Help the world – vote for effective electricity supplies in Asia

Would you like to do a nice thing for some human beings?

Is there any cost?
No cost. All you have to do is register at this website http://globalchallenge.mit.edu/about

Just sign up and then you can vote. You can sign up as a friend of MIT. Signing up can be very quick.

What is this website and organization?
Who hasn't heard of MIT – Massachusetts Institute of Technology? The renowned American Institution.

THE MIT GLOBAL CHALLENGE
MIT has set a global challenge – The MIT IDEAS Global Challenge connects students with the passion and talent to improve the world with the experience and resources of the MIT community worldwide. MIT supports innovation and entrepreneurship through an annual competition that awards up to $10,000 per team for the best ideas to tackle barriers to well-being.

THE AIMS OF THE MIT GLOBAL CHALLENGE

Defining barriers to well-being in communities around the world

Generating innovative solutions to these challenges

Forming teams to develop prototypes and proposals

Sharing skills and resources with teams

CONSERVING ENERGY ENTRY
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXXi2zzAWkI&feature=player_embedded
Pakistan faces a massive shortfall of electricity.

CRISIS
Pakistanis face a major energy crisis. Pakistan has an available capacity of 18GW with a demand of 22GW. This gap causes massive power cuts throughout the country (of more than 16 hours in some areas).

HUMAN AND ECONOMIC CONSEQUENCES
The excessive power cuts have not only crippled local industry (with some 40% of factories closing down) but has also left people frustrated. This frustration leads to riots and violent protests.

NO SOLUTION IN SIGHT
Even with increases in generation capacity this gap will remain in the coming years, so there is a need to tackle this issue now from the consumer end.

CONSUMER SOLUTION
KnowElectricity (http://knowelectricity.org) is a social enterprise focused on consumer engagement for energy conservation through energy education and promotion of energy efficient products and practices in Pakistan.

This organization is currently engaged in:
1. Schools and Students Engagement Program (SSEP)
2. Products for Sustainability (PFS)

SSEP is an engagement/educational program for high school students to impart a greater sense of responsibility for consumption. It consists of a series of talks, seminars, electricity audit training and audits. This helps to decrease their electricity consumption and the consumption of neighboring households.

PFS focuses on products with sustainable advantages and financial benefits with the aim to create understanding of technologies to drive consumer purchase of suitable products.

AIM
To decrease the electricity consumption of households

WHO ARE THE PEOPLE BEHIND THIS PROJECT
Wardah Inam: Wardah is the Co-Founder at KE. She is a PhD Candidate at MIT where she is researching in Power Electronics (Energy efficient power converter design). She has also been involved in numerous projects related to alte
ative energy applications such as MIT SoftRockers. She graduated from Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology (GIKI) with a BS in Electronics Engineering where she worked on a Grid-tie inverter for solar applications for her Final Year Project.

Wardah Inam: wardah@knowelectricity.org

Faizan Rasool: Faizan is the Co- Founder at KE (KnowElectricity) and is also working with Tintash as Manager Mobile Application He spent a year as the head of the Electronics and Electrical department in Philip Morris Pakistan at their flagship factory. He has a BSc in Electronics Engineering from GIKI. www.knowelectricity.org

Faizan Rasool: faizan@knowelectricity.org

WHY I VOTED
I voted because there are many ways to tackle a problem.

We can do nothing but then the problem will get worse. I don't believe this is a solution.

We can do something destructive – rioting and violent protests don’t solve the problem and often make the problem so much more worse. I have always asked people not to do this.

We could blame the government but really that does not help either because the government in some countries seems unable to solve the electricity shortage. No government is perfect and there are so many pressing issues facing government. I have always believed we should help government.

The people themselves could do something constructive. The constructive thing is to re-evalute how you use electricity and how to use less of it. This project is about this solution. The project is also environmentally friendly. The project is constructive and could be helpful. Constructive initiatives get my vote and that is why I voted for this project today. I would encourage you to do likewise. You certainly lose nothing by voting and you may have just made the world a little bit nicer and a better place to live in.

Please help by reposting this posting here – you and your contacts may agree with me. Blessings.
Help the world – vote for effective electricity supplies in Asia