FINISH uses crowd sourcing to find solutions for Indian sanitation problem

ideaken's journey with FINISH began with a chance meeting over the internet. However as we have continued our journey, we have been humbled to meet some great people who are committed to the cause of total sanitation system in rural India. We are proud to be associated with FINISH and sincerely hope that the ideaken platform helps FINISH to meet their noble and worthy objective.

A search for a rural toilet design begins on 19th Nov – the World Toilet Day

FINISH is launching an “innovation contest” to create new and improved sanitation systems for rural India, with rewards up to Rs. 620,000 (or 10,000 Euros) is up for grab. The contest is being launched on World Toilet Day - 19th Nov 2010. FINISH will incorporate the best innovations generated by the contest in thousands of toilets being installed in rural India under its programme.

November 17, 2010 - India / Netherlands / France
It is often said that Safe Sanitation Systems form the last chapter of human development. 1 in every 4 person in the world does not have access to Sanitation. India is a prime illustration.
Indian Space scientists have put machines on the moon, yet 1 in every 2 Indians does not have access to toilets. Everyday 638 million people or about 50% of the population in India resort to open defecation.

There has been progress, from the “Central Rural Sanitation Programme”, which was initiated in 1988 by the Government of India, to the “Total Sanitation Campaign” launched in the year 1999. However, according to the 2010 report by UNICEF, on progress in sanitation coverage, even in 2008, 69% of rural Indian population did not have access to toilets.
All private and public sanitation drives suffer from some common problems.

1. The quality of constructed toilets is very poor due to budgetary or time constraints.
2. Toilet designs are often not appropriate for the targeted ecological terrain.
3. A lack of clearly defined “standards” for toilet design is leading to toilets that pollute the environment.
4. Stakeholders do not have adequate awareness and knowledge of sustainable sanitation models.

The FINISH ‘Sanitation Challenge Contest’ is a serious attempt to find solutions to some of above problems. FINISH, which stands for Financial INclusion Improves Sanitation and Health, with the help of ideaken.com - a collaborative innovation platform provider and other network partners – WASTE, FIN Trust, Ethos India and the World Toilet Organisation have launched an innovation competition to generate new designs in sanitation systems.

The contest is open to all individuals and institutions. Its objective is to arrive at significant, even revolutionary improvements in toilet design, and safe disposal system, specifically suited to different climatic, soil, water table conditions, which will ensure sustainable and safe management of the human waste. This new toilet design will be used to diffuse 1 million safe toilets in India.

“The 3rd toilet was constructed by the NGO even though 2 unused toilets already stand in the same house.” (This tells us that just building toilets won’t solve the issue)

You can help too

Please diffuse this news to sources you think can contribute to designing this new sanitation system. (Including but not limited to social media sites, news sources, NGOs, SMEs in Sanitation, WC/ Restroom and waste management areas, and Engineering and Design crowd)

Please click here to participate in the contest

Please click here to view complete press release

Seeking a method for attaining extreme cantilever using a coilable material

The Seeker needs to extend horizontally the loose end of a small coil of lightweight stored material without external support -- essentially, achieving a cantilever supported only at one beam end. Material, beam cross-section, and beam structure are on the table -- but your solution must meet strict criteria in terms of size, weight, cost, and coilability.

The seeker envisions that there may be a better engineering or materials solution to our problem than the one we now use. We store a small coil of lightweight material (the coil size can fit in the hand), the loose end of which must extend horizontally from the coil for well over 168 unsupported inches without deflection anywhere along the extended length or at the root of the beam. There is no additional load on the cantilever beam other than the weight of its own material.

All potential solutions must face tight cost constraints. Exotic materials or difficult-to-manufacture options may be non-starters (even if successful solutions) because of costs. Your solution to this cantilever problem will need to be manufactured hundreds of thousands of times, and must cost accordingly.

Some of the constraints applicable

• Tight cost constraints.
• Able to extend horizontally 168+ inches without deflection or support except at one beam end. A greater cantilever extension would be even better.
• Able to store 168+ linear inches of material in a small coil (or in another compact storage form able to be held in one hand) no more than 3-to-5 inches in its largest dimension.
• Gross weight under 1 pound.

Note: Please make sure that only non-confidential information is submitted as part of your solution. You can submit a summary of your solution, however the solution summary should be elaborate enough to convince seeker that you have a solution.

Sign In to read more about the challenge or Sign Up Now and start solving.

Seeking to improve thermoplastic (especially polyolefin) performance properties by using additives

Our client is looking to improve the performance properties of polyolefins, polyethylenes, and thermoplastics generally. Additives, ingredients, fillers, modifiers, agents and other methods are all of interest. We are open to new additives that enhance any of a long list of properties, or that can enhance the performance of additives already in use.

Our client's focus is on finding new ingredients, modifiers, or agents that improve the balance of properties of a thermoplastic (in particular, a polyolefin) over what is currently used today. The list of properties of interest includes:

o Lighter weight
o Higher modulus
o Increase tensile strength
o Improve impact resistance
o Improve heat resistance
o Decrease density (while maintaining the same or greater strength)
o Minimize shrinkage
o Improve surface finish, feel, optical appearance, and similar aesthetics
o Improve scratch resistance and surface hardness
o Improve stiffness
o Minimize or eliminate abrasiveness (causes problems during extrusion)

Ideally, your proposed additive would provide new properties in plastics or improvements over anything currently available; or, your additive would maintain current-equivalent properties but at a greatly reduced weight or much lower cost.

Early-stage technologies are acceptable, but it is preferred that you have reduced the technology to practice at least at the lab scale.

