SolarFI - Connected to the world

Select one of the below:

Describe what makes your solution innovative.

 1. Our partnerships - We are using solar power and our partnership with Microsoft to bring robust broadband to rural areas. We can provide internet as well as telemedicine services for people living in rural areas. We are now in talks with Colgate as well as the largest medical supplier in the world to provide free healthcare. 

2. Users can access free customized programs through machine learning to determine educational content and who in their community they could partner with to study as well as suggesting local mentors. 

3. We have an electromagnetic solution to enable users to lock their mobile phone while it is being charged. While their phones are being charged, we have a captive audience for about two hours. During this time, we will provide educational programs i.e., Mondays is medical Mondays, and Wednesdays are best practices in agriculture, etc. 

Describe the core technology that your solution utilizes.

• Uses AI to determine where crime is prevalent and uses facial recognition to alert people of potential danger
• Monitor and predict current and future weather
• Humidity
• Air pollution (Air quality sensors) send that data to a research university to analyze that data. 
• Solar
• Telemedicine 
• IoT (The internet of things)
• Messaging
• Digital library

Please select the technologies currently used in your solution:

• Artificial Intelligence
• Machine Learning
• Big Data
• Internet of Things
• Social Networks

Why do you expect your solution to address the problem?

Access to energy and connectivity by phone or using the internet is a basic human need. Africans, especially youth, are eager to get online to learn and to connect to their families and friends on platforms such as WhatsApp and Facebook. Furthermore, there is limitless free educational content on YouTube and Khan Academy.  

While we aim to connect people to telemedicine services, we have a challenge of getting people to think about preventive healthcare screenings. We work with NGO's, PVO's, UNDP, and healthcare providers on this issue currently. A research study has been done on the telemedicine solution at the State University of New York at Albany, . 

Select the key characteristics of the population your solution serves.

• Women & Girls
• Children and Adolescents
• Rural Residents
• Urban Residents
• Very Poor/Poor
• Low-Income
• Refugees/Internally Displaced Persons
• Persons with Disabilities

In which countries do you currently operate?

• Ghana
• Kenya
• Liberia
• Rwanda
• Sierra Leone
• United States

In which countries will you be operating within the next year?

• Ghana
• Jamaica
• Kenya
• Liberia
• Nigeria
• Palau
• Rwanda
• Sierra Leone
• South Africa
• United States

How many people are you currently serving with your solution? How many will you be serving in one year? How about in five years?

We are currently serving over 15,000 people. Our solar lanterns are serving over 200,000 people. 

Our aim is to serve 30,000 people in the next year, 400,000 people in the next five years and empowering 10,000 entrepreneurs.  We expect to be able to work with governments and foundations to provide free education to more people. 

What are your goals within the next year and within the next five years?

Our goal is to recruit more engineers so that we can improve our products to serve more people.  We are looking forward to the telemedicine solution. 

The farther away these rural areas are, the less they are connected. Because of a lack of infrastructure, the more difficult it seems to reach, understand, and interact with these regions and their populations.

Many rural areas worldwide, in particular Africa, Asia, and partly Latin America and the Middle East, are not connected to the electrical grid. Since they do not have electricity, they do not have light at night, mobile phones cannot be charged, beverages, foods and vaccines cannot be cooled, computers cannot be used, etc.

Education is a priority for our organization. We are excited to see how many more kids can be impacted through our customized learning technology. The more data we collect, the more power we will gain by using machine learning to have an stronger impact. 

We plan on having 10,000 SolarFi stations deployed within five years. Each station can serve 5,000 people, we will make a positive change in the lives of up to fifty million people.  SolarFi will provide our life-changing solutions for natural disasters because people can appreciate the immediate impact.  Puerto Ricans would have been well served by having been able to utilize SolarFi during and after the tragic hurricanes that affected the island in 2017.

What are the barriers that currently exist for you to accomplish your goals for the next year and for the next five years?

Providing  essentially free services is not easy. We need to raise money and connect with more foundations such as the Gates Foundation.  We also need funding to be able to hire experienced grant writers.

We must find engineers that understand machine learning and IoT.  Our solutions need people with skills in several disciplines such as mechanical engineers, industrial engineers, software engineers and electrical engineers. We need to further improve our technology platform.

