SES Project

2003 Spring

Some men see things as they are and say, "Why?"
I dream of things that never were and say, "Why not?"
- Robert F. Kennedy

Background

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. Fuel-based lighting produces a significant amount of greenhouse gas emissions. Numerous fires each year are cause by this form of lighting. And the cost of fuels, such as kerosene, can impose a heavy burden on poor households. See, for example [1].

LED lighting is a relatively new technology that could serve as the basis of a new form a lighting for areas without electricity. This lighting is durable, long-lasting, and an extremely efficient means of converting electricity into light. In areas off of the grid, it can be powered by very small solar panels or other renewable means. As the technology advances and its costs decrease, it becomes feasible to explore LED lighting solutions whose cost would be comparable to or lower than kerosene-based lighting.

This project will partner with Light Up the World (LUTW), 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.

Goal

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 conduct research and interviews and establish relationships with people in the chosen regions to understand the users and their context. This process of gaining empathy for the users will be a key source of ideas for innovation. Drawing upon this empathy, 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.

Undergraduate Seminar

The first quarter of the project will be an undergraduate seminar pursuing the early stages of a startup. Through extensive research and interviews, students will gain a deep understanding of the prospective users, various aspects of the problem, and opportunities for its solution. They will distill their findings into a briefing book to serve as a resource for the graduate 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 business matters, such as existing distribution networks of products to prospective users. And it will include relevant engineering and manufacturing matters for the light.

Graduate Seminar

The second quarter of the project will be a graduate seminar pursuing the next stages of a 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 undergraduate seminar. In subteams for each region, they will then use the Stanford/IDEO methodology to develop designs for a light, experience, and business plan. The designs will be prototyped, tested, and iteratively improved. The subteams will use the Discovery-Driven Planning methodology to develop business models, to identify key assumptions, and to iteratively test and improve them. 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.

[1] E Mills, S Johnson. The Specter of Fuel-Based Lighting: A Dramatic Opportunity for Technology Leapfrogging in the Developing World. Issue Paper, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, 2002-07-05.