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. These participants volunteer their time to collaborate for the benefit of humanity.
If you are a student IEEE member, you can join in as an individual or as the leader of a team.
Three challenges have been identified
1. Reliable Electricity: The availability of electric power for lighting and other electronic devices in resource-constrained environments is important for education, communications, and economic development.
2. Data Connectivity of Rural District Health Offices: It’s critical that health workers have the capability of exchanging data among remote field offices and central health facilities in order to access treatment protocols, create and monitor health trends, and share results of treatments.
3. Individual ID Tied to Health Records: Consistent availability of patient medical records is 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.
More information about the HTC project, and detailed descriptions of the challenges, can be found at www.ieeehtc.org. Rules for the Regional Student Design Competition can be found at www.ieeehtc.org/students.
Contact – Harold Tepper
h.tepper@ieee.org