CONSTRAINTS

• Safety is important to us. Any new ingredient should not create safety hazards when inhaled during mixing or cause harm during incineration or processing.
• Your additive must work with an extruder (or possibly a compounder). An additive that is too abrasive -- over 6.5 on the Mohs hardness scale -- may be harder than the steel in an extruder. We may make an exception for a true nano-scale additive.
• No restriction between organic or inorganic additives.
• We are NOT currently interested in new polymers (unless the polymer is added to polyolefins), new processes, or new machines.

Note: Please make sure that only non-confidential information is submitted as part of your solution. You can submit a summary of your solution, however the solution summary should be elaborate enough to convince seeker that you have a solution.

Sign In to read more about the challenge or Sign Up Now and submit your solution.

This workshop had a single point agenda - define the challenge for open innovation

We recently participated in a 2 day workshop organized by one of our clients. This client is a consortium of agencies funded by United Nations, working towards providing solutions for sanitation and clean water in India. Approximately 50 delegates participated from France, Netherlands and fifteen different states of India.

Here we share some of the best practices followed during the workshop in formulating a challenge for open innovation.

First the no brainer, Schedule a long listening session – Put forward a guideline that only challenges and issues faced are being discussed and not the solution. Make sure to have involvement and participation from all stake holders. The best ingredient to have a right problem is to listen up from a diverse forum with respect to age, geographies, departments, designations or social status, whichever is applicable.

Conquer challenge articulation by dividing it in logical groups – This will help you express the challenge in a way which is much easier to understand by the individual who is likely  to solve it for you. Some of the examples of logical grouping for this workshop were related to culture and mindset, raw material availability and cost. Also this could help you divide the challenge into multiple smaller challenges to be solved independent of each other.

Try not telling the truth! – Telling what you need solved is the best way to get to solutions, but see if you can abstract it from the domain of your challenge. For example if your  sole interest is in reducing the cost of sanitation by reducing the cost of toilet roof then instead of calling it a sanitation challenge call it a “how to reduce the cost of roof” challenge. This way you are keeping it open for the people from construction domain as well, who otherwise, on seeing it as sanitation challenge could end up not considering it.

Simulate the outcome - Know your evaluation criteria well and convert them into specific expectations. Further categorize your expectations as ‘must meet’ and ‘good if met’.

Allocate Reward only after formulating the challenges – Having overall budget for the solution is ok, but put the exact reward only after you have the complete challenge in front of you. The only rule which should be applied while deciding on the reward is making it proportionate to the effort and skill required and the benefit it will deliver to you once obtained. There is no right or wrong answer for this one, but needs a bit of deliberation at the minimum.

Don’t overload the challenge – Don’t add up all the expectation into the challenge such that solvers are confused by too many requirements, perceive it to be too complicated, and don’t take it up for solving. At the same time make sure it has a good enough stretch factor and highlights all your must have expectations.

Do share if there are any additional best practices that worked for you while formulating a challenge for open innovation.

Seeking solution for the TRAFFIC JAM (how to avoid and ways to clear it off faster)

Most of the urban cities in India today have a traffic jam problem which results in loss of person hours, causes environmental damage, and increases fuel wastage.

There are thousands of suggestions received to resolve traffic issues by the planning authorities and traffic management agencies across India, however most of them lack either the impact (return on investment), solve too little of a problem or underplay the dependencies which exists to implement those solutions.

Seeker is expecting a comprehensive solution for the “Traffic Jam” problem in the urban cities.

Seeker is expecting solutions for one or both of the following categories.

Category 1 - High impact, low cost, practical, implementable
Category 2 - High impact but DOES NOT NEED TO be low on cost, practical or implementable

Category 2 needs a theoretical solution. Can the solution of traffic Jam come from the problem itself? How do we make the traffic jam problem self heal? Feel free to go WILD with your imagination without thinking about how it can be implemented (Applicable only for category 2)

Sign In to read more about the challenge or Sign Up Now and start solving.

Seeker looking for a device that allows a player, to set up dominos faster for a toppling game

Seeker is looking for device design, which should allow a player to set up the dominos faster than any other traditional method of setting them up possible today.

The device design should allow the user to create interesting patterns, including but not limited to circles, trees where one row becomes two and two becomes four, curves. Also allow predefined shapes, which could connect to each other to make a longer domino queue. Patterns and shapes could be created by using the device multiple times (in other words, the device does not need to release the pattern or design in one go)

Player should be able to repeat the whole process for any number of times, which means that once the dominos fall, it should be easy to set them again.

Solver need to submit the technical design for the device with details.
A video capture of a) technical design with explanation and b) the design at work; is must.

Read more about the problem here or Sign Up Now to start solving.

Seeker is looking for a solution to save stranded Whales, Dolphins, and other big fish

Every year more than 2000 fish/mammals around the world get stranded and majority of them do not make it back to the sea. The occurrences of big fish/ mammal stranding and the causes are still a subject of scientific research and debate. Current known ways of rescuing, results only in saving a few, smaller and younger ones.

ideaken.com platform is hosting a challenge to identify  practical solution to save stranded Whales, Dolphins, and other big fish

The challenge is looking for a solution in following areas.

Point 1) Identification of the reasons that causes stranding and ways to fix those reasons.
OR
Point 2) a) Keeping the stranded big fish / mammals alive, far longer than possible today b) solution to move them back in the deep sea, and c) ways to avoid re-beaching
OR
Both Point 1) and Point 2) above.

Your solution will be reviewed by the experts in big fish/ mammal rescue field for applicability and suitability.

Read more about the problem here or Sign Up Now to start solving.