Renewable Electricity :Electricity saved is life earned

Renewable Electricity

Metaphor:Electricity saved is life earned

There is no need to mention the pace at which the climate is changing and also the impact it has in our everyday lives. Though there are many factors that are contributing to the climate change, increased consumption of electricity is one of the most significant factors. Urbanization and rapid progress of developing nations are increasing the load on the existing power generation sources which are not able to upgrade and expand at the same pace.

Global energy demand increased by 4% in 2018 or 900TWh, and majority of it is still sourced by coal and gas fired power plants. The increase in the demand is because of the increase constructions in developing countries and due to the increasing the amount of Air conditioner usage because of hot weather conditions. The growth of power production from coal-based power plants was highest in China and India. Though the electricity production by coal is replaced by other green methods across the world, China and India have more than offset the significant reductions. The efficiency is also low in India when compared to other countries. Using modern power plant technology is of paramount importance else the rate of increase in the emissions and wastage of resources would be extremely high.

This of significant concern with respect to the both the short-term and long-term impacts. With the increasing load on the existing power generating sources making them run beyond the efficient bandwidth of production releasing many by products that are harmful to the environment. In the long term these make permanent and irreversible changes to the environment. This leads to the further amplification of the problem with respect to its impact in on the other biological aspects of earth.

The debate whether climate change is real can go on forever, (it is as good as debating about vaccinations being useless) but it is important to act immediately, and initiatives be taken. Otherwise it would remain a problem beyond any solution. It would not just remain a problem, but it would become a matter of survival, where many things would not in our control anymore.

Does it mean that solutions don't exist for the problem or is it not being implemented? If we consider the journey of power consumption, how much does each of the stakeholder in the path have a role in this initiative? Are their motives aligned or not? Will there be a consensus? Will there be a possibility for synergy? Will there be a cost-effective alternative that could impact in a small yet effective way?

The bigger questions are much difficult to answer, but the last question is something that needs to be done.

The solution being proposed is a small-scale solution which can be implemented in the scale of gated communities or housing board colonies. The idea being proposed is to have a pooled electricity grid for each community and let each household be a generator of electricity. The idea is that each house has a solar panel for power generation and all the houses producing the extra power can be stored in the grid. The houses then can convert the power generated into energy credits and can be spent in paying the regular electricity bill. This also gives an added advantage of not using the generators during a power shortage.

Storyboard:

Looks-Like Prototype:

 

The low-cost solution:

The low-cost solution would be to monitor areas that already have a good enough number of solar panels and conduct a concept survey whether people testing whether people would be willing to invest in a grid that would solve both power shortage and other electricity needs. After which, awareness would be generated for the benefits of the solution

Hypothesis that would be tested:

H1: People find solar power grid necessary.

H2: People are not willing to invest in the power grid after knowing the benefits of the solar grid

Assumptions:

1.     The test is being carried out in places like Chandigarh, where solar panels need to be completely installed.

2.     The test would be first conducted in gated communities and/or housing colonies.

Success Metrics:

1.     A significant amount of the population (50%) show interest in the concept

2.     Enough sustenance of basic electric supplies in the households through solar power.

Transform the education system from a theory based institution to a holistic set up.

Challenge:

Transform the secondary education system in India from a theory-based set up to a holistic development institution.

Solution:

The idea is to develop an institution in schools where the core offering is a practical approach towards things in life rather than a conservative one. A paradigm shift approach is taken to transform the thinking methodology of the kid. Students are nurtured with inputs from different perspectives. Rather than rubbing the ideologies of the teacher on the students, they are given a platform to develop their own perspective. Open discussions are enabled through a learning environment. Implementation is given priority over preaching. Sensitive topics are discussed openly. I would like to name the school as "BeYou". At BeYou a student can ask whatever that pops in her head without a filter. Differences in individuals are respected. Chasing your interest is given precedence over running behind what is considered right by society.

The main offerings at BeYou:

⦁ No entry criteria or screening tests for students:                                                       
 Anyone can join irrespective of their previous grades in other schools. Students are not type cast in a category based on mere marks from a single test. They are observed on a daily basis. Their interest, the character is gauged through a series of experiments. An understanding is formed based on the observation by the teachers.

⦁ A wide range of electives to choose from as subjects:   
Instead of giving the students a set number of subjects, they are given an expansive number of courses to choose from. In a typical school, there would be 6 subjects and every student is obliged to study the given courses irrespective of their interests. At BeYou, a student can select the courses on her own. If the student thinks there is a topic that she is interested and there is no course available related to it, she can recommend the course to the management, so the same can be added to the curriculum.

