Working with D-Rev, a nonprofit technology incubator based in Palo Alto, the Enabling Effective Management of Neonatal Jaundice in Rural India team signed a licensing agreement with Chennai, India-based Phoenix Medical Systems Private Ltd for the manufacturing and distribution of Brilliance, a novel phototherapy device that enables the treatment of severe neonatal jaundice in low-resource hospitals.
This photo is of a neonatal jaundice treatment technology being developed by a Sustainable Vision team from Stanford University working with the non-profit technology incubator, Design Revolution. The Enabling Effective Management of Neonatal Jaundice in Rural India team, a 2009 NCIIA grantee, developed an affordable world-class phototherapy device that will provide effective treatment for newborns in low-income hospitals. Instead of using fluorescent tube or compact fluorescent bulbs, the team’s device uses more efficient, high-intensity blue LEDs that can be supported by a battery backup.
The Sustainable VisionVentureLab is an intensive, five-day, highly experiential and immersive workshop designed to enhance the success of your venture. Participants develop strong, sustainable business models that create products or services for the benefit of people living in poverty.
At Sustainable Vision VentureLab you'll have the space to think and explore within a dynamic environment that will help you evolve your business strategy, sales channels, marketing, and financial mechanics of your venture, with support from people who have been there and done it themselves.
You'll come out of the workshop not only with a more competitive action plan, but also with a set of tools that will help you grow your venture for years to come.
Topics discussed may include:
Blocks and barriers to performance
The Human operating system
Strategy mapping
Operating in another country/culture
Understanding your customer
How do you create and articulate value
Innovating at every level
Business model case studies from the developing world
Understanding the supply chain
Designing for affordability
Features vs. benefits
Telling a story
Presentation techniques & tips
About the Instructor
James Barlow, NCIIA's Program Manager for Outreach, has worked in the University entrepreneurship space for 7 years and has been Commercial Advisor or Commercial Director for 16 start-ups. He has served as a consultant internationally on start-up strategy, enterprise education and training. Prior to working in Higher Education, James was a Performance Coach, Motivational Speaker, and Strategy Consultant for FTSE listed companies and also worked in the Pharmaceutical Industry in Sales and Sales Management. He earned his BSc Honours Degree in Biochemistry from the University of Kent.
Sustainable Vision VentureLab is held twice a year, the next workshop will be in 2012. For more information, contact us: grants@nciia.org
What participants have said about VentureLab:
"How would I describe the NCIIA VentureLab? No amount of adjectives could ever do it justice but here are a few I would use: exciting, exhausting, inspiring, humbling, challenging. hilarious, risqué, refreshing, and so much more. The VentureLab is something you have to experience before you can really understand its worth. Not only do you come away with a better understanding of your venture and its place in the market, but also new skills, contacts and even friendships. The instructors are fantastic and it's a chance to mingle with the best and brightest of your peers. I would recommend it to any budding entrepreneur, it's a must." —2010 VentureLab participant
"VentureLab was a great experience. It's definitely a hands-on, extremely inspiring and helpful opportunity that allowed us to think actively about the short and long term goals of our venture. The workshop was fast-paced and applicable in many ways to not only our venture, but also life in general. I left VentureLab humbled and inspired by the people I met and the experiences and opportunities I had." —2010 VentureLab participant
"VentureLab is a good experience for anyone feeling alone in the world of social entrepreneurship. VentureLab helps you find direction and inspiration for your developing-world venture."—2010 VentureLab participant
Sustainable Vision approaches the creation of solutions to global problems through innovative technological ideas pursued through scalable market driven business models. A few examples of ventures (non profit and for profit) launched by grantees:
Periodically we get to spend time with our Sustainable Vision grantees in the field. We pleased to share with you their experiences, lessons learned, and insights.
Irrigation Innovation
June 2010
NCIIA grants manager Jennifer Keller Jackson on location in Peru.
