sOccket

Vital Stats

Hemali T

Cambridge, MA

people helped100
People Doing It 4

The Problem

In the realm of supplying power to the developing world, there is a huge potential market for cheap, clean, simple, off-grid solutions that are available for immediate use. In the developed world, this need manifests itself as a demand for a constant source of power in our increasingly technological society. Our group’s solution is the sOccket: a portable (off-the-grid) energy harvesting power source in the form of a soccer ball. The idea is simple: in taking advantage of the energy present during the average interactions with a soccer ball and capitalizing on the general popularity of soccer worldwide, the sOccket is a product with mass appeal and unabashed demand regardless of country or class. It is a device that can straddle the boundaries of the developing and developed worlds and bring fun, portable power to all. Why soccer? The choice to use soccer as a vehicle to transform the original idea of the portable generator into something fun and user-friendly is based on the fact that soccer is the most popular sport in the world. According to FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association), over 240 million people regularly play soccer in over 200 countries in every corner of the world. When kids play soccer, they lead healthier lives, stay away from drugs, and build crucial leadership and team-building skills. The sOccket will provide even more incentive by generating electricity. The sOccket captures the energy from impact – energy that is normally dissipated into the environment – when the soccer ball is kicked and stores this energy for later use. Moreover, the sOccket will be utilizing and integrating already-mature technology: impact/motion energy and piezoelectric technology have been used for various common items such as the shake-to-charge flashlight and the self-winding watch. Our preliminary testing shows that an average 90-minute game powers a camping lamp for 5+ hours. Further applications can feasibly include emergency power for hospitals during blackouts, and provide off-grid power to the community, enabling kids in rural areas to study after the dark. Unlike solar power, the sOccket is not dependent on the season or climate to charge it. Team sOccket hopes to use existing infrastructure and provide communities, churches, and organizations with the sOccket to promote health education, team building, life-skills training, and much-needed electricity. sOccket will serve as an advocacy tool and a symbol of empowerment, bringing the developing world’s “power problem” to the attention of the developed world, prompting greater investment and support for the issue.

Plan of Action

After acquiring some initial funding from Harvard University’s Idea Translation lab, we were able to generate conceptual prototypes for our pilot in Durban, South Africa. As these financial resources are coming to an end, the core priority of our group is to ensure the sustainability of this project. As a result, we are working with an inexpensive design firm in South Africa that is helping our group develop beta prototypes for further testing this summer. Beyond the summer project period, our team hopes to work with FIFA to publicize sOccket at the World Cup 2010. We envision a Social Responsibility Campaign all over Africa, using the World Cup to promote health, teamwork, and cultural understanding. Using a “buy one-give one” model, our team hopes to sell the ball in the Western markets for higher-end customers, as a high-end tech gadget, then use the profits to distribute the balls at little or no cost in poor countries through development organizations like Whizz Kids United. Team sOccket’s financial need rests mainly upon prototype development and testing. First and foremost, approximately 20 prototypes need to be developed before the World Cup 2010. We are at a critical stage in the prototyping process and seek to stay away from private investors who may hinder our team from reaching our larger vision, which is providing for those in developing countries. Receiving the Beyond Sport Award will allow us to do just this and enable us to provide the sOccket to those will benefit from it the most, i.e. rural communities. We estimate needing funding from Do Something this fall and upcoming spring to make the necessary prototype changes and additional overhead expenses to continue our project. The costs of financing this prototype include obtaining the appropriate soccer balls, developing materials for interior parts, acquiring necessary technical expertise, and more Winning will also allow us to gain more publicity and networking amongst other participants of the Award so that future collaborations can be made.