Bright New Ideas

You can follow the development of Patrick’s solar LED in previous posts; my story takes them to the people in Nicaragua!I’m Zach, a senior at Macalester College in St. Paul, MN, and I’m spending the summer in rural Nicaragua, testing the solar LEDs in homes with no electricity and often no light at all.I have several goals, the most important of which is to bring light to poor, rural families. Additionally, I will test the economic validity of the LEDs as a means for altering incentives for investment in human capital.In other words, if families get use of the LEDs conditional on ensuring that their kids attend school 85% of the time, will the lights end up changing behavior? How will they work compared to cash, an already proven mechanism?I just got to Nicaragua and I’ve been in Managua since I got here. Over the next few weeks I will be making my way up north to the rural communities. Stay posted for developments!

Bright New Ideas is working with Grupo Fenix of the National Nicaraguan Engineering University and Macalester College of Saint Paul, Minnesota this summer starting early June to study the effects of solar lamps on rural non-electrified families’ access to education.  This study will go through August of 2009 and will include a followup next year.

A new solar-LED project by Patrick Delaney, Bright New Ideas founder has made it into the finalist round of a prestigious competition known as the Collegiate Inventor’s Competition, which is put on by the US Patent Office and the National Inventor’s Hall of Fame.

Summary of the Entry

Minneapolis Star Tribune blog post about our entry

The first round of the Bright New Ideas update has been completed by our sponsor engineering team, headed by Bright New Ideas Founder Patrick Delaney.  The first round prototype, which is a customized LED-based solar lamp, is under manufacturing process and is expected to be completed by mid-August.

 Bright New Ideas has been covered in the Stillwater Gazette!

Stillwater Gazette 11 July 2009

Bright New Ideas has received a grant from a local Catholic Church, known as St. Edwards, to support the Bright New Ideas lamp program.  This grant will provide the support programming for 200 solar lamp units in Jinotega, Nicaragua through the end of 2008.  We are very excited to give this update as it has allowed us to reach our fund raising goal through July, 2008.

Patrick Delaney, founder of Bright New Ideas has been awarded the University of Minnesota I.T. Alumni Society’s Paul A. Cartwright Award for student service and academic achievements.  Listing of this award, including past recipients can be found here.

Bright New Ideas is now a finalist in the TIC Americas Young Entrepreneurs Competition. We are in the top 29 out of 854 candidates.  You can review the results here. We will be competing in Medellin, Colombia on May 29-30th.

After digesting a lot of information about the project in Nicaragua, Bright New Ideas would like to announce a new fund raising target for July 15th, 2008. The amount of $5000 will cover materials cost as well as some research costs to bring light to over 100 communities in the Jinotega region of Nicaragua through year-end 2008. There are many families waiting for the chance to have access to light, and so your donation will make a big difference in launching off this commercially-sustainable goodwill project. Donations are tax-deductible as we are a 501(c)3 non-profit. Donate by clicking the donate button and sending money via Paypal today!