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This course will form a startup team of students with a diverse set of skills to tackle the following significant problem from the developing world. Over 1.6 billion people lack electricity in their homes and use fuel-based home lighting. This form of lighting can be unhealthy, environmentally harmful, dangerous, and expensive for families. The team will exploit the relatively new technology of LED lighting to develop affordable, renewably powered home lights, along with effective business plans for deploying them in China, India, and Mexico. The course will partner with the Light Up the World Foundation (http://www.lutw.org).
Students with the necessary technical, design, and business skills will learn the Stanford/IDEO method of innovation and the art of entrepreneurship. They will have a briefing book of background research for the project developed by the undergraduate seminar CEE 45Q (http://cee45q.stanford.edu/2003/briefing_book/). From this starting point, they will develop, test, and iteratively improve three designs: the light, the experience by which the users come to obtain and maintain the light, and the business plan to make this all happen. They will receive frequent feedback on their designs from advisors drawn from domain experts, IDEO staff, manufacturers, successful entrepreneurs, and the philanthropic community. The goal will be to advance the project to the point where it can be funded and deployed.
Students are selected based upon an application.
Readings will be in distributed at team meetings.
None.
See project for details of the course project.
| Date | Milestone | |
|---|---|---|
| Mon, Apr 21 | E1 | Send usage scenarios to field with questions |
| Mon, Apr 28 | L1 | Send light prototypes to field with questions |
| Mon, May 5 | B1 | Send business plans to field with questions |
| Mon, May 12 | E2 | Send usage scenarios to field with questions |
| Mon, May 19 | L2 | Send light prototypes to field with questions |
| Tue, May 27 | B2 | Send business plans to field with questions |
| Thu, Jun 5 | EF BF LF | Final presentation |
Students will be evaluated on their contributions in the team meetings, their presentations, and the quality of their research, design work, and writing.
| Component | % Time | % Grade |
|---|---|---|
| Course participation, facilitation, and presentations | 20 | 40 |
| Research, design work, and writing | 80 | 60 |
| --- | --- | |
| 100 | 100 |
Last modified: 2003 May 11