On the telemedicine side, it is our goal to allow people to be seen by a doctor every six months, before they get sick, so that medical professionals can diagnose any potential problems.  

How are you planning to overcome these barriers?

We are working with engineering students so that we can understand their skills and capabilities, train them, and help them grow. We are working with our networks at the government level, accelerator programs, and by creating workforce development programs. We now have four university partners and that list is growing. 

As we raise money, these challenges become easier to overcome. SolarFI has a world class team.  Because of budget constraints, some of our team members are part-time. We are eager to get them to become full-time at SolarFi so that we can accelerate our impact. 

https://solar-fi.com

https://youtu.be/8_VJ2pE5-nM

If you have additional video, provide a YouTube or Vimeo link to your video here:

Select an option below:

If you selected Other for the organization question, please explain here.

N/A

How many people work on your solution team?

We have fourteen employees and 7 contractors.

For how many years have you been working on your solution?

5 years

Why are you and your team best-placed to deliver this solution?

We have a diverse and globally minded team that understands how to solve large complex solutions.  Our Chairman was the Ghanaian Ambassador to the USA and was cabinet minister of educations, energy, and communications.  Jerry Shaye was educated at Dartmouth and Columbia Business School lived in Venezuela and was the GM for the largest agriculture cooperative. He served as Director of International Trade Development for the New York State. 

Our development team has experience working with IsraAid in Botswana, Kenya, and Sierra Leone, they have been trained on sustainability at UCAL Berkeley.  

We have an experienced team of innovators led by Dr. Manoj Shah, who won the Tesla award - the highest honor in electrical engineering and holds over 60 patents and patent pending, software engineers  Antonio founded a pico-solar business that partnered with Shell, MTN, and country presidents to provide solar lanterns to people living off-grid. Lai Yahaya advises governments in sub-Saharan Africa on energy sector reform, natural resource management and the public, private partnerships. Our team is well educated, having graduated from from Dartmouth, Oxford, Princeton, RPI, Cornell, Berkeley, and Columbia. 

We have experienced team members that launched one of the first Microsoft farm beats projects by providing internet in farming communities that lacked access to the Internet.

With what organizations are you currently partnering, if any? How are you working with them?

Microsoft - We co-develop products together at their IoT/AI Insider's lab

Coca-Cola - This is confidential, focuses on economic development and female empowerment. 

Shell - We place our solutions at their gas stations and they purchase some of our solar solutions. 

USAID PowerAfrica - Partners in taking energy to over 30 countries in rural Africa 

Valley Ventures Mentors (Massachusetts)  Core training, meetings and events held in  weekend boot camps, featuring hands-on training, expert-led lectures, peer collaboration, adviser office hours and practice judging rounds. In addition, workshops cover strategy, innovation, marketing, sales, team-building, operating with best practices and fundraising.

ABCDE - Nonprofit implementation partner based in Ghana

Innovate 518 - support services are offered by partner incubators in New York's Capital Region and can provide a variety of tools to growing ventures to help work towards specific milestones such as SBIR grant assistance. 

What is your business model?

Provide energy, internet, and educational resources to people living off-grid and in farming communities.  We will sell our infrastructure services to other NGO's that are looking to run their WASH programs through SolarFI.  Our beneficiaries are people living in rural Africa, farming communities, and disaster relief. 

Partners:

• UMass
• Microsoft
• RPI
• SUNY Polytechnic Institute
• Shell
• Coke
• Apex Solar

Key Resources Required:

• Donor network 
• Brand
• Pickup trucks
• Manufacturing facility 
• Engineers
• Grant writers/program managers

Type of services provided by SolarFi:

• Entrepreneurial training
• Solar training
• Sustainable models
• Providing power
• Providing internet

Channels:

• UNDP
• Women's groups
• NGO's
• US Embassy 

Cost structure:

• Staff
• R&D
• Training
• Travel 

Key Activities:

• Building solar solutions
• Coding 
• Meeting with the Women's groups
• Meeting with NGO's
• US AID
• Managing risk
• Testing solutions

Partners:

• UNDP
• NGO's
• Government Ministries 

Segments:

• Entrepreneurs in developing countries
• Farmers
• Females
• Youth

Customers:

• Wealthy individuals who are socially conscious 
• Multilateral organizations
• Governments
• Foundations

Revenues: 

• Advertising 
• Workforce development
• Sale of solar products
• Entrepreneurial training

Value Proposition:

• Skills training
• Power 
• Internet (Connected to the world)
• Promote market based solutions to end poverty 
• Consistent power to get your work done

What is your path to financial sustainability?

