Working Groups

Contact: Mario Alejandro Aleman

First project in Honduras funded by IES with support from Dr. Morgan Kiani approaching completion. Seven skilled volunteers from the IEEE Honduras Section providing consultancy for the project. Student volunteers to be involved in the project for community development. Reports created in Spanish for local engagement.

• The WG is working closely with Fransisco to ensure operations run smoothly. The greatest challenge is the border restrictions and logistics involved in the operations as they need to rely on locals to transport people and goods to site.
• Professor Pritpal received funding to build a water pumping system with help from Mario and Fransisco.

Contact: Joan Kerr

Since the NAWG was created in December 2020, we have been working hard to identify and attract viable projects to help develop and explore how they can be implemented with the help of ISVx.

We have started to schedule speakers, especially those with possible low cost and/or low-tech solutions. The first such presentation was Visala Tallavarjula, a sophomore at UCSB pursuing Environmental Studies BA and is also taking Political Science classes through UC Centre this Summer, who spoke about her award-winning water irrigation project. Visala was joined by Ayushi Sharma from SunMoksha , who conducted the tests, including sensors and IoT. This research is being done at the agriculture centre at an University.

At our June meeting, David Kankam, from the Project Development Committee, gave an overview of the criteria and answered questions from the project representatives as well as the Committee members. The project representatives will be invited to attend our meetings to start the development process.

The Committee is identifying possible project, and so far, three distinct ones are being reviewed as follows:

• University of Calgary: to explore and develop templates of engaging university students to identify challenges in a community and work together on possible solutions. The template will be available to other universities throughout North America.
• Dine College: The College have several projects, but the Entrepreneurs Hub maybe a starting point for the Committee, and
• Sedona Greenhouse: Community based education program for greenhousing and ecotourism, Indigenous Medicines, and other vegetables to encourage a community to learn, grow and sell produce.

The NAWG is on target to achieve its goals, and will continue to increase its membership, discover projects and make an impact on the lives of many entrepreneurs.

Our Committee Members are:

• Joan Kerr and Ashok Das: Co-Chairs
• Ayushi Sharma, Secretary
• Ray Larsen
• Rajan Kapur
• Wei-Jen Lee
• Sai Tallavarjula

Contact: Abdulateef Aliyu

The Africa working group was officially inaugurated on the 16th of October 2020 and has regular meetings on the 2nd Friday of every month. The group has the following mandate:

• Develop a good cross section of African representation.
• Set up ISVx student branches in all African Technical Universities
• Develop working solar model with each student branch for hands-on experience.
• Support African Projects and be available to travel to various sites on an annual basis.
• Support the ISVx PowerAfrica21 and later conferences.
• Help create and propose new ISVx projects in Africa.
• Increase number of females in ISVx & IEEE.

To achieve these mandates, the team swiftly created an online form to reach out to volunteers across Africa. More than 50 volunteers from 12 African countries and abroad have signified interest to support the group.

Key identified projects by the group which will be our focus in 2021 include:

• Six (6) pilot telehealth projects in Uganda and Kenya with the plan to scale to other Africa countries.
• Five (5) pilot student branches to be created in Africa Universities in South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria, Mauritius, and Democratic Republic of Congo
• Power Africa 2021 Conference
• Visibility for ISVx for the continent of Africa

The group created three sub-committees: Project support, Education/Conferences and Membership/ Marketing sub-committees. These committees will collaborate with the respective global committees.

The Volunteer lead roles of the groups are:

• Vice President – Abdulallateef Aliyu
• Secretary – Azuka Jude Ofogu
• Chair, Education/Conference Sub-Committee – Avoki Omekanda
• Secretary, Education/Conference Sub-Committee – Mary Omowunmi Longe
• Chair, Project Support Sub-Committee – Humphrey Muhindi
• Vice Chair, Project Support Sub-Committee – Muhammad Buhari
• Secretary, Project Support Sub-Committee – Ciza Ndegey
• Chair, Membership/Marketing – Anita Mekwunye
• Secretary, Membership/Marketing – Cyiza Augustin

Contact: Xiaofeng Zhang

IEEE PES China Smart Village Committee is composed of experts, teachers, and students in the field of electrical engineering and new energy, engineers, entrepreneurs and social workers. ISVx CWG pays attention to poverty alleviation and smart rural construction in remote areas of China, and actively promotes the development and use of public welfare undertakings for rural poor areas, popular science and student education in remote townships, electricity, and new energy sources, and helps eliminate poverty and backwardness in rural areas. It also develops innovative energy, science and technology financial services, guide investment in new villages and towns, and develop local innovative and entrepreneurial township enterprises with market development prospects.

Milestones

• Pilot project involving donation of solar panels to elementary schools to support education.
• 8 webinars conducted in China last year.
• Website created – WeChat group to coordinate communications.
• Three members from China State Grid Corporation and Energy Institute recruited to actively participate in the CWG core team.
• New member Yiyi Jin – Lawyer from Silicon Valley onboarded to assist with any legal matters advice.