⦁ No exams or grades:                 
 The student's acumen on topics will not be judged based on a mere test. They will be given projects to work. Approach to the problems will be given importance over solution achieved. Presentations, discussions would be a way of learning. Experiments are conducted live to show science related stuff. Videos of famous personalities in the respective fields are shown to instill the seed of inspiration to learn more of the chosen course. Students are encouraged to question the set norms and have a healthy discussion about the same.

⦁ Practical assignments:                                       
Instead of assignments given in regular schools, students are here are given tasks where they need to take to people outside their comfort zone. For example, the task is to create something out of the supplies they are given and create and utility and sell it to people. If one looks at the task, it could seem like a mere craft class. But there is innovation, creativity, communication and good convincing skills involved in there. This is basically a business model they just created. This can be looked from a different perspective. Students in summer holidays generally do some activity where they can earn, be it tuitions, working in a departmental store, etc., But instead of selling your time for money, they teach to develop a mindset where you do not have an investment of time is less than the effort, basically a business model.

⦁ An innovative way of teaching:                             
 The blackboard and textbook method is a big turnoff. Instead, the teaching is done through discussions, direct interactions within small groups. Depending on the topic, students from higher grades mingle with the lower ones and teach them what they have learned. This teaches them to take responsibility and people management. Individual thinking is enabled by providing them an environment to develop things.                                                                                                   

Storyboard for prototyping:

⦁ Before Scenario:

After Scenario:

 Before Scenario:

        After Scenario:

Prototyping:

At BeYou there would be allocated space for different activities. Apart from the usual classrooms where one on one discussions happen instead of a monologue, there would be assigned spaces for individual interests. Customized learning would be catered. Rooms like Make it from scratch (make anything from the supplies available), music room (design your own music), math room ( deep dive into the core of the problem), science room(experiments can be done live), art room (splash the color in you on the paper).

Low-cost experiment:
A comparison study will be conducted between a student who goes to the regular school and a student who has gone to a school which has a curriculum similar to BeYou. They would be gauged on different parameters like attitude, beliefs, confidence levels, knowledge on different things, communication levels, etc., Basically, their approach towards life will be assessed. This experiment will be done through the depth interview.

Hypothesis: 

At BeYou students will turn out to be intellectual, curious and better individuals with a different perspective in life.

Plan of Action: 

In collaboration with schools already in the path of BeYou, I would like to recommend the above-mentioned initiatives in their schools. A complete survey and report will be presented to convince the schools that this school will make their child a fantastic and confident person in life. Parents will be a key stakeholder. Sessions with the parents to clarify the path of their children will execute. In extension, the services provided will be extended till 12th-grade post which they can be placed in different universities abroad or colleges of the student’s choice.

Higher Education for Everyone
(Attery AnandKumar)(PGPEM - 1816004)

Challenge: Higher Education for Everyone i.e. anyone who wants to pursue his/her higher studies should be able to do so irrespective of his/her financial status.

Knowledge has always been a distinguishing characteristic of human beings in the view of their unique capacity to formulate and continuously transmit knowledge from one generation and location to another generation and location. Knowledge society has gained prominence due to advances in Technology and related Applications. Knowledge societies do address issues about how information and ideas are to be created and thereafter adopted at an accelerated speed.

            Anyone who wants to pursue higher studies should be able to do so irrespective of his financial status and his current talent/abilities. The cost of higher education should not be a blocker stopping someone from pursuing higher education. There should not be any entrance exams as well that will filter out the prospective students from pursuing higher education in their respective area of interest.

Metaphor: Wedding Buffet: When you go to a wedding ceremony or a party and start your dinner on a buffet table then you have all the food options in front of you and you can pick whatever you want to eat. No one questions you or checks if you are qualified to take that particular food item or not.

The higher education options should also be made available to everyone in the same fashion as the food items are made available to everyone. Anyone should be able to choose any area of interest, there should be no questions asked and no filter criteria to filter out interested candidates from pursuing what they want to study.

Brain Storming & Coming up with Ideas: After lot of thinking and brain storming with many colleagues, friends, classmates and family members, I came up with the following solutions to the challenge. These ideas are as shown in the below chart diagram.

Picture - 1

When I put the generated Ideas in the Cost-Impact matrix then I get the following image.

Picture - 2

Based on the Cost-Impact matrix the solution is selected which is listed below.

Bright Spot: All the state and central governments have Employment exchange boards where candidates seeking jobs can register and those organisations who have vacancies can approach the candidate and offer the job. Similarly have a central place where candidates can mention their profile and their desire for higher education. The solution is explained in the below section in greater detail.

Solution (Central Portal / Web-Site): Develop and host a portal where students who wants to pursue higher education, but are not able to do so due to non availability of funds,  can register themselves in this portal. NGO's will certify if the candidate actually needs the education that he wants to pursue. Also check if the candidate can pay the fee by himself. If the candidate is found to be genuine then mark the candidate as verified.

