Measuring and Incentivizing Impact in Development Engineering and Global Health

Please join us to learn about the emergent IoT-driven Development Engineering from Prof. Evan Thomas, founder of SweetSense Inc.

Nearly a billion people in the world lack access to safe drinking water, two billion have inadequate sanitation facilities, and three billion use firewood for their daily energy needs. Combined, these resource limitations are among the leading causes of death, and economic and political insecurity. Exacerbating these problems are the global effects of climate change.

In many countries, service providers are often utilities providing access to clean water, safe sanitation and affordable energy. However, in many developing countries, there remains a significant gap between the intent of service providers and the impacts measured over time.
A combination of technologies may help address these information asymmetries and enable improved decisions and response. In particular, in-situ “Internet of Things” (IOT) sensor technologies directly measuring water service delivery and relaying data over satellite and cellular data networks can enable improved feedback and accountability.

Presently, a group of partners are currently installing satellite connected sensors on boreholes in the arid regions of Northern Kenya and Afar and Somali Regions, Ethiopia. Today we are monitoring over 1.5 million people’s water supply, scaling to 5 million in 2018. Roughly half of water systems are functioning at any given time. Our intervention is aimed at achieving continuous functionality of services. Two ongoing experimental evaluations, in Kenya and Ethiopia, will establish our impact.
These efforts are incorporated into an emergent area of teaching and research – Development Engineering. The field requires rigor equal to any other engineering discipline and engineers must necessarily cross-train with other established development disciplines including global health, economics, public policy and social business.

Speaker Bio:

Evan Thomas is an Associate Professor at Portland State University and Oregon Health & Science University and Director of the SweetLab. Evan holds a PhD in Aerospace Engineering Sciences from the University of Colorado at Boulder, is a registered Professional Engineer, and holds a Masters in Public Health from the Oregon Health and Science University.

Professor Thomas’ research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the World Bank, UNICEF, the United States Agency for International Development, the United Nations Foundation, the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the United Kingdom Department for International Development, the Gates Foundation, and others.

Professor Thomas was the Chief Operating Officer of DelAgua Health from 2012-2016. He was responsible for conceptualizing, designing and operating a $25 million-dollar public health intervention in Rwanda in partnership with the Government of Rwanda. Professor Thomas was a founding volunteer with Engineers Without Borders-USA in 2002, which led to co-founding Manna Energy Limited in 2007. Manna was acquired by DelAgua Health in 2013. In 2012, he founded SweetSense Inc.

Professor Thomas was previously an aerospace engineer at the NASA-Johnson Space Center, designing microgravity fluid management technologies and water recovery systems for the Space Shuttle, International Space Station, and future space exploration. In 2017, Professor Thomas was a finalist for the Canadian Astronaut selection, finishing among the top 12 candidates from nearly 4,000 applicants. Schedule:

6:30pm Refreshment and Social
6:45pm Member Announcement
6:50pm Presentation: Measuring and Incentivizing Impact in Development
7:45pm Post-Presentation Q&A and Social
8:30pm End