SciBridge volunteers met up on an unusually rainy Saturday afternoon in Austin to pack up 10 dye-sensitized solar cell kits for shipment to African universities. Big thanks to UT-Austin volunteers Josephine, Tony, Tyler, and Daniel! We had a very productive afternoon and assembled the first 10 kits. The supplies were all purchased with funds from our MRS Foundation Grassroots Grant - it's so awesome to see everything we've been able to order! Next step up is the shipment of 5 of these kits to Ugandan universities, a process that will be coordinated by John Paul.
Check out the photos from our packing day below and stay tuned for how the experiments are used in Africa!
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We are very close to sending our first kits to Uganda on dye-sensitized solar cells! SciBridge project volunteers met up at UT-Austin to perform the experiment (courtesy of UCLA/CNSI's High School Nanoscience outreach program) to make sure the supplies we have purchased will work. The great news is that the 3 solar cells we made today all worked so the supplies that we have ordered are good! We will do packaging in 2 weeks, at which point the kits will be ready for shipment to our first SciBridge institutions in Uganda! A big thank you to all the SciBridge volunteers who came out today: Josephine, Tony, Tyler, & Alex! L-R: Tony, Tyler, Veronica & Josephine measuring the conductivity of the FTO glass slides. Alex doctor-blading the titanium oxide suspension onto a conductive glass slide. Tyler & Tony testing their solar cells under the super-strong Texas sun.
Some statistics about Uganda, from the U.N.: 38% of the population lives on less than $1.25 per day; the literacy rate is 73%; the life expectancy is 58; infant mortality is 9X that of the U.S. Only 15% of the population has access to electricity. So what exactly is the point of sending science experiments to a country like Uganda, a country that clearly has pressing basic health, education, and energy needs? Some other facts: Africa, a continent of more than 1 billion people, was the origin of less than 2% of global scientific publications and 0.1% of patents granted by the U.S. Patent Office. And here are some other statistics from the U.N.: industrialized countries have between 20-50 scientists and engineers per 10,000 people. In developing countries like Uganda, that number is more like 1 scientist and engineer per 10,000 people. It has been said that developing countries do not have the critical mass of technically skilled workers needed to advance their economies. There is an ever-increasing knowledge gap in the world. Developing countries such as Uganda are continuously placed in the position of importing equipment and technological know-how, ever-dependent on other countries. At the same time, universities in Uganda are filled with bright, eager students ready to learn the latest technological advances - and there will be more to come, as 48% of Uganda's population is under the age of 14. Universities in Uganda are unable to provide opportunities for their students to learn the latest technological advances. The story is the same for the rest of the least-developed African nations. Universities largely lag behind in the latest research because they do not have the latest technology and infrastructure; these are expensive, and require significant training. Therefore, there is a glaring research gap between these universities and those of the developed nations. SciBridge would like to bridge this gap as much as possible by exposing students of African universities to the latest, novel science experiments. In addition, SciBridge aims at developing a strong collaboration network between African and U.S. universities. Over the past 60 years, it has been estimated that on the order of one trillion U.S. dollars has been sent from the U.S. and Europe for aid-related projects in Africa. On the whole, however, countries in Africa have not been able to reap economic benefits from, and thus be able to move beyond, this aid. The SciBridge project aims for a different strategy for African development. Started as a U.S./Africa collaboration and headed by academic scientists, we aim to enable African scientists and engineers at the university level to innovate in their own countries. We believe this is necessary for sustainable development in a continent that is expected to contribute significantly to the global population growth in the coming decades, a population growth that will come with increased energy demands. It is in the global interest to ensure that no matter where they are geographically, brilliant scientific minds are allowed to innovate, particularly when it comes to the energy crisis. This is the reason for SciBridge. World shares of scientific publications in 2001. Source: UNESCO Scientific Report, 2005.
