MOVE Tech Talk - JUL 2024 - IEEE Smart Village
IEEE Smart Village (ISV) has a unique approach to support the world’s energy-impoverished communities by providing a comprehensive solution combining renewable energy, community-based education, and entrepreneurial opportunities. ISV provides seed-funding to carefully selected community entrepreneurs based upon a credible business plan that will impact significant number of people with electricity, education and jobs.
The challenges of starting and sustaining a successful business in the developing world are extreme to say the least. The IEEE Smart Village entrepreneurs are the true heroes. They have learned to build the confidence and support of their local communities. They consistently demonstrate a deep respect for preserving the best of local cultures and heritages while gracefully introducing new technology and business practices. Some of the challenges that they have had to overcome include extremes of climate, altitude, floods, currency devaluations, power blackouts, media blackouts, political instability, local rivalries and contentious elections.
Date and Time
Location
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- Date: 23 Jul 2024
- Time: 08:00 PM to 09:30 PM
- All times are (UTC-04:00) Eastern Time (US & Canada)
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- Co-sponsored by IEEE-USA MOVE Program
- Starts 13 February 2024 03:45 PM
- Ends 23 July 2024 09:45 PM
- All times are (UTC-04:00) Eastern Time (US & Canada)
- No Admission Charge
Speakers
Dr. Rajan Kapur
Biography:
Dr. Rajan Kapur started his career at AT&T Bell Labs. Since 1985 he has worked exclusively with start-ups, first with micro-chips in the Silicon Valley, and then micro-displays in Colorado. In 2006, he transitioned to renewable energy and founded a solar micro-inverter company that he later sold. Since then, he has run a sustainability incubator in his garage in Colorado, working with small dispersed teams on early-stage projects, with participants from the US and abroad..
In the leadership team at IEEE Smart Village, an all-volunteer humanitarian seed-fund cum incubator, he works with five regional groups in underserved regions around the world. They leverage renewal enegry and the productive use of technologies, education and enterprise to improve livelihoods. They address climate change through the electrification of underserved economies.
Current enterprises include Solar smart irrigation in India, gem-stone cutting in Zambia, electrification to combat deforestation in Argentina, peri-urban aquaculture in Malawi and India, Solar animal farming in China, etc. Working with Rotary International, IEEE Smart Village has funded telehealth projects in Uganda and Kenya. Under his leadership, they have started “vocational awareness” initiatives for children to better prepare for a more electrified future.
Dr. Kapur is the holder of five issued US patents. He holds Electrical Engineering degrees from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur; Rice University, Houston and the University of Texas at Austin.