               Also Loop-in NGO's, Corporates and Govt Organisations who can go through the list of verified candidates and select the candidates whom they want to sponsor. The institutions can sponsor the candidates as part of their CSR activity or they can even tie up the candidate and ensure that the candidate works for the organisation for few years (this way we also provide employment to the deserving candidates).

      STORY BOARDS

       Before

Picture - 3

       After

Picture - 4

    

     Looks-Like-Prototype

One Week Low Cost Experiment

The following tasks will be performed as part of my one week low cost experiment.

1. Reach out to any NGO's / Orphanages and collect list of deserving candidates who would like to pursue higher education.
2. Create a list of such candidates from more than couple of NGO's / Orphanages
3. Now reach out to Corporate Organisation and check-out if they would like to fund these candidates as part of their 

Cost: The cost of this experiment is literally ZERO. It only requires few hours of people effort as they would need to go around few orphanages and few corporate organisations.

Hypothesis Testing: This experiment tests the Hypothesis based on which the whole solutions would be built i.e. If there are deserving candidates who are seeking financial support for their higher education then the established organisation will come forward to help these candidates.

Criteria for Success: If we can shortlist least one deserving candidate who is looking for financial support and if we can find an organisation who can sponsor his higher education then we can assume that the proposed solution can work effectively.

To build and commoditize a Jet Suit

 My favorite Challenge:

To build and commoditize a jet suit - Fly like a bird

The challenge:

With one jump you go off the ground, tearing across the limits that kept you to ground, you go into the air all by yourself feeling the fresh air on your cheeks, everything that you see every day getting smaller and smaller, by the time you fathom this feeling you are at your destination. Doesn’t the mere thought of it leave you with a strong urge to covet the experience? This is precisely how I felt when I first saw our own Tony Stark, zooming across the skies in his fictional IRON MAN suit. Every one of us must have had an unsatisfied desire to fly across the skies when we are young, but then later we have simply accepted the fact that our science and technology is not yet ready for our dreams. But is it that far away? Recent developments in this field say otherwise. Richard Browning, CEO of Gravity Industries and the inventor of the Gravity Jet Suit took the first step in this direction. He has successfully developed a gravity jet suit that had made human flight a reality. “The vision was really to go and tackle a challenge that was largely considered to be impossible: the idea that human beings could fly. Having gone and achieved it, it’s opened the door into a whole new realm of human capability, really, human possibility,” says Browning¹. Everything is so fascinating, the dream I have suppressed for years of my life has turned into reality, but here is the twist in the tale. This magnificent invention makes my wallet a $440,000 poorer or simply put it can’t be mass manufactured nor can be available to the larger sections of people as yet. From that moment in 2016, when I first saw this news my dream “TO BUILD A JET SUIT” has taken its anchor, I now dream “TO BUILD AND COMMODITIZE A JET SUIT.”  

But is it really just a toy of our dreams or does it come in handy in our day-to-day lives or even better, solve some grave issues we are currently facing like long traffic congestions and climatic changes. Jet suits are going to be the solution to the problem affecting millions of people in the world, traffic congestion, if designed efficiently and available to the common people at a reasonable price. With the increase in urbanization and vertical development of cities, traffic congestion has become a major problem in all the cosmopolitan cities of the world. Los Angeles leads the way with drivers staying in the traffic for an average of 102 hours a year, and it has cost 19 billion dollars, followed by New York where the costs account up to 33.7 billion dollars². These costs arise from the loss of productivity of workers getting stuck in the traffic, wastage of fuel, etc. All these aside, the gases released from these motor vehicles pollute the air. Jet suits provide a one-stop solution to all these problems. By developing Jet suits, you can put checkmate to the traffic congestion problems. With the adoption of jet suits for the daily commute you can fly and reach your destination, there will be no waiting along the way, fuel conservation, decrease in air pollution and can avail many more benefits. In addition to that, it saves a lot amount of space for parking, which is also a very serious concern, especially in tier-1 cities like Mumbai.

Every coin has two sides. I have listed some pros till now, but what could be some potential issues assuming I make my favorite challenge a reality? One major problem could be to create and institutionalize rules and regulations for human flight. Separate altitude controls and path controls have to be put in place to enable the mass to use this facility of human flight. A whole new system like that of the railway network and roads network should be kept in place, but on the bright side, it can also potentially create employment opportunities. Special and rigorous training has to be given to each flyer before he is given a go to fly. The fuel that is used to provide the thrust during take-off and flight has to be light-weight so as to not hamper the flight experience of the flyer. The fuel also has to be a renewable fuel to be eco-friendly. Jet suits can also prove to be potentially fatal in case of any kind of malfunction during the course of flight given the altitude at which the flyer is flying. While jet suit could be very comfortable for the short-distance travel, the basic suit models can tire a flyer over large distance travels.