By accessing grants through NSF, World Bank, Rockefeller, Gates and other foundations, and USAID. We will look into selling programs such as workforce development, solar training, and entrepreneurial training.  

We will charge an advertising fee to corporations such as Fast Moving Consumer Goods producers, as well as to NGO's, and governments that can pay us per community we serve. 

Why are you applying to Solve?

To reach the goals mentioned above, SolarFi seeks partners to:

• Provide grants for expansion 
• Assist in the development of AI, IoT, and to build better solutions.  Integrating all of this technology requires a multi-disciplinary approach in engineering and development. 

We have funding challenges and looking to form partnerships with organizations that look to use technology for the greater good. 

What types of connections and partnerships would be most catalytic for your solution?

• Technology
• Funding and revenue model
• Media and speaking opportunities

If you selected Other, please explain here.

N/A

With what organizations would you like to partner, and how would you like to partner with them?

• The Rockefeller Foundation
• The World Bank
• The Gates Foundation
• Amazon

All of these organizations have a mission to reduce poverty. We would tap into their connections for advice, funding sources, contacts with other foundation executives, governmental representatives in developing African countries in which we do not yet have these contacts.  

If you would like to apply for the AI Innovations Prize, describe how you and your team will utilize the prize to advance your solution. If you are not already using AI in your solution, explain why it is necessary for your solution to be successful and how you plan to incorporate it.

The AI will work with sensors to detect air pollution, humidity, and potential crime threats by scanning the faces of known sex offenders, and criminals to alert the ladies that are running the hubs.  

We can use artificial intelligence to detect what time of the day the fridge should be most cooling, off, or on, the ability to re-order supplies and improve supply chain inefficiencies at the SolarFi center.

Education: The AI can develop predictive models for engagement and comprehension. AI will be used to create new approaches to education that will revolutionize how people will learn.  For instance, in the Solarfi app, if you start speaking with your friends about how you want to learn how to become a doctor, and will learn about the user, and make recommendations on courses to take, suggest friends that should speak to and daily habits to start now. 

The money will be used to send our engineers to Microsoft's AI/Insiders lab where we will co-develop our products with Microsoft. We have signed an NDA with Microsoft, and they are waiting for our team. However, we don't yet have the funds to send to cover their expenses. 

If you would like to apply for the GM Prize on Community-Driven Innovation, describe how you and your team will utilize the prize to advance your solution.

The SolarFi is an information hub which connects people. Programs like Khan Academy are game changers; however, if you lack access to the internet and energy, you cannot learn anything from Khan Academy. SolarFI provides the instrument to be able to do this. 

The money from the GM prize will be used to build out our algorithms further and to provide digital monitors for free education programs, for instance, Mondays in Medical Mondays where we teach beneficiaries the best practices in washing their hands, brushing their teeth, sanitation. Tuesdays are tech days where they can come to the SolarFi hub to learn how to code, how to utilize programs such as Microsoft PowerPoint, Word, and Excel.  Wednesday's is the best practices in agriculture. More than 30% of rural Africans are employed in subsistence agriculture. SolarFi will teach farmers how to increase the yields of their crops,  Thursdays is language learning days.  Many students learn English at school, but don't practice it at home, and Fridays are financial literacy courses. 

Excess energy will be used to power machines for small scale industry such as sewing machines, agro-processing, etc. 

If you would like to apply for the Innovation for Women Prize, describe how you and your team will utilize the prize to advance your solution.

We’ve taken a regular business in Africa, phone charging, and made it profitable, healthy and educational with the power of solar. SolarFi is positioned to lift a generation out of poverty. Surplus energy stored in a battery in a SolarFi kiosk could be utilized to power sewing machines, allowing entrepreneurial women to, for instance, sew school uniforms for their children and other local children.  

