The CGEN Forum: Engineering Research and Innovation for Poverty Reduction
Event Details
Almost 3 billion people in the world today continue to live on less than $2.50 per day. Collectively, they are known as the Base of the Pyramid (BoP), and they constitute an invisible and unserved market blocked by challenging barriers that prevent them from realizing their human potential for their own benefit. At the core of this problem is the reality that 90% of the world’s designers and engineers direct their time and effort solving the problems facing the wealthiest 10% of the world’s population; meanwhile, the bottom 90% are stuck paying exorbitant prices for low-value products and second-hand technologies.
The Centre for Global Engineering is at the forefront of the movement to mobilize engineering innovation to deliver appropriate technologies for the BoP. This event is an excellent opportunity for attendees to learn about the research being done to address some of the world’s most intractable development challenges, the opportunities and challenges faced by the innovators who are trying to bring those technologies to market, and the way forward for engineers looking to make a positive social change in the world.
At the CGEN Forum, we will showcase some of the transformative research projects being carried out at the University of Toronto. These include the design of an off-grid toilet which can rapidly disinfect human waste on-site without relying on a centralized water and sanitation infrastructure, a low-cost seismic isolation platform for improving earthquake resiliency of residential structures in low-income countries, and the use of double-fortified salt to combat iron-deficiency anemia – a project which is already reaching millions of malnourished women and children in northern India.
The event will kick off with a keynote from Dr. Cristina Amon, Dean of the Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering at the University of Toronto, and Dr. Paul Cadario, a leadng thinker and influential figure in the field of engineering for Global Development.
Date: Thursday, September 6, 2018
Time: 12:00pm – 5:00pm
Location: Myhal Centre for Engineering Innovation & Entrepreneurship, Toronto, ON
Cost: $10