In conclusion, I believe Jet suits don’t just satisfy our innate desire to fly; it helps in our daily commute and makes that travel back to home from the office a pleasurable ride. It resolves traffic issues and global warming problem to a significant extent. Though it might pose some issues once it becomes a reality, I believe they can be eliminated through systematic and thorough planning while institutionalizing the system of human travel. Are you excited by the idea? Join me in hoping that I can accomplish my favorite challenge real soon!

Solution to my favorite challenge:

Now that the groundbreaking work of Gravity technologies and Richard Browning has proved that the jet suit can be actually built. Next steps towards the realization of my dream “To build and commoditize jet suits” are to bring down the price of the customized jet suits to an acceptable prize of about USD 50,000 to USD 100,000. Given that Gravity has already received seven orders at the current price of USD 450,000, it is fair to assume that many other people will be willing to buy this product. However, this segment is going to continue a niche for many years or a few decades to come. I choose my first step solution to commoditize the jet suits assuming that the next wave of technological innovation brings the prices lower to the before-mentioned ranges.

My proposed solution has four phases as below:

Phase 1: Awareness Creation

Many people are unaware of the concept “Jet Suit”, even if they are, most of them can only picturize Iron Man’s Jet suit. Application of Jet suit for the transportation purpose is yet an unexplored segment. Hence my first step is to create awareness among the potential “Innovator” segment customers by explaining the working of the technology and the benefits one can derive from that especially in the short distance transportation amongst the ever-growing traffic problems.

Phase 2: Interest

Now that I’ve got the attention of a chunk of your target audience, but can I engage with them enough so that they'll want to spend their precious time and effort understanding the jet suit in more detail? Gaining the customer's interest is a deeper process than grabbing their attention. They will give you a little more time to do it, but you must stay focused on their needs. This means helping him or her to pick out the messages that are relevant to his/her needs.

Phase 3: Desire

The Interest and Desire parts of the AIDA model go hand-in-hand: as I am building the customer's interest, I also need to help him/her understand how what you're offering can help her in a real way. The main way of doing this is by appealing to her personal needs and wants and creating an innate desire in them to buy the jet suit.

Phase 4: Action

Now that I have created the desire to own a jet suit among my potential customers. I have to take special effort in fulfilling that demand with the customized jet suit. Jet suits are highly specific to body structure and other attributes of the person using it, hence this can be both highly important and challenging step.

Before & after Storyboard:

Before:

After:

Prototype:

This prototype consists following components:

•                    Six ECU kerosene microturbines, including two on each arm: automated with the best-in-class power-to-weight ratio

•                    HUD system: the Sony Smart Eyeglass Developer Edition (912-1099) provides fuel and engine status on a heads-up display (HUD) system.

•                    Wi-Fi data linkage: live streaming from the Daedalus suit to ground monitoring and the HUD system.

•                    Fuel air detection: Utilizing medical bubble detectors to provide a fail-safe fuel alert.

•                    Graphene composites: using composite materials to reduce the weight of the suit.

•                    Airbag system: working on an auto-inflate impact protection system (based on motorcycle airbags).

•                    The six jet engines produce 130 kilograms (or 286 pound-force) of thrust and can achieve a speed of about 30mph.

One-day experiment:

I want to conduct a one-day experiment where I conduct an awareness class about the jet suit technology, its usage and benefits to the potential early buyers (tech enthusiasts or one who is curious about a jet flight like I am) and then allow them to test ride the model jet suit. This can not only create awareness and interest; it can also gauge one’s desire to buy once the interest is created. It can also give insights to include or upgrade the existing model specifications that help to reach a wider market.

Hypothesis:

Commercialization is possible (i.e., people are willing to buy and use to use jet suits) once the jet suits prices are fairly reasonable (about USD 100,000).

Cost of experimentation:

The cost break up is given below:

Item	Quantity	Cost	Assumption
Fuel costs	4 * 10	40 *65 rs per liter= Rs.2600	4 liters of diesel is required per person, and 10 people are doing the test ride.
Man-hours	3	3*5000= Rs.15,000	3 professional experts with 5000 per each.
Jet suits procurement	1	Rs.20,000	Assuming that I have access to jet suits and just have a look after their maintenance
Promotional costs & costs to bring the audience	10	Rs.10,000	As it’s a little difficult to get the early adopters, assuming Rs. 1000 expense on each.
Total Cost		Rs.47,600

  

Measurement of success:

I consider my hypothesis a success when enough percentage of people among the participants has expressed the desire to buy the jet suit after the awareness and test run.