Dean’s Policy Challenge Names Nine Semifinalists in Second Competition
Nine semifinalists have been chosen in the second competition of the SIPA Dean's Public Policy Challenge Grant Program, which seeks to inspire innovative uses of digital technology and data to benefit people in urban settings worldwide. The semifinalists, who were selected by a panel of faculty and technology entrepreneurs, propose to address a range of issues: streamlining garbage collection and recycling in India, creating an alternative postal service in Kenya, providing immigrants with tools to increase the economic value of remittances, helping private civic organizations monetize underutilized resources, and more.
“The intersection of technology and public policy holds great promise for both scholars and future leaders,” wrote Dean Merit E. Janow when she first announced the challenge in April. “I look forward to our students’ innovations, and I’m pleased that we are taking this exciting step as a School.”
The challenge program includes two distinct but overlapping competition sequences—from April 2014 to February 2015 and from September 2014 to April 2015.
Finalists in the first sequence, which is still in progress, must submit final proposals by January 20. The winners will be announced on February 9, 2015.
Participants in the second sequence submitted their initial proposals on October 6. The recently announced semifinalists in this group, which are listed below, now advance to the competition’s second stage—a design phase in which they will prepare proposals that include business models and in many cases technological prototypes.
Their submissions, which are due on January 20, will show how initial hypotheses were tested and refined with an eye to target audiences such as potential partners, financial backers, customers or users, and others. In the meantime participants will have the opportunity to take advantage of periodic “boot camp” sessions on prototyping, financial planning, legal issues, and effective pitching.
Congratulations to the semifinalists:
Energy Hackers: Energy Hackers proposes to develop software that will identify potential sites for renewable energy generation and storage in urban settings, providing a route to satisfy peak demand without buying high-cost electricity from the conventional grid. The software will also determine optimal generation and storage for maximum monthly energy savings. (Shirin Jamshidi MIA ’16, Erifyli Nomikou MIA ’15, Vijayakumaar Chandrasekar*, Aarabi Madhavan*)
eSwach: eSwach is a data collection and analytics tool that will aid recycling companies, NGOs and the Government in Urban India, in strengthening the waste management channels and provide avenues for empowering semi-formal waste operatives. (Rana Roshni Singh Bandesha MPA ’15, Richa Maheshwari MPA ’15, Jayant Narayan MPA ’16)
Poapost: This proposal outlines an alternative model for postal services in Kenya, as a private, for-profit company that offers not just post but a diverse range of services that include financial services and assisting in delivery of government documents to rural areas. (Adero Miwo Davis, MIA ’15, Priyanka Maria Johnson MIA ’15, Katherine McGehee MIA ’15)
RemitMas: RemitMas is an online payment platform and mobile application that provides an easy, safe, and innovative mechanism for migrants to channel remittances into savings accounts for education, health and housing with access to incentive-based financial education training. (Maelis Carraro MIA ’15, Daniela Hernandez MIA ’15, Felipe Pacheco MPA ’15, Lina Henao MPA-DP ’14, Elizabeth Valone MPA-DP ’14, Steven Pallickal*)
Spokey: Across America social, sporting, charitable, and community groups are faced with similar problems: falling membership dues and growing costs. Spokey is creating a hub where organizations can make extra cash by turning their vacant spaces into unique venues. (David Keith De Padua MPA-EPM ’15, George Hampton MPA-EPM ’15)
Sumit: As the world transitions from the Millennium Development Goals to Sustainable Development Goals, SUMIT seeks to bolster the knowledge management infrastructure of the global development community through the creation of an open access management information systems. (Matthew J. Smith MPA-DP ’15, Niels Bantilan*, Lance Legel*, Marcellin Nshimiyimana*, Justin Walters*)
Take Care: “Take Care” is a social enterprise that delivers home-based professional healthcare service to the elders in China, especially to those in poor, childless, and other disadvantaged conditions. It combines service recipients with service providers through an online community, integrates in a virtuously-cycled network of financial supplies and healthcare professional supplies. (Liyang Xu MPA ’16)
UrbanWatchers: UrbanWatchers is a tool that allows citizens to report problems on the provision of public goods. Taking advantage of user-generated internet data, the application produces an index that enables pedestrians and bicyclists to compare the security, environment, and connectivity of streets. (Mario Alberto Campa Molina MPA ’15, Rebeca Moreno Jiménez MPA ’15, Fernando Posadas Paz MPA ’15)
Yojana: Yojana wiki seeks to collate information on various Indian government welfare programs and develop a portal which would, upon entering the right data fields, generate information for a potential beneficiary on all programs s/he might be eligible for. (Renu Pokharna MPA ’16, Ajith Das M Menon MPA ’16, Hariharan Sriram MIA ’16)
* indicates students in non-SIPA programs at Columbia