Interviewee: Carolina Barreto (Project PI John Duffy)
Overview: The aim of this project is to provide small farmers in developing countries with an affordable solar drip irrigation method that promotes the sustainable use of water and energy. The world’s food security relies on improving irrigation techniques for smallholder agriculture in developing countries. The common irrigation practice is flooding with seasonal water gravity fed systems or diesel/gasoline-powered pumps. Solar pumps are clean, efficient and have lower maintenance. Drip irrigation (DI) is 40% more efficient than furrow. Depending on the crop, DI could allow three harvests per year instead of one in the rainy season, generating enough income to pay for the system.
In developing countries, especially post-war countries such as Vietnam, Korea, Afghanistan, Cambodia, Laos, Iraq, and Haiti, amputees cannot afford the high price of prostheses, which ranges from $500 to several thousand dollars.
A 2009 Sustainable Vision team from Mercer University is designing a new prosthetic socket that is cheaper and takes less time to fit to the amputee, helping reduce overall cost.
University of Massachusetts - Lowell, 2009 - $44,625
This grant addresses the issue of designing and developing environmentally and culturally appropriate housing for Native Americans on reservations. Many people living on reservations have no electricity or running water, and use outhouses. Typical development approaches ignore their traditional housing practices (separate structures for cooking and sleeping) and are not welcomed by residents.
In collaboration with the Tohono O’odham Reservation in Arizona and Tohono O'odham Community College (TOCC), University of Massachusetts Lowell students have been designing and prototyping green housing innovations for several years. They have designed a modular green house made up of the three traditional separate structures (living/sleeping, kitchen, and bathroom modules). The house is made primarily with indigenous materials but also incorporates green building strategies such as passive solar cooling and heating, solar hot water, straw bale insulation, solar cookers, windmill water pumping, composting toilets, and more.
This grant extends the collaboration to develop business plans for an enterprise based around the technologies, as well as further designing and prototyping.
In developing countries, especially post-war countries such as Vietnam, Korea, Afghanistan, Cambodia, Laos, Iraq, and Haiti, amputees cannot afford the high price of prostheses, which ranges from $500 to several thousand dollars. This team is designing a new prosthetic socket—the Mercer Universal Socket, or MUS—that is cheaper and takes less time to fit to the amputee, helping reduce overall cost.
The MUS is designed for adults and has small, medium and large sizes. Inside the socket, three silicon rings minimize pressure at the distal stump and help prevent pressure ulcers from forming. The cost per unit is estimated at $20, with manufacturing and distribution taking place in Vietnam through the Mercer on Mission program.
There is a gap in the world today between people with access to digital and information technology (in developed countries) and those without (in developing countries). Connectivity has been an issue in the developing world for a number of reasons, including unfavorable government policies, corruption, illiteracy and computer illiteracy, lack of infrastructure, and cultural norms. Generic solutions to these problems tend not to work well; solutions need to be scalable, inter-operable, replicable, and flexible enough to allow the inclusion of scenario-specific details.
In order to overcome the lack of connectivity in developing regions, this team proposes to develop MyMANET, a software framework for MANETs (Mobile Ad-hoc NETworks), which are infrastructure-less wireless networks that can cover a few kilometers in diameter. Every consumer device in a MANET (a cell phone, a PC) acts as a host and router at the same time, bringing flexibility and robustness to the network, without the need for infrastructure such as towers or base stations. Both capital and recurrent costs are low, making MyMANET a plausible proposition for connectivity in developing areas.
James Barlow, NCIIA's Program Manager for Outreach, has worked in the University entrepreneurship space for 7 years and has been Commercial Advisor or Commercial Director for 16 start-ups. He has served as a consultant internationally on start-up strategy, enterprise education and training. Prior to working in Higher Education, James was a Performance Coach, Motivational Speaker, and Strategy Consultant for FTSE listed companies and also worked in the Pharmaceutical Industry in Sales and Sales Management. He earned his BSc Honours Degree in Biochemistry from the University of Kent. 
