Most Popular Items: Technology for Emerging Economies

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) have the potential to benefit society in a myriad of ways, such as accelerating scientific research, increasing productivity, and enhancing security. WSNs also pose many fascinating scientific challenges, ranging from device physics to encoding techniques to distributed algorithms. There is a large, diverse, and rapidly increasing network literature in this area. Unfortunately, much of this work has been done in isolation; all too often individual components are crafted and evaluated without an overall vision or a context for deployment.

There are thousands of stand-alone projects that aim to bring information and communication technology (ICT) to developing regions, but nearly all depend on existing hardware and infrastructure developed for affluent regions. These imported technologies fail to address key challenges in cost, deployment, power, and support for semi-literate users. This proposal develops the key technologies and infrastructure to enable these projects, and many new applications that were previously intractable.

The mission of the Social Entrepreneur Center is to promote the use of technology for social issues by creating sustainable enterprises. This will be achieved by

(i) creating an undergraduate major (and minors linked to existing majors) in social entrepreneurship well integrated with information and technology education,

(ii) fostering an internship program where students can add value to a company, an NGO (non-governmental organization), or a non-profit organization within US or in a foreign country by leveraging technology,

In Malaysia around 40,000 people suffer from stroke every year. At least one-fourth of stroke survivors experience aphasia, a communication impairment that varies considerably across patients but most involves some form of deficit in language comprehension. Language rehabilitation, especially when it is intense (8-10 hours/week for 12 weeks) and it starts early (after the patient's medical condition has stabilized, often within 24 to 48 hours after the stroke, preferably in acute-care hospitals), has been shown to be beneficial in

The burden of infectious diseases is very high in developing countries. World-wide, nearly 1 million die annually from malaria, 2.9 million from enteric (intestinal) infections, 4.3 million from respiratory infections, and 5 million from AIDS and tuberculosis. Unfortunately, most methods for diagnosing these diseases are invasive, labor intensive, and sometimes inadequate. Furthermore, they require laboratory equipment and infrastructure that are not typically found in remote/resource-limited areas. Thus,

One of the most basic yet powerful tools in all of medicine is the simple microscope. It is the first tool of evaluation for skin diseases, ear aches, and sore throats, as well as being central to diagnosis of blood diseases. However, only the discerning eye of a trained physician can filter images and provide effective diagnoses and treatment recommendations. We propose to link high-resolution microscopic imaging with clinical expertise through microscopy-enabled cell phones.

The burden of infectious diseases is very high in developing countries. World-wide, nearly 1 million die annually from malaria, 2.9 million from enteric (intestinal) infections, 4.3 million from respiratory infections, and 5 million from AIDS and tuberculosis. Unfortunately, most methods for diagnosing these diseases are invasive, labor intensive, and sometimes inadequate. Furthermore, they require laboratory equipment and infrastructure that are not typically found in remote/resource-limited areas. Thus,