ASSIGNMENT #3: DEVELOP AN INNOVATION AT THE NEXUS
OF FOOD, ENERGY, AND WATER SYSTEMS
(100 points, 35% of course grade)
Due: Month Day Year
Solve one specific problem with food, energy, and/or water in your local community
caused or made worse by a climate change or an environmental issue. This assignment is
designed to help you develop your ability for nexus thinking, a way of thinking that
accounts for how things--particularly food, energy, and water systems--are
interconnected as opposed to disconnected. Nexus thinking is a key problem-solving
approach in the era of climate change and 'information and communication technology'.
Your innovation can take any form: from concepts, products, mobile applications, to
processes and services. It can be inspired by engineering, art, design, medicine, public
health, environmental science, social work. It can tackle transportation, alternative
energy, and environmental sustainability, among others. This is a group project; there can
be no more than four students per group. Each workgroup is required to design an
innovation and present it to the class in Week (INSERT WEEK).
Each group has an opportunity to submit their assignment to an innovation competition,
called Sustainable Earth Decathlon (SED), to be held in Downtown Los Angeles. For
2017, SED will be held at the Los Angeles CleanTech Incubator on Friday, April 28;
application for SED is due March 24, 2017. If your group makes it to the final round, you
will give a live ‘fast pitch’ to a Blue Ribbon Committee. The Grand Prize award is
a combination of cash prize (50%) + business development support (50%). For more
details on SED, download the SED2017 Application Form from www.cypherinternational.org/SED.
I. GROUP PROCESS: DESIGNING A CLEANTECH INNOVATION
STEP 1. ASSESS A PROBLEM IN YOUR COMMUNITY THAT IS TIED TO THE
NEXUS OF FOOD, ENERGY, AND WATER.
Identify a specific problem related to food production and/or energy
production/consumption and/or water conservation and management in your community,
also known as the food, energy, and water nexus. Understand the nature of the nexus
problem in your community. Ask the following: what are the root causes of the problem?
How are these root causes related to food, energy, and water? What were the barriers that
prevented other innovators from succeeding in addressing these root causes before?
Example: Farmers in my beach community are closing down their farms because they
can't grow enough product to sell. The five summers of extreme heat wave has made
access to water a major problem. Fruits and vegetables are wilting and rotting in the
fields. Past efforts to drill for water and desalinate sea water have failed because of the
cost associated with them. Finding a way to bring more water in to my community would
improve the lives of thousands of families and hundreds of farmers.
SED2017 assignment guidance __ MASTER
STEP 2. DESIGN A SOLUTION.
Based on your understanding of the nexus problem and its root causes in your own
community, come up with a solution that directly addresses a root cause or an aspect of
the problem that is very prominent in your local community. Trust your personal insight
and direct experience with the root cause. In finding a solution, make use of the
knowledge of your ancestors and indigenous people; pair this with good science. It helps
to make a list of all possible solutions that logically flow from how you've defined the
problem first, then, pick the most viable solution from that list using your best judgment.
To optimize the input of your team members as you complete your design, consider using
design thinking as your process for integrating new ideas and refining good ideas into
great ideas.
Example: Indigenous peoples used to hang fur on trees to gather water from the fog that
rolls in every morning and night; they came up with a way to collect the water and store
them in wooden containers, which also were used to collect rain water. They used the
water to irrigate their farms and meet the daily water needs of their households. This local
knowledge deserves to be reconsidered; it could be scaled up if I could find a material
that is more effective than fur to gather water from fog. I read that a group of scientists in
ABC University published a list of hydrophilic materials. If a few of these materials are
affordable to access and then put together, I might be able to collect water from fog in
higher quantity.
STEP 3. INTEGRATE TECHNOLOGY INTO YOUR SOLUTION.
Figure out how technology serves your nexus innovation. How will developing a mobile
or web-based app help people adopt your solution? How will your tech empower your
local community to take action together and policy-makers to take notice?
Example: If I could develop a water collection kit that is made up of hydrophilic
materials and includes a sensor that measures the amount of water each user collects each
day, I could inspire my community to start collecting water from fog in a way that is
coordinated. The sensors could be networked via a mobile app that tracks how much
water is being collected from where and which direction so everyone with the kit could
position their water collection kits optimally. We could store and manage the data
collected by networked sensors to better strategize as a community where to position our
water collection rigs.
II. FORMAT FOR PAPER
SECTION 1. Overall Quality of Concept – Describe your innovation. Discuss how well
it solves one specific problem with food, energy, and/or water in your local community
caused or made worse by a climate change or an environmental issue. Discuss the realworld inspiration for your idea (e.g., heat wave, drought, flooding, wild fires, etc.).
SECTION 2. Overall Quality of Design – Discuss how well your solution makes use of
design thinking, user experience, and design, in general.
SECTION 3. Social Marketing – Develop a social marketing plan. Make sure you
discuss the quality and artistic appeal of your social marketing plan and collaterals (e.g.,
artwork, song/‘jingle’, promotional video, etc.).
SED2017 assignment guidance __ MASTER
SECTION 4. Market Appeal – Define your target market. Discuss how your innovation
takes into account the needs of your target market.
SECTION 5. Communications – Develop a clear and consistent message that represents
the vision and social impact of your solution.
SECTION 6. Affordability – Discuss the affordability of your solution.
SECTION 7. Funding plan – Develop a plan for how you will raise funds to support the
development of your innovation. Discuss the feasibility of the funding plan.
SECTION 8. Distribution plan – Discuss how you will access your target population.
Discuss the feasibility of the distribution plan.
SECTION 9. Display quality – Develop a PowerPoint presentation and a 3-minute video.
SECTION 10. “Whip appeal” – What is the ‘coolness’ factor of their innovation idea.
III. WEB-BASED RESOURCES
SED2017: www.cypher-international.org/SED
Nexus thinking: http://www.thenexusnetwork.org
https://21stcenturychallenges.org/2016/08/03/nexus-thinking/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKW_ux2Xo_w
Design thinking: https://designthinking.ideo.com
https://www.fastcompany.com/919258/design-thinking-what
Sustainable Development Goals: http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainabledevelopment-goals/
Digital Advocacy: http://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/advocacy/directaction/electronic-advocacy/main
Tactical Technology Collective: http://www.tacticaltech.org/
Wellston action: http://www.wellstone.org/
Mobile Active. http://www.youtube.com/user/MobileActiveOrg/about
Mobilizing Youth. blog.mobilevoter.org
Piktochart: Infographic www.piktochart.com
For website development: Google Sites, weebly.com, and wix.com
V. GRADING
This assignment will count 35% toward your final grade in the course. The instructor will
assess the following: compliance with the assignment; creativity of your innovation;
compliance with the basic rules of APA, English grammar, spelling and punctuation; and
quality of content including evidence of critical thinking and basic understanding of
concepts used.
VI. SUBMISSION PROTOCOL
[INSTRUCTOR INSERTS OWN SUBMISSION PROTOCOL]
SED2017 assignment guidance __ MASTER