JUAMI network in action in Kampala: (L-R) Dr. Adrian Hightower (Harvey Mudd College), John Paul Eneku (Makerere University/SciBridge), and Peter Keller (Aid Africa). SciBridge is gearing up for the maiden launch of its 1st workshop come September 2014 at Makerere University in Uganda, after nearly one year of piecing together many constructive ideas and fundraising. Here, I'll share with you the networking event in support of the above arrangements that happened recently here in Uganda between SciBridge and the Joint U.S.-Africa Materials Initiative (JUAMI). You may remember that the SciBridge project is an off-shoot of the 1st JUAMI Materials Research School in Addis Ababa, Africa, in December 2012. In the months of July and August 2014, Dr. Adrian Hightower of Harvey Mudd College (USA), JUAMI member and lecturer at the 2012 JUAMI School, was on a visit to Uganda. Despite his tight schedule, he was kind enough to spare time to promote SciBridge. The Department of Physics at Makerere University hosted him on two different occasions, first on July 28th and second on August 6th. He was accompanied by his friend Peter Keller of Aid Africa. He came to deliver some crucial supplies and make useful inputs to SciBridge. This was a wonderful gesture which hugely enhanced our efforts and preparations for the upcoming SciBridge workshop to be held at Makerere University in September 2014. Here is what happened on the first day of his visit:
Please, watch this space for more updates including the big upcoming dye sensitized solar cell workshop! -John Paul Almost 1 year after John Paul and I thought up of the idea of SciBridge, our first experiment kit supplies have begun to arrive at UT-Austin! Orders have been placed at the major chemical suppliers (Fisher Scientific, VWR, Sigma Aldrich, etc.) and packages delivered to the campus. The process has gone seamlessly with UT's administration of the MRS Foundation account. I am glad to have their purchasing power on our side, as well as the assistance of my research group's administrative assistant, Ms. Lauren Murrah and my postdoc advisor, Prof. Arumugam Manthiram. Dr. Jia Ming Chen, the education director of UCLA's CNSI and SciBridge senior advisor, has been guiding us through the purchasing process to make sure we don't pay more than we have to and thus maximize our kit contents. Meanwhile, John Paul is busy preparing for the first workshop at Makerere University. Friend and JUAMI member, Dr. Adrian Hightower, has been assisting us by bringing a key "ingredient" for the experiment kits with him on his trip to Uganda this summer. John Paul will update you on Adrian's great visit to Makerere U in a blog post very soon. Many exciting things are happening at SciBridge; thank you for following our journey! The MRS Bulletin, the monthly publication of the Materials Research Society, lists SciBridge in this month's "Letter from the President," which also details the purpose of the MRS Foundation. We are excited to contribute to the Society's mission of impacting the global materials science community! In addition, the Materials Research Society recently decided to offer free memberships to students in developing countries. This is an excellent opportunity to join the society and receive free monthly subscriptions to the academic journals MRS Bulletin and MRS Communications. You can find the full letter below as well as by clicking here. We had a great discussion today about the goals and direction of the SciBridge project during our first virtual conference! Despite the time zone miscalculation, Nella Vargas (Penn State), Kelsey Hatzell (Drexel University) and Alula Gebresas (Mekelle University) were able to join me in a very fruitful conversation.
Here is a recap:
We thank everyone for their participation and look forward to future meetings! Check out the "executive summary" of the SciBridge project as well as other exciting projects that will be funded by the MRS Foundation this year!
Last Thursday, we announced the exciting news that SciBridge is a recipient of a 2014 Materials Research Society Foundation "Grassroots, Member Proposal" Award. The award specifically strives to reward innovative "grassroots" projects - projects developed by the materials community at the "lowest" organization level. When John Paul and I applied for the grant in February, I strongly felt that we had a great idea but had no idea if this was the type of project that the MRS would support or if we fit their criteria for principal investigators. At that time, our non-existent funding was making it difficult to do even something relatively small like ship a small amount of titanium oxide to John Paul's university. Needless to say, we were ecstatic at this new turn of events.
The excitement of winning the grant has quickly led to the realization that we literally went from having zero funds to having enough to build and ship (the two amounts are about equal due to the high cost of shipping) about two dozen experiments. The obvious questions sprung up of who will administer the funds and how to organize the project in such a way that it will retain both broad participation as well as a core group of committed volunteers, both in Africa and the U.S. Over the past week, I have been - quickly - learning about the do's and don't's of grant applications and awards at the university level. Some things could have gone a bit more smoothly and there are already many "lessons learned." The big picture is that we can now say that SciBridge WILL be able to pursue its goals. Winning the MRS award has given us the means to embark on this grand adventure, and we will continue to keep you updated as the journey unfolds! :) -Veronica |
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