Humanitarian Technology Challenge Launches
Student Design Competition
15
October – IEEE is sponsoring a Regional
Student Design Competition for solutions to
one of three humanitarian problems as part of the
joint IEEE-United Nations Foundation Humanitarian
Technology Challenge (HTC). The
competition runs from Oct. 2009 to May 2010.
HTC is a partnership among
humanitarians, technologists, funders, and
others, to develop implementable technological
solutions to some key challenges facing
humanitarian health and disaster workers today. The
participants volunteer their time to collaborate for
the benefit of humanity.
Three challenges have been identified:
1. Reliable Electricity:
Availability of electric power for
lighting and other electronic devices in
resource-constrained environments.
Important for education, communications, and
economic development.
2. Data Connectivity of Rural
District Health Offices: Capability of
exchanging data among remote field offices and
central health facilities. Important for
accessing treatment protocols, creating and
monitoring health trends, and sharing results of treatments.
3. Individual ID Tied to Health
Records: Consistent availability of
patient medical records. Important for ongoing
treatment of patients, especially migrants and
those with long-term diseases.
The
Regional Student Design Competition
challenges students to provide a working
prototype, scale model or detailed engineering
design specifications for a project that
satisfies one of the three Challenges. The
project can be developed by student individuals or
by student teams. Teams must be led by
an IEEE student member.
