At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, E4C and ASME, in collaboration with the global technology company Siemens, launched a successful global design challenge aimed at addressing two intractable obstacles to the provision of plentiful food and water.
The Innovate for Impact: Siemens Design Challenge was entirely virtual, leveraging E4C’s experience in mobilizing socially minded engineers and innovators online. E4C provided know-how in human-centered design, and Siemens offered its expertise and powerful CAD software SolidEdge to the online engineering community. The result was the creation of innovative hardware solutions to advance two of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): zero hunger and clean water.
More than 23,000 people from 184 countries responded to the call for action and submitted more than 220 ideas to improve the quality of life in underserved communities. Contestants passed through three phases: Plan, Design, and Realize and Sustain. The winners were selected by 11 judges and 14 E4C Fellows from around the world, representing 222 years of collective experience in water, agriculture, energy, engineering design and manufacturing.
The Winners:
Zero Hunger Track: Design a postharvest off-grid preservation technology to reduce the farm-to-table food loss. Winner: EcoLife Cold Room Team (Uganda)
Clean Water Track: Design a low-cost, energy-efficient, scalable technology for desalinating brackish water. Winner: Apü üya Wüin-The guardian of Water (Colombia)
Watch the virtual pitches and awards ceremony.
