Wali Zaidi walks into the room in a suit and red tie. He's here to talk serious business: his solution for peace in Pakistan and other developing nations.
He plans to tackle that challenge by bringing affordable electricity to rural areas. With electricity, access to health care and education can expand and economic development blossom. People will no longer live in the dark. A little electricity can create better living conditions, more peaceful living conditions.
To you, this might sound a bit lofty for an undergrad engineering major to accomplish in his off hours. The United Nations, however, has confidence in Zaidi and fellow engineering students Sammy Zaidi (Wali's brother) and Christopher Belcher.
The trio recently won the Humanitarian Technology Challenge, an international competition sponsored by the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers and the United Nations Foundation. The team had eight months to develop a prototype, define a pilot project location, and identify manufacturing and financing resources. They edged out finalists from universities in Germany and India with their idea of a solar-tracking power system.
The team envisions the system being used for small-scale appliances, like a computer, household lights, or a refrigerator for storing vaccines in a medical clinic.
"An interesting example of usage I came across was a small rural restaurant that used electricity to power a TV set," Zaidi says. "This attracted a lot more customers to the restaurant to order food and watch TV. Basic things like that make a difference in the end."
The design is simple -- a few solar panels and a manual system for tracking the sun across the sky. It's adaptable, scalable, and requires little maintenance. The team picked solar because it's a natural resource that is abundant in the test-target of Pakistan as well as many developing nations. Unfortunately, Zaidi says, there's also a big challenge inherent in solar. "It's always the money. The technology is still expensive."
And what good is an electricity-generating system if people well under the poverty level can never attain it?
That's where Zaidi's finance minor was a big help. The team had to extensively research the economic feasibility of its solution and develop a full business plan. Each unit would cost about $1,700 with installation. The team researched microcredit, which enables small loans (by Western standards) to be made to individuals in developing countries. These loans, secured through private partnerships, aid groups, or the manufacturer, could be repaid with as little as $28 per month.
"The ultimate aim is to use this power device in a way that allows the borrower to increase productivity, which in turn increases revenue," Zaidi says. "This increased revenue is used to pay off the loan within a short period of time, after which the borrower becomes the owner of the device and can have greater economic stability."
With $5,000 prize money and assistance from the contest, Zaidi is now setting up a site to demonstrate the system to potential investors and to secure a manufacturer.
For the next step in bringing an idea to market, he plans to don that suit and tie frequently. He graduates in May and is ready to pitch the idea as both a good business venture and a good thing to do.
"I've invested so much time in this already that I have to see it through," he says. "Maybe, if all goes well, I'll be building a business here instead of just finding a job."
