Siemens Stiftung awarded 23 out of 800 participants of the most promising innovations entered in the ‘empowering people’ award.
The international competition had sorted to identify simple yet intelligent technological solutions to sustainably improve the lives of people in developing countries.
The winning solutions can sustainably enhance living conditions in developing countries by enabling people to independently improve their supply for basic needs.
Martin Aufmuth from Erangen Germany scooped the first prize worth $69,025, his innovation involved the production of the OneDollarGlasses. With millions of visually-impaired people living in impoverished regions around the world, the specs costing just one dollar.
At second place was Dr. Moses Kizza Musaazi from Uganda, who walked away with $41,415 . His innovation included making of affordable and biodegradable sanitary napkins with the use of the Papyrus plant.
Third position was taken by David Osborne from Celsius Global Solutions, UK, who received $27,610. His innovation, the jompy water boiler, a fire top device enables households to cook a meal whilst at the same time heating water to temperatures high enough to kill waterborne bacteria.
The other 20 winners walked away with $6,902 prize money. Some of the innovations included; OpenIR,a web application for infrared satellite data which can determine the possibility of floods or drought; SMSGYAN, an internet-based information via SMS. The mobile owners without internet access send an SMS to a central number and the system checks out the Web for approriate information and then returns the result in a reduced format through SMS; the Score-Stove, a power generation durin cooking, the heat produced when cooking is turner to sound acoustics then turned to electricity.
Siemens Stiftung set out to look for appropriate low-tech solutions, but it is also in the process of compiling all the solutions in order to make them visible and available to the public.
The long-term aim is also to connect developers and users of interesting products and solutions as well as potential investors and development organizations.
Rolf Huber, Managing Director, Siemens Stiftung said: “We are convinced that all of these solutions will have a great impact on the lives of people in developing countries. By empowering individuals, we can empower communities, with long-term effects.”
