Leading Engineers, Scientists, Scholars and Entrepreneurs Gather in New York Oct. 9 to Celebrate and Cultivate Tech Breakthroughs That Effect Positive Social Change

Leading Engineers, Scientists, Scholars and Entrepreneurs Gather in New York Oct. 9 to Celebrate and Cultivate Tech Breakthroughs That Effect Positive Social Change

ASME’s third annual Impact.Engineered forum draws leaders from Echoing Green, New Lab, The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, The Rockefeller Foundation, the United Nations, and Top Engineering Universities

NEW YORK (July 31, 2019) – With shared determination to positively impact underserved communities with engineered solutions to social and environmental issues, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) and Engineering for Change will host the third annual Impact.Engineered forum, 8:30 a.m. to 8 p.m., Wednesday, Oct. 9 at NYU Tandon School of Engineering, Brooklyn, N.Y.

The only event that recognizes and amplifies the role of engineers in solving global challenges, Impact.Engineered offers participants the opportunity to meet and learn from social entrepreneurs, engineers, makers, designers, industry leaders, and rising stars who are shaping the future of business and engineering. The full-day program includes interactive workshops and presentations, a technology showcase and awards reception.

Program highlights include the “Pole-to-Pole Innovation: Funding socially impactful physical products” session, the “Disrupting Engineering Education: Lesson from the Classroom” workshop, and the “Mapping Entrepreneurial Ecosystems” workshop led by Echoing Green, tours of the NYU Tandon MakerSpace, and closing remarks by Shatanu Mukherjee of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN-DESA). The full agenda is available here.

Impact.Engineered Awards will recognize “the best of the best” across several categories, including “Connecting the Unconnected,” “Hardware Trailblazer,” “Industry Driving Social Impact,” “Rising Star,” and “Women Leading in Technology and Impact.”

Impact.Engineered will also honor the important contributions of this year’s nine ASME Innovation Showcase (ISHOW) winners, who will exhibit their inventions for social good in the Tech Gallery. They are:

  • Caminos de Agua (San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, Mexico) – Aguadapt is a low-cost, family-sized water filtration system that removes organic chemicals and 99.9999% of pathogens and can be quickly installed in all common containers to provide safe drinking water for at least three years.
     
  • Himalayan Rocket Stove (Chandigarh, India) – The Eco1 Rocket Stove offers clean-burning, highly efficient combustion for heating and cooking in the Himalayas and beyond. It reduces the demand for wood, scarce due to deforestation in the Himalayas, and the burden of fuel collection.
     
  • Kukua Labs (San Francisco, Calif., U.S.) –Kukua is an affordable, at-home chicken egg incubator that reduces volatility for the roughly 70% of families in Tanzania who raise chickens for supplemental income and nutrition. The energy-efficient appliance uses low wattage, making it compatible with local residential solar power systems while helping to offset system cost.
     
  • MUSE Diagnostics (Bengaluru, India) – The TAAL Digital Stethoscope is a small, hand-held device that uses cutting-edge technology to amplify clear, noise-free body sounds. The associated software application enables users to visualize, record, analyze and share these results, while their cloud platform gives users diagnostic suggestions and enables specialist referral.
     
  • Resham Sutra (Delhi and Ranchi, India) – Unnati Solar Silk is a solar powered machine for reeling Tassar silk yarn, which grows in the forested areas of East India. Designed for some of the poorest and most remote parts of the country, Unnati increases efficiency in reeling silk and improves quality of life, especially for rural women who are primarily responsible for this work.
     
  • Savanna Circuit Tech (Kapenguria, Kenya) – The MaziwaPlus Pre-Chiller is a mobile solar-powered chilling in-transit system that can be mounted on motorbikes, offering quality control, traceability, and maximized profits for dairy producers and cooperatives. The solution was developed in response to milk post-harvest losses due to transportation over great distances in rural Kenya.
     
  • SAYeTECH (Kumasi, Ghana) – The Multi-Crop Thresher reduces grain waste and empowers grain farmers. It can reduce post-harvest losses by up to 30%, providing enough food to feed Africa’s growing population, while also increasing income of smallholder farmers — especially women — by up to 50% every year.
     
  • Sesi Technologies Ltd (Kumasi, Ghana) – The GrainMate Grain Moisture Meter is a low-cost grain moisture tester that helps grain farmers reduce post-harvest losses by making it easier to accurately measure grain moisture content before storage. At $100, GrainMate is more than four times cheaper than conventional grain moisture meters and offers superior accuracy.
     
  • WETech (Toronto, Ontario, Canada) - WERLWind is a wind-powered pond aeration system to help the more than 20 million fish farmers in the Asia-Pacific region who rely on small-scale aquaculture for food security and income, but whose yields are less than industrial ponds due to low dissolved oxygen levels in the water. Based on feedback from last year’s ISHOW USA judges, the team made improvements to its manufacturing and business plans to secure a comeback win.                                                   
“The change agents and thought leaders who participate in Impact.Engineering are truly inspiring in their commitment to improve the quality of life for people around the world,” says ASME Executive Director/CEO Tom Costabile, who will deliver opening remarks at the event along with NYU Tandon Dean Jelena Kovačević. “ASME shares their belief that engineering and technological innovation can help solve many challenges for humankind and our planet.”

 

"The NYU Tandon School of Engineering and our Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering are pleased to once again welcome ASME and Impact.Engineered,” says Kovačević. “By bringing renowned innovators for social and environmental good to campus and supporting diversity in engineering, ASME also brings optimism, inspiration and the technical knowledge for achieving a better world to a new generation of engineers."

Impact.Engineered is made possible by sponsors including Futureworks NYC Incubator, M-Corps, SecondMuse and the United Nations Major Group for Children and Youth, and academic partners Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs and our hosts at New York University Tandon School of Engineering.

About Impact.Engineered
Impact.Engineered is a one-day forum in New York City organized by ASME and Engineering for Change for the private, public, non-profit and academic sectors to gather and advance the vital and increasingly urgent role engineers and scientists play in addressing the world’s most pressing challenges. Amid a commitment to serving the underserved and meeting people’s basic needs, everyone deserves the benefit of good engineering. However, opportunities for engineers to connect, share insights, get inspired, and celebrate good work in the social sector are limited. Impact.Engineered is seeking to change that. For more information, visit www.impact-engineered.org.

About ASME
ASME helps the global engineering community develop solutions to real world challenges.  Founded in 1880 as the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, ASME is a not-for-profit professional organization that enables collaboration, knowledge sharing and skill development across all engineering disciplines, while promoting the vital role of the engineer in society.  ASME codes and standards, publications, conferences, continuing education and professional development programs provide a foundation for advancing technical knowledge and a safer world.  For more information, visit www.asme.org.

About Engineering for Change
Engineering for Change is a global community and knowledge organization working to prepare, educate and activate the international engineering workforce to improve the quality of life of underserved communities around the world. We do this by providing resources and platforms that accelerate the development of impactful solutions and ensure public health and safety around the globe. For more information, visit www.engineeringforchange.org.


Media Contacts:

Monica Shovlin
MCShovlin Communications LLC (for ASME)
monica@mcshovlin.com
+1.541.554.3796

Kathleen Hamilton
Director of Marketing & Communications
NYU Tandon School of Engineering
kathleen.hamilton@nyu.edu
office +1.646.997.3792 / mobile +1. 347.843.9782
http://engineering.nyu.edu
@NYUTandon

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