[R10] ALL IEEE Young Engineer Humanitarian Challenge 2017

2.1.1        The program is open to science/engineering professionals and graduate/undergraduate students, from Asia-Pacific (IEEE R10) countries,
who are 35 years or below the age of 35 years in 2017.

2.1.2        Participants will compete as a team of minimum 2 and maximum 4 participants and at least one member must be an IEEE member.

2.2.1        Participants will identify and study the issue faced by local community or less privileged community and through their technical and business knowledge provide a sustainable and low cost solution in form of a proposal to solve this issue and hence making a significant difference in peoples’ lives.

2.2.2        This competition encourages the participant teams to actually work with beneficiary partners. The beneficiary partners, for example could be a community having little access to electricity; or it could be a Non-Government Organization (NGO) working on rural education; a local government; a social entrepreneurial venture; a hospital etc. You may not have a concrete collaboration with the beneficiary partner while you apply for this competition. However, it is important to have thought of one during the proposal submission.

2.2.3        During the competition, you are expected to work with the beneficiary partner and deliver your project. Although the technology component of the projects is important, it will be assessed on its problem solving capability.  A simple but very effective solution will be valued more than a complex one with low impact.

2.2.4        The project proposal template and detail can be found at AIYEHUM website: http://aiyehum.ieeer10.org

2.2.5        Incomplete entries will not be eligible

2.2.7        The participants must play the primary role in problem-solving; however, they may receive technical and financial assistance from other persons acting as team mentors or in a mentorship role.

2.3.1        The promising projects will be shortlisted based on the innovation, results expected and their impact on humanity or on community.

2.3.2        Sustainability, re-usability, transportability of the results to other parts of the world, entrepreneurship, originality, creativity and leadership shall be important but secondary evaluation factors.

2.3.3        Ideally, we would love to see the projects adopted by the beneficiary partners and sustained for long term utilization.

2.3.4        Good project V/s not-so-project: Your projects can be between the two extreme ends as depicted below. It is better to be as close to the first example as possible.

2.3.4.1  Example of a great project: To developed a low cost solar electric lighting system and deployed it in a village nearby. The project was able to light a few homes and users are happy to find the project affordable and easy to maintain. An NGO in the village is interested to manufacture more such project kits and distribute. The project is such that it can easily be replicated and handed over to the NGO for administering it. The team is working with the NGO to sustain its usage for long term.

2.3.4.2  Example of not-so-good project: The team has implemented a great algorithm to identify gestures of a physically challenged person. It is intended that after recognizing gestures, control signals could be generated to control a wheelchair or home electronics or anything in general, nothing is specific though. The team has not tested it on an actual patient but they feel that it might work great because it identifies one of their friend’s gestures. They have also not implemented a physical prototype system that uses this algorithm to help a patient.

2.3.5        The short-listed project teams will be given a grant of US$500 for prototype development and completion of the project. The money will be disbursed in 3 instalments (US$150+150+200/instalment) in the months of July, August and September 2017. The 2^nd and 3^rd instalment will be contingent upon the successful submission of progress report.

2.3.6        Short-listed project teams will be notified by email within 6 weeks of the Submission Deadline (25^th April).

3.1  All short-listed project teams who have been given the grant must submit 2 reports, one in August and the other in October.

3.2  The report must include the description of project, photographs of the prototype, impact on humanity and challenges faced by the team in developing the prototype. Top 3 teams will be selected by a panel of experts based on the results achieved and the impact on humanity, or on a community.

3.3  The top team will be invited to present their work in one of the IEEE R10 Conference/meeting. The travel for the team leader and one of the team members will be partially funded by the IEEE R10.

3.4  All short-listed teams will be given certificates.