Plans

• A plan to create ISVx Shandong subcommittee.
• Online education lessons to be presented on ISV for 7 remote schools in China.
• Global green development summit in November for 2 days.
• Smart Village panel in Energy Internet conference on October 21st

Contact: Sanja Patki
South Asia Working Group (Contact Sanja Patki)

South Asia Working Group was reconstituted in the month of august 2020 with experienced team of volunteers from Industry, Academia, Social Enterprises, Independent Professionals and GIEEE. Following are present members

Sanjay Patki – Vice President, SAWG

• Dr Satish Chetwani, Secretary , SAWG
• • Social Enterprises: Ashok Das (Sunmoksha), Paras Loomba (Global Himalayan Expedition)
  • Independent: Rashmi Naik (CSR Links), Priti Vaishnav
  • Academia : Prof. Sasi Kottayil, India, Prof. Celia Shahnaz (Bangala Desh), Prof Windhya Rankothge (Sri Lanka)
  • Industry: Sanjay Patki, Girish Khilari, N Kannan, Dr. Satish Chetwani, Eugene Kingsley, M HariGovind
  • GIEEE: Harish Mysore
• Special Invitee / Mentors : Prof Anil Pahava , University of Kanakas (USA) : Dr Bhavraju Murty (USA), Dr Shaligram, University of Pune

SAWG Sub-committees:

Safety, Reliability and Quality : Convenor – Mr N Kannan/ M Harigovind

Community Engagement and Collaborations : Convenor- Ms Rashmi Naik

Technology Support and Business Model : Mr N Kannan

Student Branches :

Savitribai Phule University, Pune , India

University Of Tezpur , Aasam India

Thrust Areas:

• Rural Entrepreneurship
• Rural Economy
• Rural Healthcare
• Rural Transport
• Energy
• Sustainability of Agriculture

SAWG Charter

1. Soliciting and Mentoring Project proposals from suitable organizations to align with three pillar strategy and sustainability
2. Energy Access and Livelyhood Solutions based on Right Technology for productive use of Electricity , with right capacity and right business model
3. Safety, Reliability and Quality
4. Service delivery models suited for Long term sustainable operation and community buy-in
5. Collaboration with organizations and Engagement with Partners for knowledge and project implementation
6. Capital Cost reduction through standardized solutions
7. Promotion and Marketing :communication/Events and conferences

Project Proposals under consideration / Implementation stage

1. Transforming Agro Biomass to Biofuel Fuel Pellets: The project proposes to use locally available agro biomass and convert it into fuel pellets by local self help group generating employment. The pellets will be used to fulfill domestic energy needs (i.e. cooking). The local women will be educated on the domestic energy and health related issues and to run the business to generate clean cooking fuel as solution.
2. Sustainable Rural Community Development in Jhawani Village of Assam, India by University of Tezpur: This proposal is for sustainable solution concerning rural livelihood using smart irrigation, improved fish farming and micro agro-processing units to be operated by rural farmers’ community. It aims at using solar PV irrigation system with IoT (Internet of Things) control as primary facility along with some essential facilities including agro-processing units to add value to farm products through a viable business model. Sensor based water management is expected to contribute resource conservation and learning platform for farming community.
3. Solar Smart Irrigation for Kudagaon Island Village, Odisha, India. The Solar Smart Irrigation project will provide a reliable, sustainable and scalable water supply system for agriculture. SunMoksha’s Smart AQUAnet™ will enable farmers to adapt to data-driven, scientific, precision irrigation. It will optimize water requirements based on crop type, soil type and soil conditions. It will also create awareness and build capacity for smart irrigation and precision agriculture. It will directly benefit 48 farmer families (192 people) and increase their income by >2X within a year
4. Empowering Aboi Changle Location: Nagaland, India: The project involves the Solar Electrification of the remote Aboi Changle Village hamlet in the state of Nagaland in India. The capacity development will be done at the local level to enable the maintenance of the infrastructure, while creating a fertile ground for local energy entrepreneurs to come up as part of the project. Solar Electrification of the village will impact the lives of 44 households and 377 people who are residing in the remote village of Aboi Changle located close to the India-Myanmar border.
5. Strengthening Nagaland Medical Centre Location: Nagaland, India: The project involves the Solar Electrification and Installation of critical medical care equipment in the remote Primary Health Centre of Aboi village in the Mon District of Nagaland in India.
6. Aravalli-Digital Empowerment for Women and Adolescents: Use of SMART Digital technologies to enhance entrepreneurship and promote education are two main focus of the Program. The program aims to create an enabling conditions that empower young adolescent girls and women with digital skills. It will harness the opportunities of digital infrastructure and tools that serves an enabler to create community based entrepreneurs for various livelihood generation options and entrepreneur ventures as part of overall smart village development initiatives in Aravalli region.
7. Integrated Smart Village Social Impact Proposal: This social impact Program with IEEE-ISV outlines engage, educate and empowerment model. The program is built on following specific projects under broad strategic focus on Generating Livelihoods for the Women Entrepreneurs. Empowering rural women in Aravalli through small-scale decentralized rural industries is the aim of this project. The project proposes to enrich indigenous resources, protect the environment, support the organic farming movement, reach out to vulnerable and economically weaker rural women, artisans, and farmers, develop their skills, and build a sustainable economy.

The Project Objectives:
Provide livelihood to 100 tribal women (7 SHGs + 50 HHs) by establishing 8 enterprises based on local natural resources:
1. Honey -2 products
2. Wax products – 4 Products
3. Organic Ginger – 4 Products
4. Turmeric – 2 Products
5. Neem Oil – 2 Products
6. Neem products – 3 Products
7. Agarbatti & Mosquito repellent – 2 Products
8. Bio-Gas