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Segway Creator Unveils His Next Act
Water and Electricity may not seem like something to wish for if you are reading this post. However for over 1 billion people that do without both it is.
To solve the problem, he’s invented two devices, each about the size of a washing machine that can provide much-needed power and clean water in rural villages.
“Eighty percent of all the diseases you could name would be wiped out if you just gave people clean water,” says Kamen. “The water purifier makes 1,000 liters of clean water a day, and we don’t care what goes into it. And the power generator makes a kilowatt off of anything that burns.”
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Kamen’s goal is to produce machines that cost $1,000 to $2,000 each. That’s a far cry from the $100,000 that each hand-machined prototype cost to build.
Quadir is going to try and see if the machines can be produced economically by a factory in Bangladesh. If the numbers work out, not only does he think that distributing them in a decentralized fashion will be good business — he also thinks it will be good public policy. Instead of putting up a 500-megawatt power plant in a developing country, he argues, it would be much better to place 500,000 one-kilowatt power plants in villages all over the place, because then you would create 500,000 entrepreneurs.
More products from his company, Deka Research & Development Corp, including: Hydroflex™ Irrigation Pump, IBOT™ Mobility System and Intravascular Stent.
Dean Kamen understands what engineering can do. “Today, almost 200 engineers, technicians, and machinists work in our electronics and software engineering labs, machine shop, and on CAD stations.”
DEKA’s mission, first and foremost, is to foster innovation. It is a company where the questioning of conventional thinking is encouraged and practiced by everyone—engineers and non-engineers alike—because open minds are more likely to arrive at workable solutions. This has been our formula for success since we began, and it will continue to drive our success in the future.
Dean Kamen founded For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST)
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March 16th, 2006 at 8:42 am
[...] Additionally the opportunities to save lives and improve health in the world often do not require cutting edge science. It is often a matter of engineering effective solutions for hundreds of millions and billions of people living without what those in the wealthy take for granted (Water and Electricity for All - Solar Powered Hearing Aid - Appropriate Technology). [link] [...]
April 1st, 2006 at 6:09 pm
[...] Water and Electricity for All [...]
August 21st, 2006 at 9:56 pm
[...] Prevoius post on Kamen’s work with electricity and drinking water for all. Kamen also founded FIRST (see previous post: 2006 FIRST Robotics Competition Regional Events). He cautions that there are few incentives to encourage students to become scientists or engineers. There needs to be a consistent message from the government, the schools, and industry, that scientists and engineers will be the 21st century’s superstars, according to Kamen. “I’m concerned that the U.S. feels it has a birthright where innovation happens,” he says. The global picture appears to indicate otherwise, as Asian countries now graduate more than 12 times as many scientists and engineers every year as does the U.S. “The science and engineering community needs to get to the kids to encourage them to look at science and engineering careers,” he adds. [...]
September 11th, 2006 at 11:31 pm
[...] “Charities estimate that more than a billion people do not have access to safe drinking water. In some parts of Africa, water-borne diseases such as cholera, dysentery and viral diarrhoea claim the lives of one in four children.” [...]
October 2nd, 2006 at 1:29 pm
[...] “This is a fascinating interview discussing what children can learn if given a computer and little, if any, instruction. Very Cool. Links on the progress since this interview are at the end of the post.” [...]
April 2nd, 2007 at 5:38 pm
Those solutions can make a huge difference in people’s lives (which can be more important than the economic gains). Though I believe solutions that provide significant economic gains are best since they will sustain the expansion of adoption of the technology…
July 2nd, 2007 at 6:50 pm
I have just placed $350 in loans to 5 business entrepreneurs (in Kenya, Mexico, Cameroon and Azerbaijan) - and a made a $50 donation to Kiva. Kiva provides loans through partners (operating in the countries) to the entrepreneurs…
September 2nd, 2008 at 4:47 pm
“The PlayPump makes use of the energy kids at play provide to propel water up from under ground into a water storage system that provides the children’s community access to clean water…”
October 28th, 2008 at 6:28 pm
These remind me of the project that google currently has about devices that can better the world. For once, if such a product can be developed economically as the essay says (I believe in Bangladesh) then it is an opportunity for everyone.