Some men see things as they are and say, "Why?"
I dream of things that never were and say, "Why not?"
- Robert F. Kennedy
Over two billion people lack electricity in their homes and use fuel-based lighting. This form of lighting has some serious problems. Respiratory ailments from the burning of fuel in homes are a significant contributor to mortality in the developing world. Greenhouse gas emissions to the atmosphere from fuel-based lighting are significant. Numerous fires each year are cause by this lighting. And the cost of fuels, such as kerosene, can impose a heavy burden on poor households. See, for example, (Mills, 2002).
LED lighting is a relatively new technology that could serve as the basis of a new form a lighting for areas without electricity. They are durable, long-lasting, and an extremely efficient means for converting electricity into light. In areas off of the grid, they can be powered by very small solar panels or other renewable means. As their technology advances and their cost decreases, it becomes feasible to explore LED lighting solutions whose cost would be comparable to or lower than kerosene-based lighting.
The project will partner with the Light Up the World Foundation (LUTW, http://www.lutw.org), a nonprofit organization committed to bringing LED lighting to areas without electricity. LUTW has brought this lighting to over 500 homes in Nepal, 100 homes in India, and 50 homes in Sri Lanka. The lights it installed were built by hand at a cost that is high for the developing world, and its efforts have been financed largely be charitable contributions. Nevertheless, LUTW has demonstrated that LED lighting can work effectively in areas without electricity.
The goal of this project is to take LED lighting from a promising idea to a reality for as many who would benefit as possible. The project will focus upon several regions of the world and for each region will produce three designs. The first will be an inexpensive, durable, and reliable LED light, well-suited for use in areas without electricity. The second will be the experience by which users come to obtain, install, and maintain this lighting. The third will be a business plan for providing these lights to the region that is self-sustaining and scales to a very large number of users.
The project will use the Stanford/IDEO methodology of innovation. This methodology is predicated on a deep understanding of the prospective users. There have been many well-intentioned attempts to bring technology to the developing world that have failed or even been harmful. To help ensure the success of this project, students will spend a considerable amount of time understanding users and their context. They will interview people who have lived in the areas they decide to focus on, such as returned Peace Corps volunteers, and they will build relationships with people currently living in these areas. The process of understanding users and their context will be a key source of ideas for innovation. From what they learn, students will derive principles that will guide their designs. Finally, with feedback from an advisory board drawn from domain experts, user representatives, IDEO staff, successful entrepreneurs, manufacturers, and the philanthropic community, students will test and iteratively improve designs for the light, the experience, and the business plan.
The undergraduate seminar will be the early stage of the startup. Through extensive research and interviews, students will gain a deep understanding of the problem and opportunities for its solution. Their work will be distilled into a briefing book and a short business plan, both of which will be on the Web.
The briefing book will serve as a resource for the follow-on seminar, for other classes, and for other efforts directed at this problem. It will include an analysis of prospective users from different regions, with detailed descriptions of several individuals and their contexts. These individuals may serve later as trial users of the prototype lights. It will include relevant engineering and manufacturing matters for the light. It will include relevant business matters, such as existing distribution networks of products to prospective users. And it will explore the ethical issues of introducing a new technology with the potential of disrupting the social ecology of its users.
The business plan will contain the team's designs for the light, the experience, and the plan for bringing these to those who would benefit. The plan for the business will be relatively high-level. Students will use the Discovery-Driven Planning methodology to develop a model for the business with the key assumptions identified and quantified. Over the course of the quarter, this model and its assumptions will be iteratively tested and improved just as with the other designs.
The graduate seminar will be the next stage of the startup. Its team of students with technical, design, and business expertise will seek to advance the project to the point where it can be funded and deployed. They will start with the briefing book from the first seminar and develop independent designs for the light, the experience, and the business plan. The best elements of all the designs will then form the starting point for prototyping, testing, and iterative improvement. The evolving designs will receive frequent technical, design, and business feedback from the advisory board. The goal is for these designs to become real -- starting this summer.
Mills, Evan and Steve Johnson. 2002. The Specter of Fuel-Based Lighting: A Dramatic Opportunity for Technology Leapfrogging in the Developing World. Issue Paper, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. July 5. (http://eetd.lbl.gov/emills/PUBS/PDF/FBL_1-pager.pdf).
Last modified: 2003 Feb 17