficiency and improves the experience of hand-washing clothes for women living without access to running water. The user sits on the drum-like appliance and pumps the pedal with her foot, which agitates, cleans, rinses, then spin-dries clothes. GiraDora saves significant time: from one hour of hand washing a load of laundry down to 3-5 minutes. Estimated to cost $40, GiraDora increases productivity, improves health, instills dignity, and affords opportunities to begin breaking the poverty cycle.

Medtric/Osmotec Spray

Purdue University, 2012 - $15,770

When a wound gets infected, both health problems and the costs of treating them skyrocket. Domestically, the cost of care for an infected wound is nearly $14,000 per case. In chronic wounds, total treatment costs can escalate beyond $40,000. Current therapies (antibiotics or silver ions) have several disadvantages pertaining to safety, environmental concerns and the alarming increase in pathogenic drug resistance.

Team Medtric is developing Osmotec, an innovative, environmentally friendly anti-infection technology that does not use antibiotics, has wide spectrum anti-bacterial activity (even against multi-drug resistant pathogens) and has been shown to actively promote wound healing in pre-clinical animal studies. The team is developing Osmotec in pad, spray, and gel forms.

EnergyMax

Illinois Institute of Technology, 2012 - $18,000

Minimizing energy waste in commercial and residential buildings in the US could have a significant impact on the environment, as the US currently consumes 25% of the world’s energy. It is estimated that 30 to 50% of energy consumption related to heating and cooling in many otherwise well-insulated buildings is due to air leakage through the building enclosures—the “drafty building problem.” But these air leakage sites are often hard to locate because the airflows are small compared to the sizes of the rooms and very hard to detect.

This E-Team is developing a new method of detecting air leakage spots in buildings using a compact acoustic phased array. Essentially, the team uses an array of compact microphones to measure minute pressure fluctuations associated with airflow. The team uses two algorithms to map acoustic sources, resulting in specific explanations: “Leak 2 occurs at the slot opening on top of the door provided for the swivel mechanism.” Based on initial results, the team has found mentors from industry, including the US Department of Energy and the Council for Tall buildings.

Cranial Drilling Tool

Harvard University, 2012 - $18,500

It is often necessary for neurosurgeons to access the inside of the skull through small holes for procedures such as measuring pressure and draining fluid. Unfortunately, the current procedures are difficult to accomplish easily and safely. One of the main risks in cranial drilling is “plunging”—accidentally driving the drill bit into delicate brain tissue. Current drills do have safety features, but all have their drawbacks; the most versatile is a hand-powered drill with a manual stop that is inefficient in cutting through bone and hard for surgeons to use effectively. There are also powered drills, but the most popular device has to be accompanied by non-portable equipment and is limited to large drill bit sizes.

This E-Team has developed a handheld, portable, and reliably safe drilling device that can create holes in the skull with any size drill bit. The device is designed to be non-reliant on the drill's rotary motion, instead using a balance between spring forces and the reaction forces of the drill being pushed against the skull. The device also retracts as soon as penetration of the skull is accomplished. The device's portability and ease of use makes it well suited for applications in operating rooms, emergency rooms, military settings, and disaster relief areas.

Local Energy Technologies (LET)

Rochester Institute of Technology, 2012 - $19,695

In low-resource settings, power providers need better solutions to collect revenue from existing customers, while customers need simpler, less expensive ways to pay for their electricity. The Local Energy Technologies (LET) E-Team is looking to meet the challenge by developing a mobile meter-reading and payment platform. The team’s meter works like a regular electricity meter, but communicates with the energy provider through regularly timed data packets sent over mobile phone/SMS infrastructure. This allows energy providers to know where and exactly how much of their electricity is being consumed at any given moment, on or off the grid. Energy providers can then remotely bill customers via SMS, and customers can remotely pay via SMS. Further, the team’s software can facilitate electrification though the Internet; family members working abroad or in the cities who want to send money to their families can strategically send money in the form of post-paid or pre-paid energy credits.

Stroke-Solutions

Johns Hopkins University, 2012 - $18,000

The incidence of stroke is on the rise worldwide; in the US alone, more than 700,000 people per year suffer a stroke. Stroke patients usually spend their first three months of recovery in rehabilitation centers, working with a team of physicians and therapists. Many then spend years doing rehabilitation exercises at home, but the current rehabilitation device market focuses heavily on those first three months; there are very few devices aimed at home rehabilitation therapy.

Stroke-Solutions.com is addressing this unmet need by providing effective and interactive rehabilitation gaming systems using the Kinect system. Kinect is a motion sensing input device by Microsoft for the Xbox 360 video game console and Windows PCs. Based around a webcam-style add-on, it enables users to control and interact with the screen without the need to touch a game controller. Users will be able to log into Stroke-Solutions.com, choose a game, and play. All the game data will be logged and analyzed remotely by physicians.