Women are often charging phones and informally selling goods. SolarFI formalizes their business, and make them more accountable. SolarFi provides a “business in a box,” and the potential for promoting micro-franchises based on a solar-power-generating center for female entrepreneurs. The centers, can charge mobile phones, offer virtual top-up service to buy mobile airtime, prepay utilities, pay taxes, and other bills. The booths also deliver Internet and educational content. For example, Monday’s are medical Mondays, Tuesdays are tech days, and Wednesdays we teach best practices in Agriculture.

If you would like to apply for the Prize for Innovation in Refugee Inclusion, describe how you and your team will utilize the prize to advance your solution.

SolarFI is developed SMART (Sustainable Modular Access to Renewables and Technology) which operates as a solar bank for refugees.  A major component is in developing a dynamic and, portable, battery-charging, ecosystem in which location, ownership, identity and usage data are managed and billed to consumers using an SMS and blockchain-enabled cloud platform. 

Power Buckets are similar to Tesla’s Powerwalls and Powerpacks, but Power Buckets fall on the more portable end of the battery-based, off-grid energy storage spectrum. SolarFi employs a new standardized modular battery system to enable scalability across applications and easy repairs or recycling.

• Refugees may pick up a power bank which is charged at SMART and return it the next day for charging. The power bank will be able to charge devices

• SMART is an excellent solution for camps which are difficult to reach due to the lack of infrastructure
• SMART is perfect for the provisional nature of refugee camps and disaster relief work as it is the only sturdy infrastructure solution that is temporary and can be relocated easily

Expected outcome:

1.     Improve energy access

2.     Opportunities for economic growth

3.     Financial inclusion

4.     Self-reliant communities independence from aid

If you would like to apply for the Innospark Ventures Prize, describe how you and your team will utilize the prize to advance your solution. If your solution utilizes data, describe how you will ensure that the data is sourced, maintained, and used ethically and responsibly.

The AI will work with sensors to detect air pollution, humidity, and potential crime threats by scanning the faces of known sex offenders, and criminals to alert the ladies that are running the hubs.  

We can use artificial intelligence to detect what time of the day the fridge should be most cooling, off, or on, the ability to re-order supplies and improve supply chain inefficiencies at the SolarFi center.

Education: The AI can develop predictive models for engagement and comprehension. AI will be used to create new approaches to education that will revolutionize how people will learn.  For instance, in the Solarfi app, if you start speaking with your friends about how you want to learn how to become a doctor, and will learn about the user, and make recommendations on courses to take, suggest friends that should speak to and daily habits to start now. 

The money will be used to send our engineers to Microsoft's AI/Insiders lab where we will co-develop our products with Microsoft. We have signed an NDA with Microsoft, and they are waiting for our team to come. However, we don't have the funds to send to cover the cost of salaries, T&E. Here is a video on the program.  

If you would like to apply for the Morgridge Family Foundation Community-Driven Innovation Prize, describe how you and your team will utilize the prize to advance your solution.

The SolarFi connects the unconnected and brings communities together. When users have the SolarFI app they can download media, educational content at no cost. Sundays will provide a safe place for the community to watch football games and learn together.  

We will offer the following to bring people together. 

• Innovation Awareness and Education
• Co-op Innovation Training
• Entrepreneurial training
• Solar repair shop (many solar panels, and lanterns get discarded when broken)
• Resell solar products through female entrepreneurs. 

To promote a healthy lifestyle, we will set up four bicycles that users can peddle to generate energy for the SolarFi center; the winning user will win prizes creating a fun, family environment. We are also partnering with an online yoga school to provide free yoga training. 

ICT training: This is the first time in human history that a 16-year-old person can know as his/her grandparents. Before you would have to sit down and wait for that person to teach you, now, you can come to the SolarFi center and learn all of these things for free. 

The video below depicts how our solutions bring the community together. 

If you would like to apply for the Everytown for Gun Safety Prize, describe how you and your team will utilize the prize to advance your solution. If your solution utilizes data, describe how you will ensure that the data is sourced, maintained, and used ethically and responsibly.

While I don't think our solution is prime for this. Our solution does not prevent guns, however, using big data and machine learning to scan faces of wanted individuals, and sex offenders which will alert the manager of the SolarFi center to call the police if needed. If a gun shot is heard, our solution detects where the gun shot is coming from and notifies the police.