Last night, as part of an annual humanitarian awards program to recognize technological contributions to society, the recipients of the Tech Award Laureate for 2008 were honored at a black-tie gala at The Tech Museum in San Jose. Each year, 25 Laureates are selected from a group of candidates, and of those selected, one winner is chosen for each category: Health, Education, Environment, Economic Development and Equality. Also featured at this event was the recipient of the James C. Morgan Global Humanitarian Award, Professor Muhammad Yunus, founder of Grameen Bank, a worldwide lending system created to fight poverty. The 2008 Prize Laureates are as follows:
Intel Environment Award:
Laureate Country: Namibia
Project Country: Namibia
The Cheetah Conservation Fund has developed technology in which invasive thorn bushes that grow rampant in Namibia and make agriculture impossible are harvested and converted into clean-burning and environmentally-friendly fuel logs. This process helps to prevent desertification and ecological disaster, and replenishes the ecosystem of Namibia’s grassland savannas.
Accenture Economic Development Award:
DESI Power: Decentralised Energy Systems India
Laureate Country: India
Project Country: India
DESI Power helps to break the cycle of poverty in the poorest villages of India by bringing both power and enterprise in these areas where there is not enough demand to support a power plant. By training villagers to run biomass gasification power plants and to start smalls businesses such as water pumping stations, ice making and battery charging services, DESI Power creates both jobs and development in these impoverished villages.
Microsoft Education Award:
Laureate Country: India
Project Country: Bangladesh, India
Digital StudyHall brings digital video technology to underprivileged classrooms in the slums and rural areas of India and Bangladesh in the form of DVD’s of real classroom sessons in regional languages which are loaned by mail. Students in these schools can watch these DVD’s, and their own teacher is present to answer questions and conduct other learning activities.
Katherine M. Swanson Equality Award:
Laureate Country: United States
Project Country: China, Indonesia
Over 130 million people live with the daily threat of being killed in an earthquake because of inadequate construction and infrastructure. Build Change designs affordable, earthquake-resistant homes, and trains people to construct them with locally available materials and technology.
Fogarty Institute for Innovation Health Award:
Laureate Country: United Kingdom
Project Country: 41 countries including Angola, Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, Denmark, Myanmar, Nicaragua and Sri Lanka
Of the 50 billion injections given each year, in the developing world, over half are made with re-used or unsterile syringes, some being re-used up to seven times and then unknowingly purchased by hospitals. Marc Koska at Star Syringe has developed a syringe that locks after use and cannot be re-used, saving an estimated 3 million lives by preventing the spread of AIDS, and Hepatitis B and C, all commonly spread through the use of unsanitary needles.
Nominations for 2009 Laureates are currently being accepted, and more information on submission can be found here: Tech Award Nominations 2009.
